We all love our Plainwell football teams. They give us a team to root from on Friday nights. We put our differences aside to celebrate the wins and mourn losses as a whole. However, we have had a bit of a problem. We can’t seem to keep a head coach. This season we have our 4th coach in the last four years. Stay with me as I investigate this problem.

    In 2018, the varsity football record was 6-4. In 2019, the record was 5-5. In 2020, the record was 3-3. As of this being written, our record is 5-2. I talked to senior tight-end, Jack Anderson, to find out how the team is feeling about its fourth coach in four years.

    “I think this is happening because the coaches have other personal interests and that takes over their life,” says Jack Anderson, ‘22, “Obviously it sucks that the players don’t have any stability but we need to adapt and this team has done a great job of that… every coach has said that the circumstances didn’t work out and it is not fair to us if they don’t devote enough time and effort”.   

    The coaches in the past 4 years were Darren Conklin, Chuck Hadley, Tyler Langs, and the present coach is Plainwell High School teacher, Chris Taylor. 

    “In my opinion, there is a big difference. Coach Lang was all about going fast and just hitting somebody, where Coach Taylor is more careful with his planning, play calling, and strategy,” says Anderson. 

    “It could affect the team for years to come, but if Coach Taylor stays, Plainwell is going to start something great. The team is…focused one week and one game at a time.” He added.

    “The culture of the team is no different because our goal is a state championship and we haven’t gotten there yet and we are not changing it.” He also replied that Coach Taylor has built a great bond with his players and really cares about the program. The last thing he added was that 

    “I think this year’s team has potential to be something special and go down in Plainwell history, these guys come out and work relentlessly every day, and I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of it.”