Tidwell predicts new era on gridiron
The fact the Warren County Pioneers have had just one winning season in nearly two decades on the gridiron doesn’t worry incoming head football coach Gerald Tidwell. Instead, the challenge intrigues him.
“This is nothing new at all. I’ve seen it before,” Tidwell told members of McMinnville Noon Exchange Monday. “I’ve been there.”
Tidwell said he went into an eerily similar situation in Pana High School in Illinois in the 1990s.
“Everyone was telling me that you couldn’t go to Pana and win,” Tidwell said. “They told me they hadn’t won three games in three years. They said they could never win in Pana.”
However, Tidwell said he went against the advice of his friends and took the head coaching job of the school, which he pointed out had “hit rock bottom” in its football program. The school had never been to the playoffs.
The results were inspiring as Tidwell, during his 12 seasons there, led to the team to seven playoff births, 10 winning seasons, eight seasons with six or more wins and an overall 71-39 record. He also coached his squad to an undefeated 9-0 season in 1998.
“We must raise the bar of expectations here. The students today have never seen a playoff team here in their lifetime,” Tidwell said. “I can’t tell the number of wins we’re going to have, but I can tell you we are going to be successful. I didn’t move my family across two states to lose.
“The fans and community have come to expect poor results. We are going to dream and we are going to make our dreams come true.”
Tidwell said he believes he is where he is supposed to be and is looking forward to building not just the football squad, but the entire football program from the ground up.
Tidwell, who admitted he had become bored in Pana, noted he prayed about the move for three years. When the first candidate turned down the job here, and he was offered the appointment, Tidwell said he was elated.
“All signs began pointing here and I knew this was my calling place,” Tidwell said.
Tidwell said he intends to work with what he has and to aggressively recruit athletes, not only in high school, but at the feeder schools.
“We want to build the program from ages 5 years and up,” Tidwell said. “We’ll have coaches at youth football games every Saturday and we’re going to recruit at all levels of county schools and middle schools.”
Tidwell said there will be three slogans which fans will be hearing this year. The first is “you have the greatest power on earth: The Power to Choose.” The second will be HIT HARD, referring to his philosophy of not being out-worked on the football field. The last is a phrase called “Hahuna,” which means, Hit And Hit Until No one Answers.
Tidwell said fans should expect to see a clock-control strategy, using the option offense with limited passing.
In the meantime, Tidwell is finalizing his coaching staff and is working to improve the weight room for his players. Tidwell said about $20,000 is needed to enlarge the facilities, $10,000 of which has already been raised.