Former Warsaw Football Coach Jensen Taking Over At Whitko
April 26, 2019 at 4:04 a.m.
Former Warsaw Football Coach Jensen Taking Over At Whitko
By Mark Howe-
Jensen was named Whitko’s new coach at a special session of that school corporation’s board Thursday afternoon. He fills a vacancy created when coach Jeff Sprunger resigned with two games left in the 2018 season for health reasons. Athletic director Josh Mohr filled in on an interim basis.
The process that led to Thursday’s special school board meeting began with a phone call by Jensen to simply encourage the decision makers at Whitko.
“It’s been a crazy three weeks,” said Jensen. “Mr. Snyder (Whitko principal John) and I worked together at Warsaw, and Brandon Penrod is the superintendent, and I’ve known him for a long time, and I have a lot of respect for them.
“We were out of town for spring break, and out of touch for a week or two, and when I got back I looked and saw they hadn’t filled the job yet. I called Mr. Snyder and said, ‘Hey, you gotta get this going. What’s taking so long?’ He said he had some candidates, but didn’t have a teaching opening for them.
“But he said, ‘It’s funny you called this morning; my business teacher just told me she’s going to retire. Do you want to come down and talk about the job?’
“I wasn’t looking for work. But out of respect for (Snyder) I went down and met with him and Josh Mohr, and they kept selling me on the kids and what needs to be done, and I felt like I was the guy who could do it.”
Jensen said when he stepped down from the Warsaw position, he knew he’d go back to coaching at some point, but not for three to four years. Among the biggest factors in his decision to pursue the Whitko job is the schedule will allow him to go watch his son Michael, the former Tiger quarterback who will play his junior season at Indiana Wesleyan this fall.
“I talked to my wife and my daughter, and we thought the schedule worked, and we thought this was the time now, instead of waiting,” he said. “For me, it was one of those God things where everything just came together, where He said, “Here it is, this is what you’re supposed to do, and here’s where you’re supposed to go.
“I’ve only got so much time to be a father, and I’m not going to miss any of Michael’s games. Running a 6A program (Warsaw) you can’t say, ‘I’m leaving after the game Friday and I’ll see you Monday.’ It doesn’t work that way. That was one of the things Mr. Penrod, Mr. Snyder and I talked about in depth; that if there was a conflict, I’m not missing a (Wesleyan) game. When you have a student-athlete philosophy, you also have to live it. Me being a dad is No. 1, and they were good with that and assured me it wouldn’t be a problem. That was obviously a big selling point.
“It’s not that Warsaw didn’t appreciate those things. It’s just a big difference between a 6A program and a 2A school in terms of numbers and the time it takes. In a 6A program, you have Friday night varsity, Saturday morning junior varsity and Thursday night freshman team. At Whitko it’s a Friday night, Monday setup, which will work a lot better for me. It’ll make for a lot less hectic of a weekend this fall.”
The new Wildcat coach said there’s a lot of work to do before he and his team can even think about getting into schemes, playbooks and that sort of thing.
“We’re just working through it,” said Jensen. “I didn’t have anything ready, it’s just me. I met with the kids (Thursday); next week I’ll meet with people interested in coaching. I’ll start looking in the community, maybe some of my former players and get a coaching staff set up and ready to go. Once that’s done, then I’ll set a summer calendar and schedule a parents meeting to share the whats and the whys with them. So we’ve got a lot to do. But it’s better to start in April; when I started at Warsaw it was in July.
“We’ll take it one step at a time and start to move forward. Hopefully this time next year, everyone will be happy about what happened today.”
Penrod said “We could not be more thrilled to have Coach Phil Jensen leading our football program. Phil brings a wealth of experience to Whitko and we are looking forward to his expertise and experience helping to build our corporation-wide football program.”
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Jensen was named Whitko’s new coach at a special session of that school corporation’s board Thursday afternoon. He fills a vacancy created when coach Jeff Sprunger resigned with two games left in the 2018 season for health reasons. Athletic director Josh Mohr filled in on an interim basis.
The process that led to Thursday’s special school board meeting began with a phone call by Jensen to simply encourage the decision makers at Whitko.
“It’s been a crazy three weeks,” said Jensen. “Mr. Snyder (Whitko principal John) and I worked together at Warsaw, and Brandon Penrod is the superintendent, and I’ve known him for a long time, and I have a lot of respect for them.
“We were out of town for spring break, and out of touch for a week or two, and when I got back I looked and saw they hadn’t filled the job yet. I called Mr. Snyder and said, ‘Hey, you gotta get this going. What’s taking so long?’ He said he had some candidates, but didn’t have a teaching opening for them.
“But he said, ‘It’s funny you called this morning; my business teacher just told me she’s going to retire. Do you want to come down and talk about the job?’
“I wasn’t looking for work. But out of respect for (Snyder) I went down and met with him and Josh Mohr, and they kept selling me on the kids and what needs to be done, and I felt like I was the guy who could do it.”
Jensen said when he stepped down from the Warsaw position, he knew he’d go back to coaching at some point, but not for three to four years. Among the biggest factors in his decision to pursue the Whitko job is the schedule will allow him to go watch his son Michael, the former Tiger quarterback who will play his junior season at Indiana Wesleyan this fall.
“I talked to my wife and my daughter, and we thought the schedule worked, and we thought this was the time now, instead of waiting,” he said. “For me, it was one of those God things where everything just came together, where He said, “Here it is, this is what you’re supposed to do, and here’s where you’re supposed to go.
“I’ve only got so much time to be a father, and I’m not going to miss any of Michael’s games. Running a 6A program (Warsaw) you can’t say, ‘I’m leaving after the game Friday and I’ll see you Monday.’ It doesn’t work that way. That was one of the things Mr. Penrod, Mr. Snyder and I talked about in depth; that if there was a conflict, I’m not missing a (Wesleyan) game. When you have a student-athlete philosophy, you also have to live it. Me being a dad is No. 1, and they were good with that and assured me it wouldn’t be a problem. That was obviously a big selling point.
“It’s not that Warsaw didn’t appreciate those things. It’s just a big difference between a 6A program and a 2A school in terms of numbers and the time it takes. In a 6A program, you have Friday night varsity, Saturday morning junior varsity and Thursday night freshman team. At Whitko it’s a Friday night, Monday setup, which will work a lot better for me. It’ll make for a lot less hectic of a weekend this fall.”
The new Wildcat coach said there’s a lot of work to do before he and his team can even think about getting into schemes, playbooks and that sort of thing.
“We’re just working through it,” said Jensen. “I didn’t have anything ready, it’s just me. I met with the kids (Thursday); next week I’ll meet with people interested in coaching. I’ll start looking in the community, maybe some of my former players and get a coaching staff set up and ready to go. Once that’s done, then I’ll set a summer calendar and schedule a parents meeting to share the whats and the whys with them. So we’ve got a lot to do. But it’s better to start in April; when I started at Warsaw it was in July.
“We’ll take it one step at a time and start to move forward. Hopefully this time next year, everyone will be happy about what happened today.”
Penrod said “We could not be more thrilled to have Coach Phil Jensen leading our football program. Phil brings a wealth of experience to Whitko and we are looking forward to his expertise and experience helping to build our corporation-wide football program.”
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