Jul. 9—MIDDLETOWN — Jake Stilwell has already been well schooled in two of the top football programs in Madison County. He will now take that experience just over the county line to lead another storied area program.
Stilwell, a former Lapel assistant football and head wrestling coach, will turn in his black and gold in exchange for maize and blue after he was announced earlier this week as the 11th coach in Shenandoah’s 48-year history.
Stilwell, a 2012 graduate of Pendleton Heights, was a finalist for the position earlier this year before Matt Miller was introduced on April 1. But, when Miller suddenly resigned this month to accept a new job at his alma mater, Muncie Central, Stilwell was ready for the challenge.
Stilwell, an All-American and 4-time All-Conference defensive lineman at Hanover University was more than thrilled to take on his first head coaching assignment after 4 years leading the Bulldogs wrestling program and assisting Tim Miller with the football team.
“I’m certainly excited, being a head coach is something I’ve always worked toward and always honed my craft to do,” Stilwell said. “This opportunity opened up, we thought about it and talked about it, and it seemed to be a perfect fit.”
The new Raiders coach has a strong background of learning from some of the best coaches in Madison County. In addition to playing for the late John Broughton, he was also a star wrestler for Dave Cloud with the Arabians before working alongside Miller for the successful Bulldogs program.
“Those are all phenomenal mentors,” he said. “John, Dave, and Tim, those are all pillars (where) you can learn how to run a great high school program. Dave has been a huge help and Tim has been great through this transition, I just couldn’t thank those guys enough.”
Being named head football coach this late in the year presents certain challenges. Stilwell says he can look to just one year ago as an experience to draw on as well as leaning on experience individuals still in the Raiders program.
“The big thing is that we’ve got some great assistant coaches there that have made this transition pretty easy,” he said. “We’ve got lots of time, kind of treat it like the covid year when we got a late start, so it’s not all bad things on my end.”
In terms of the product on the field, Stilwell hopes to keep much of the Shenandoah tradition in place while adding a few of his own wrinkles.
“Looking through what they have and what they do, defensively we’re going to try to keep things rolling and we have some guys on staff already doing that,” he said. “We can keep rolling with those concepts and offensively, I’m going to bring some little twists to the table and try to make it my own.”
Already one of the more spirited football rivalries in the area, the week 3 game between Lapel and Shenandoah scheduled for September 3 now has a little more emotion attached to it.
“I told the Lapel kids that I’m cheering for them all season and I’ll wish the best for them and week three, we’ll go over there and give it our best shot,” Stilwell said. “I know they’re going to be talented this year, but I really think Shenandoah has got some special stuff.
“We might be behind the 8-ball a little bit, but we’ll build through that by the end of the year,” Stilwell added. “Sectional is what you want to win. We have two big games week eight (Eastern Hancock) and week nine (Monroe Central) for the conference championship, then sectional time, you want to be playing your best at the end of the year.”
Contact Rob Hunt at rob.hunt@heraldbulletin.com or 765-640-4886.