Board approves hiring of new Springfield football coach

Gillespie glad to be back in state ‘where football is king.’

HANDOUT Eric Gillespie

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By David Jablonski, Staff Writer 10:42 PM Thursday, February 9, 2012

SPRINGFIELD — On his first night as Springfield High School football coach, Eric Gillespie was called for a false start. After Superintendent David Estrop recommended Gillespie to the school board Thursday, the coach took a step toward the podium to speak.

Estrop laughed and said first the board had to vote to approve the hire, and the excited Gillespie settled back into his seat. Seconds later, the board unanimously approved the hire, and Gillespie went to the podium to speak — it’s just too bad he has to wait another five months to coach his first game.

“It’s absolutely an exciting opportunity,” Gillespie said.

The 1983 Stebbins High School graduate inherits a program that has gone 21-22 in the four seasons since the merger of North and South. The Wildcats made the playoffs in 2009 and 2010 under coach Rick Robertson, but slipped to 2-8 last season after Adam Taylor took over the program less than two months before the start of preseason practices.

Having grown up in the Miami Valley and coached at Fairborn and Hamilton, among other schools, Gillespie knows about Springfield’s potential.

“The first team I ever learned to fear was the Little Tigers in fourth grade,” he said. “If you look at the 2010 (Springfield) team, they lost 9-0 in the playoffs to Hilliard Davidson, a team that’s won two state championships. It’s not a pipe dream to have those kind of aspirations in Springfield. We’ve just got a lot of work to do to cultivate all the different resources we have and pull it all together and reach our potential.”

Gillespie spent the last five seasons in Richmond (Ind.), where his overall record was 20-31. He said he resigned because he wanted to return to Ohio.

“I’ve been in Indiana the last five years, where football kind of takes a backseat to hoops,” Gillespie said. “It’s good to be back where football is king.”

Gillespie applied for the Springfield job last spring when Rick Robertson resigned to take over at Oakwood. Gillespie interviewed in Springfield, but he pulled his name out of consideration. He had second thoughts about leaving the Richmond program with so little time left before the start of the season. Gillespie will start teaching at Springfield later this school year, so he’ll have plenty of time to get to know his players.

“What they’ll see from me is a guy with a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm,” Gillespie said. “I love the game. I love coaching. They’ll see that.”

Gillespie hopes to take the Wildcats to the top of the Greater Western Ohio Conference Central Division and back to the playoffs, but he has bigger goals.

“Our most important goals are off the field,” he said. “If you take care of those things, on-the-field success will take care of itself. If you have intelligence, toughness, discipline, teamwork and you play with a passion, you’ll win.”

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