Galesburg football finds itself in a transition year.
The Silver Streaks come off a 2023 campaign where they won two games, beating Limestone and Western Big Six Conference foe Rock Island to finish 2-7. A new interim head coach is also in place as former three-season coach Derrek Blackwell reached a “resignation agreement” with the Galesburg school board following his April arrest.
“I think there’s some level of apprehension,” Galesburg interim coach Shawn Hickey said, “so for a while there the kids had a couple of months where they had nobody at the helm. My assistant coaches did a great job of keeping the ship going even though there was no captain that was steering it, but they were doing the best they could to make sure everybody was going in the right direction.”
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Hickey, a 1997 Galesburg grad, is fully aware and understands the concerns some of the current players are having under a new voice leading the program with different expectations. He was hired as the interim boss in June, getting roughly two-and-a-half months to prepare for the 2024 slate.
However, Hickey, who for the last six years called Galesburg football on WGIL Radio with Brad Bennewitz and Jake Miller, doesn’t want this time on the sidelines to be a single season.
“Yeah, I’m committed for longer term,” he said, “but some of those decisions are out of my hands too.
“I think there has to be some level of buy-in on my end in order for the kids to buy-in as well. When I came in, I told them I had a three-year plan. The three-year plan was a recruitment plan. It was trying to increase numbers and being dedicated to the kids who were there and trying to improve the overall culture that we have within the program and school and community as well….
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/apprehensive-committed-galesburg-interim-coach-082431573.html
Author : Journal Star
Publish date : 2024-09-04 08:24:31
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