GALION — Joining a school with a history of recent playoff success would make most coaches wary, but Galion head coach Matt Dick plans to stick to his process.
Replacing coaching veteran Chris Hawkins, who left Galion to take the helm at Ontario, Dick said he is eager to be the head coach of a program with four playoff appearances in the past six years. Last fall the Tigers lost in the first round of the playoffs after posting an 8-3 regular-season record, 6-2 in the Mid-Ohio Athletics Conference.
Dick said his team can be successful if it dedicates itself to getting better each week and absorbs a new offensive system. Dick was previously offensive coordinator at Fredericktown and likes to emphasize tempo.
“We can go really fast; we can go slow. It’s a processes, you can’t get it all in year one,” Dick said of things he hopes to implement during his tenure as the head coach. “We have some really good varsity-skilled players, and we are trying to utilize that talent.”
Dick said he recognized Galion’s “year-in and year-out” tradition of playoff participation and he wants this team to be involved in that mindset.
“At Galion you are expected to make it to the playoffs. That’s our goal, to make it a fifth trip — always compete for a conference title and have a lot of success. That’s the history of Galion we’re not lowering them.”
Dick said he expects this year’s seniors to pick up where Hawkins’ team left off.
“Skilled wise, Chase Cook — quarterback, 6-5 kid whose got a cannon for an arm. He’s had playoff experience last year. He’s a great leader offensively,” Dick said. “Garrett Kuns, a running back and a slot receiver and another captain both of those guys have been really good to lean on.
“Ryan Talbot, Bobby Gilbert, so yeah, we have a lot of talent. The offensive line, they’ve all been really good. There are a lot of new faces, but they’re all seniors and have a lot of expectations. We’re going to lean on that class a little bit and see where the ball bounces.”
Dick said assistant coach Mike Marshall, previously from Lexington, is the offensive coordinator. Both coaches are math teachers and have been friends for a while.
“Our offense is going to be centered around the gap double-team. No matter what, that’s what makes our offense go. After that is tempo, we like to speed it up, we like to slow it down. All (are) things we like to implement, but again it’s a new system for the kids.
“How much we can do before Week One will be different than what we can add by Week Five. Hopefully we can continue to grow as the season goes.”
Galion will scrimmage with Madison, Shelby and Centerburg before opening the season against Bucyrus at home on Aug. 26.
“The more plays, tempos we can get in, the better we’ll be. If we can take care of that gap double-team, we’ll be really good,” the coach said.
On the other side of the ball, Dick sounded confident in the 3-5 defensive scheme.
“We return three linebackers, Bobby Gilbert, Ryan Talbot and Garrett Kuns. All three have experience and are leaders,” the coach said. “The core of the defense, we have players with good experience there.”
Last year, Dick said the returning varsity players ran a 4-2-5 before switching to a 4-3. The defense he wants his players to execute is similar to the defense run last year, he said.
“4-3 has some stacked linebackers like the 3-5, there are some similarities there, the outside linebackers have some similar roles,” he said.
In order for this season to be a success, the team must grow, compete and get better, he said.
“It’s not about winning,” he said. “I’d love to go undefeated every season. Every coach does; every player does. Almost every team I’ve ever been apart of has had that as a goal.
“I just want to see my team overachieve. Overachieving isn’t always wins or loses, but it’s doing stuff people didn’t think was possible. That’s centered around making a team — a family — that can lean against each other and do stuff other people didn’t see coming.”
