By Grant Pepper
Just over a month after head coach Bob Olwin announced his retirement, Ada High School hired former varsity assistant Shawn Christopher to fill his shoes.
The school said in a press release on Friday that the Ada Board of Education voted Thursday night to accept the recommendation to move Christopher to the head coach position after serving as the defensive coordinator for the past five years. Before that, Christopher served as the program’s JV and running backs coach for five years under head coach Mike Fell.
“We are excited for Coach Christopher to step in and build on the success he has been such a big part of,” athletic director Ken Jochims said in the press release.
This will be Christopher’s first head coaching gig after serving as a varsity assistant at Ada for the last 10 years. He is an Ada native, having graduated from the high school in 2004 after playing four years of high school football as a running back and linebacker. When the opportunity arose for him to be the head coach of his hometown team, he jumped at it.
“When I found out that I was going to be the head coach, I was nothing short of ecstatic,” Christopher said. “It’s been one of those things that I’ve worked for for 10 years. I’ve been blessed to be underneath some great coaches, not just Mike Fell and Bob Olwin, but some of the assistant coaches like Frank Crea and Dan Evans, they’ve taught me as much as anything else.
"I’ve been mentored by some great individuals, so I feel like I’ve got the best of a lot of people and then I put my own spin on things. I’m excited to get going with these guys and give them what I’ve got.”
Christopher, 32, is also a seventh-grade math teacher at Ada. He lives in the community with his wife, Ashlie, and his two daughters, Brynn (4) and Ellie (1).
Before his time as a varsity assistant, Christopher coached Ada junior high football and high school basketball (as an assistant under former head coach Chris Sautter) while studying education at Ohio State University-Lima.
“I was a guy that jumped right from high school into coaching,” Christopher said with a chuckle. “I jumped right into it and I’ve been doing it since.”
“When I got into it at college, I feel like I kind of found a passion for it. This is a path that I’ve developed a passion for and I’ve continued to grow and gain as much knowledge as possible.”
Christopher said that he hopes to reclaim a culture of relentlessness at Ada as the head coach. While the Bulldogs have qualified for the state playoffs 11 of the last 12 years, they have not advanced past the first round since 2013.
“Before you even talk about X’s and O’s and systems, you’ve gotta talk about culture,” Christopher said. “And with culture, I think we need to build up a better competitiveness. We haven’t had the relentless effort that I want to see. So we really need to bring that back into the fold here.”
From a strategy standpoint, Christopher said that he plans to keep the spread offense that has been a staple of the program over the last 10 years. On defense, he plans to keep it simple.
“I want to attack people,” Christopher said. “I’m pretty aggressive and I want to force people into making mistakes.”
Ada’s first-year head coach will be working with a revamped roster next season, as 12 seniors – including four-year playmakers like Seth Conley, Chase Sumner, Aaron Everhart, and Jakob Hoschak – will have graduated.
Christopher is excited about seeing new faces step up into the spotlight, taking over a team that finished third in the NWC last season.
“You can never replace a four-year starting quarterback like Seth Conley overnight. You can never replace someone as athletic as Chase and Aaron and some of the guys that have had the experience,” Christopher said.
“But, on the flip side of that, I’ve got four offensive linemen coming back that are all going to be seniors. I’ve got an athletic back end, so my skill guys are as athletic as you can ask for at a small school. I think I’ve got some special pieces, and I’m excited to get those guys the ball in space and make the defensive guys that we’re playing against make plays. Because I don’t think it’s going to be easy for them to make plays on the athletic guys that we’ve got.”
Christopher is hesitant to call the coming years a ‘new era’ for Ada football, as he is quick to refer back to the success of those before him, who he’s coached with and played alongside over the years.
“I think it’s building. And the reason I say that is, you know, we started something special,” Christopher said. “We’ve been able to continue this for a long period of time. So to me it’s, let’s take this great foundation and let’s make it as great as we can possibly make it.
"Now, any time you get a new head coach, there’s some excitement in the community and those sorts of things. So I don’t want to dismiss what we’ve done over the last period of time, but I’m excited, because this is something that we can really do well and continue to get better at, and hopefully make this town even prouder than they already are.”
Ada will open up with Upper Scioto Valley again next August, as their schedule will remain largely the same. They will play Arlington and Lima Central Catholic as well before Northwest Conference play begins.
Christopher said that he plans on making some changes with his staff, bringing new faces to the program in the coming months.
“I’m excited to build a new staff,” he said. “I think bringing in some young, energetic guys that are really ready to get after it on the staff… they’re excited. And I’m excited because kids will feed off of our excitement together.”
After he heard that he would be hired as Ada’s next head coach, Christopher called a friend: Scott Palte, the head coach at Lima Central Catholic.
Before going to LCC, Palte coached in his hometown as well, Columbus Grove. From one hometown head coach to another, Christopher called for advice.
“He said, ‘Well you have to remember that you’re in coach-mode all the time, even when you’re at the grocery store,’” Christopher said. “And he said the biggest thing is, it’ll be an asset if you let it be an asset or it’ll be a detriment if you let it be a detriment. It’s all how you approach the community.”
Christopher looks forward to bearing a greater responsibility than ever before as the school’s next head coach.
“Everything falls back on me now, and that’s fine with me. I relish in that kind of a role,” Christopher said. “That’s going to be something where I have to really take time to put deep thought into some decisions that I have to make. Because some of the tough decisions are head coach decisions, where as an assistant, you give your opinion, but the head coach makes the decision. And now, I’m the final say.”
Following the news of Christopher’s hiring on Friday, Everhart, who played five different positions for Ada in his four years on the gridiron, expressed his excitement for the young head coach.
“Coach Christopher was a great assistant coach, he was very good at working with the other coaches to get the best game plan for us to win games,” Everhart said in a text message. “I loved playing for him because he was always encouraging us and pushing us to perform to the best of our abilities and if we were ever not giving our all he would call us out on it. I wasn't too surprised when he got hired because I knew he was the perfect guy for the job. I'm happy for him and wish him the best of luck.”
Ada will kick off the 2018 season on Aug. 24 with a home tilt vs. Upper Scioto Valley.
