Heading in a new direction

SHS is in search of a new head football coach after former head coach Brandon Winters takes a new job at Beech Grove

Nathan Smith|February 7, 2021

Kelsey Jones

Head coach Brandon Winters gives senior Turk Faitele a fist bump as he runs off the field. Winters took a new job at Beech Grove this offseason, causing SHS to look for a new head coach.

Come Aug. 20, the SHS football team will see the direct results of changing head coaches.
“Any time there is a new head coach, it can be good and bad…,” Offensive Coordinator Tyler Weatherford said. “Ultimately I think it will be a benefit to bring in someone who has different ideas.”

Former head coach Brandon Winters left SHS to coach at Beech Grove due to a financial decision. So the SHS football team will attempt to fill his spot as they begin preparing for the upcoming season.

Although this choice is hard on players, staff and the athletic department, they do understand the need for this change and remember Winters only in good light.

“Coach Winters did great things here. He worked very hard and explained why he wanted to go,” Head Athletic Director Brian Murphy said. “It was a professional move that sucks because we will miss him.”

The SHS Athletic Department will soon select a candidate to fill the open head coaching position. According to Murphy, they plan on filling that role before summer workouts begin.

With this being the first head coaching shift in recent years, there are mixed emotions among players. Junior Mason Piatt is ready for the upcoming year and thinks the team will not change much. Seeing how the offense was not run directly by Winters, he does not think Winters’s move will have a negative effect on them.

“I think playing for a new coach will be fun and hopefully make us more successful,” Piatt said.

From the very beginning, the process of putting out the job opening to making the final announcement of the new coach can take up to 50 days. This process of filling a head coaching position is not only long and time consuming, but it is also filled with anxiety and excitement for the athletic department.

The decision of Winters will have many effects, whether they be positive or negative. However, the Cards still plan on moving forward and making progress.

“We are going to get better next year as a football team,” Murphy said. “If coach Winters were here we would get better, and if he’s not here we are going to get better.”