First Posted: 2/21/2015
For the doubters who say it’s too difficult to have a winning football program at Shawnee High School, Jon Carpenter has the ultimate comeback if he chooses to use it.
Shawnee’s new football coach beat out almost 800 people to get the job he had before being named as the Indians coach last Tuesday.
The mathematical possibility of success in that case was probably at least as daunting as building a consistent winner at Shawnee.
Carpenter comes to Shawnee after spending last season as a graduate assistant at Ohio State, where even those long-hours, low-pay intern-level positions are highly coveted.
“They told me, I think, there were nearly 800 applicants. I wish I was kidding,” Carpenter said about earning the Urban Meyer seal of approval over all those other candidates.
This will be Carpenter’s first head coaching job after being a graduate assistant at the University of Cincinnati and Notre Dame and defensive line coach at Northern Colorado University. He has a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from UC, where he played linebacker and running back.
The Shawnee program he is taking over has had some success and some lean years over the last two decades.
From 2003-2009, with Dick West as coach, Shawnee averaged seven wins a season and made the school’s only trip to the playoffs in 2004. But 10 times in the last 20 seasons the Indians have won two or fewer games, including going 2-8 the last three years.
Carpenter says there is the potential to build a winner at Shawnee.
“There are eager kids in the area that want a successful Shawnee program. They want to learn how to win. But first to learn how to win you have to learn how to stop losing. So you have to create a winning culture within the school and in the weight room. If you talk to coaches around the area, Shawnee has the potential for success,” he said.
Carpenter comes from a prominent football family in Ohio. His dad, Rob, played 10 seasons in the NFL as a running back. His brother Bobby was a linebacker at Ohio State and a first-round NFL draft choice by Dallas. His brother George played at Marshall and his youngest brother Nathan was one of Ohio University’s captains last season.
Rob Carpenter has been head football coach at Lancaster High School since 1998 and coached all four of his sons.
But before that, he was in a turnaround situation, too.
When Rob Carpenter took over at New Lexington in 1988, it was coming off a four-year stretch in which it lost 27 of 30 games, including 0-10 the year before he arrived. By the end of his four years there, New Lexington had gotten to the playoffs.
“I was just a young boy. But I do have an understanding the building of program is going to take a lot of hard work,” Carpenter said when asked if that earlier success in the family gave him a blueprint to follow.
“We’re going to have to really get into the kids’ chests and grab their hearts and build trust and connections in order to make this thing move forward. There has to be motivation and willingness for everyone to get together and join hands and say, ‘We’re going to do this together,’ “ he said.
Carpenter used one of Ohio State’s big themes during its 2014 national championship season to describe what he wants: “A brotherhood of trust.”
“I’m extremely excited just to meet the players. I look to make them part of my family. They’re going to have my heart and mind. My goal is to grab their hearts and minds and inspire them to greater heights,” he said.
