In 1991 Pioneer hired a coach for a football program that had consistently struggled. This coach’s name was Mike Johnson. Mike Johnson was a wrestling  guy from Wes Del high school in Gaston, Indiana. Wes Del is a small 1A rural school where Mike and his brothers played multiple sports such as wrestling and football. They excelled in wrestling making it to the state finals in wrestling in the 1980s. It was not a glamorous childhood for Mike. His parents struggled to maintain a loving home and his mother died when he was a freshman in college. Mike’s original plan was to study accounting and wrestle at the Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. This would be fairly close to his hometown. Ball State decided to give up their wrestling program and one of Mike’s high school coaches thought he would be a strong football coach. Mike got the coaching bug and decided to be an English major at Indiana State University so his assignment was to teach 9th grade English and coach football. He was young, naïve, and had a passion for football. He was coaching the offense at smaller schools in Indiana and thought he knew it all after coaching a couple years at the high school level.  Mike stated to me that his problem was he was a little bit of an arrogant hot head. He would chase players on the field after the play and grab them by the facemask hollering at them with instructions or criticisms. This was a typical Woody Hayes mentality of a coach. Most coaches emulate other good coaches and his style was yet to be defined.  There were stories of Mike breaking up fights with some big Pioneer high school jocks in the 1990’s and the students backing off. Mike did not take any mouth from high school students. Clay Scott was a former player at Pioneer in the 1980’s and helped coach youth baseball, basketball, and football.  Clay introduced himself to Mike in the early 1990’s and Clay’s first impression of Mike was he was an "arrogant jerk." He told a few folks, “I’ll never coach with that guy.” Mike had a few things going for him though. He was a motivator and a passionate hard worker. He had a coaching voice. Players know what a coaching voice is. It’s a voice that carries some power, some moxie and some enthusiasm. It’s a voice that can make a kid feel distinct and ready to play. I’m not sure I would have played football if it wasn’t for Mike barking orders at me and showing love for me. He would tell his players that he loved them in the huddle before they would run through the goal post to the Panther fans cheering.   Mike Johnson had a soft side as well as a killer mentality. Mike is a voracious reader and his use of the English language came in handy when motivating high school athletes. His voice commands respect and as a player you would run into a stone wall for him. I’ve seen many motivational speakers and I would put Mike Johnson up there at the top with some of the best. He used Lou Holtz tactics at Pioneer beautifully. The Lou Holtz tactic is reverse psychology, and I think Mike took Lou’s class.  Lou Holtz would act like his team couldn’t win a game. They were god awful, and we may not even get a first down. Poor me,” I have the worst team ever,” but  as soon as those Friday Night lights turned on, he could light a fire in a players backside. I must explain that this tactic does not always work. Some players in today’s high schools egos get bruised more easily and they need more caressed than years past. Reverse Psychology did work at Pioneer in 1997. Coaches and teachers almost have to be psychology majors to deal with the multitude of personalities in a locker room or classroom. As a player when Mike would say “we’re not very good,” we felt "we’ll show him." When he said “I’m not sure we can win this game,” we said we thought "we’ll prove it to him." When he said “This is the best team you will ever face,” we believed him. Coaches have to be salesmen. They have to sell and close the deal.   They have to sell the program to the community, players, administrators, and school board. Mike was very good at this. He was a polished speaker in front of an audience and one of the radio hosts favorite guests on the Saturday morning coaches show.  Mike was a run the ball guy and pass when necessary. It was a chess match for him and if you move pieces and fit them in the right spot you will more than likely end up on top.  After coaching wrestling for a couple years, his full time passion would turn to football. His first three years were more of the same. Losing seasons and looking for answers to stagnant offense and poor defense. Many coaches try to coach football by drawing up plays that may have worked in their high school days or reading books or using the internet. This does not usually relate to success.  Mike would soon find answers by learning an offense named the Wing T.  The wing T was designed and perfected by Tubby Raymond and Ted Kempski from the University of Delaware in the 1960’s and 1970’s til Tubby retired in 2001.  They created this offense in the 1970’s and it was spreading across the eastern part of the United States. In 1986 Tubby and Ted wrote a book called The Delaware Wing T “An Order of Football.” The book became nicknamed the bible by football coaches because it was so detailed. The book is not in print anymore and goes for close to 100 dollars or more online. It had practice plans, plays that were cohesive and made a system. It explained the W’s of an offensive system. Most people know that you can read and study so much, but you need good coaches and teachers to teach you an offensive system.   Clinics were popping up and Mike was eager to learn this new offensive system. Mike would learn the offense from Tubby Raymond’s books, clinics, and other wing t coaches. Mike soon found a man named Tom Herman. Tom was an offensive line guru. He coached high school and college and still coaches today at Mercyhurst College in PA. Tom would team up with an old veteran named Chuck Klausing. Chuck and Tom would run the Chuck Klausing Wing T camps over the United States. Mike would team up with Chuck and Tom and go to Wing T camps at Taylor University in Upland, IN. Chuck was an older man who made the coaching rounds through small college and high school football mostly in the state of Pennsylvania. He loved the wing t offense and he adapted it and used it with his teams with much success.  He would write books and a book called “Never Lost a Game, Time just ran Out.”  In the spring of 1994 Mike made the trip to PA to meet with Tom Herman to learn the wing t offense. This was what Mike needed to get the ball rolling at Pioneer. A little known coaching fact is most coaches don’t dislike each other. Most coaches are good friends even when they compete. Coaches have so much in common and they can discuss how to handle parents, run offense and defense. Mike brought a guy from Frankfort Indiana with him to PA. I think they both had their fill of losing. The decided to make the 7 hour drive to meet with Coach Herman and his staff at Gannon University. A road trip for coaches can be a lot of fun. Coaches are great story tellers and they have some of the best stories about players and parents. Mike and Tom Potts were heading to PA and hopefully this could be the answer they were looking for. They get to the University and found it odd that their was not a sign up for the coaching clinic anywhere. Most clinics have signs and check in areas. This was in the early 1990s pre internet. As they were walking around the college campus they decided they better ask somebody where the clinic was because they were confused. The stopped a faculty member of the campus and asked them if they could speak to Tom Herman. The faculty member pulled Tom out of a meeting to meet with these two coaches from Indiana. Tom met with the coaches and said. What do you guys need? They said we are here for the wing t clinic. Tom said "that’s not for another month." Their hearts sank and Tom could sense that these guys were tired and had driven 7 hours to see the clinic. Tom made a decision that he would cancel his meetings for the day and teach these two coaches the wing t offense with a personal clinic in his office. Tom met with these two Indiana coaches for 8 hours and they became fast friends. Mike still works with Tom often since Tom runs the summer wing t camps since Chuck Klausing retired.  Mike liked what he heard from Coach Herman and came back a month later for the correct clinic.  Mike decided it was time to install this offense in 1994. If anybody knows football, you’ll know that there are many naysayers. Mike had his naysayers and he had to sell the offense to his players. Offenses go in cycles. In the 1970’s and 1980’s it was the wishbone option offense and currently it is the spread option offense with RPO’s or run pass options. I distinctly remember in the late 1990’s when I was going through school that I had no idea what pull and trap or pull kick out meant. It felt like Mike was talking French or Spanish or he was just making up a new language that he called the wing t.  In 1996 it started to pay dividends with a 5-4 record. I was a freshman and played for a great man on JV named Frank Smith. I started to get the hang of this offense a little bit, but had no idea what I was doing on defense. Defense was not comfortable for me. I had no idea what coverages were and what scheme we were running. I definitely did not like practice because I was getting my butt kicked by older guys. I was starting to get sore and have headaches. I did love Friday nights and trying to look tough so I hung with football. Discuss Carroll game and how I was so excited at halftime and seniors were telling me to shutup.  Discuss Carroll’s tradition and winning and how I got the itch in the 1995 carroll state title game.   Mike had a nice bit of luck and that was the hiring of a new assistant principal who loved football and track. His name was Bob Brock. Bob was a great athlete in high school and college. He coached many successful teams in IN and FL. Bob was a defense guy. Mike needed a defense guy. It is overwhelming to coach offense and defense. Bob was a much needed kick in the rear because he taught Mike to practice better, organize better, and coach better. Bob brought the 5-2 defense also known as the 50 defense. He took over all defensive responsibilities. Mike could focus on the offense and become a master of the wing t offense and offensive line play. He read books, went to clinics, camps, and asked lots of questions. He was obsessive about learning how to get better at coaching weightlifting, agility drills, and using every minute of practice time in an efficient way. Practices became more focused on drills and breakout sessions. Film study and scouting reports were made for players to read and study. The problem was the Midwest conference was full of great players and teams. Mike didn’t have the players to compete with those teams. North White won a state title in 1994 with strong and burly players. Carroll won a title 1995 with a smashmouth fullback named Frank Vega. North Miami won a title in 1991 running the wishbone option offense. Carroll was also state runner up in 1995. In 1997 things were about to turn a corner. In 1996 I was a freshman and we lost to a Carroll team in a sectional coached by John Hendryx. John’s name is known in the area because he was a master motivator. 1997 was our year to change all the losing ways. We had smart athletic players who took coaching, loved each other, and worked in the weight room. The wing t was starting to work very well and the young men were cutting their teeth on this complex offense.  It was working and most defenses were unable to find the football and were tackling players who didn’t have the football. The wing t was an offense that used fakes and decoys to stump the defense. Most defenses did not know how to stop the incredible speed of the Pioneer team. The backfield had speed. The backfield had agility. The backfield had intelligence. The linemen knew their blocking rules and the defense was getting much better from Bob’s coordinating skills. The coaching staff became a tight knit unit. They studied tape and worked close to seven days a week for minimal pay and little recognition. Volunteer coaches as well as paid coaches put in the time and effort to make Pioneer football a force. The pieces were in place. In 1997 the state of Indiana added a regular season game so their was a chance for a team to go 15-0 for the first time in Indiana history. With the expansion of the regular season to nine games this season, followed by the six-week tournament, Pioneer became the first Indiana school to post a 15-0 season record. Courtesy of ihsaa.org. That is not the end of the story. It is only the beginning.

Next Chapter: Regular Season