WACO, Texas — It is a new era for Panther football as the Midway ISD board unanimously approved Joe Gillespie as the next head football coach.
"When the opportunity came, I just knew that...with the top of kids and the top administration and and with the area and the community and all of the support and stuff. This was a no brainer," Gillespie said.
Gillespie arrives after being the defensive coordinator for TCU for the last two seasons and now returns to Texas high school football.
"When I was at Stephenville, unfortunately, Midway was in our district there for a brief period and, you know, they were great games. Stephenville went 0-2. So, if you can't beat them, join them," Gillespie said with a chuckle.
"He hasn't been with the team long, but during practice, Gillespie had the players do 16 push-ups to symbolize how many games you have to win to be state champions. So the expectations have been set
"To go through some of the stuff that they went through at mid-season and then go through the ups and downs of some of those things. Then getting beat out in a very tough ball game in round one. There's been a roller coaster of emotions for those young men," he said.
"We're not going to ask our players to do anything that we as coaches, as an entire staff wouldn't do ourselves. Every day we're sitting there and, you know, those guys went out there and worked out an hour ago or so and they went out there with the intention of being better than when they went in. Let's treat every day like it's the first day on the job. If you treat it that way, then great things are gonna happen here," he added.
The Panthers finished this past season 5-6. They started 1-5 and then got on a hot streak to make it to the playoffs.
