Crescent-News.com - Bob Olwin resigns as Fairview football coach; takes job at Versailles

By BRUCE HEFFLINGER

SHERWOOD -- Only a "dream-type" job would take Bob Olwin away from Fairview. That job opened up and on Thursday the head football coach of the Apaches announced his intention to step down at the Defiance County school to head south.

The veteran Fairview mentor has accepted the position as head football coach at Versailles, a Division V school from the powerful Midwest Athletic Conference. Since 1989, the MAC has produced 18 state football champions, including two in each of the past three years.

"I like to rebuild programs, they're in a rebuilding mode and I'd like to try to rebuild one more time before I retire," explained Olwin, the Fairview mentor the past 13 seasons. "I've always followed their program - watching them in the playoffs and at state - and I've always been intrigued the way their kids played the game."

The parents of Olwin's wife Sarah used to live in Versailles while Olwin's parents live an hour south in Springfield.

At Fairview, Olwin inherited a program that had not won a league title in a dozen years and had won just 12 games the previous four seasons. It didn't take Olwin long to turn it around, however, winning a Green Meadows Conference championship his first season at the helm.

Along the way, Olwin's teams captured seven GMC crowns, advanced to the playoffs five times and won 104 games while losing just 33. The Apaches were playoff participants three of the past four years, including this past season when Fairview finished the campaign at 9-2.

"Discipline was needed," Olwin said of what the Fairview football program was lacking when he took over. "We were hard on the kids those first years trying to build a solid foundation but we were fortunate enough to have kids that were hungry to win. We also had good enough coaches that stayed around the team and help teach the kids life lessons."

Now Olwin turns his attention to rebuilding a Versailles' program that has fallen on hard times since long-time mentor Al Hetrick stepped down after 38 years as head coach. The Tigers have won just seven games the past two seasons, including a 2-8 mark this year, resulting in the end of Jason Schondelmyer's two-year reign with the program.

"We have lofty expectations," admitted Versailles athletic director Randy Swisher. "We have traditions here with state championships (the school won girls cross country and basketball titles this season) and we're hoping this will be a short honeymoon.

"We want to be competitive right away. We're not expecting 10-0 or a state title right away, but game-by-game, week-by-week we want a competitive team that goes out and opponents know they've been in a game to the end."

There were nearly 50 applicants for the position, with Olwin selected from a group of four finalists according to Swisher.

"He brings a wealth of experience with 26 years ... and successful experience," noted Swisher of Olwin. "We felt he was the best candidate to meet our needs as far as establishing a rapport with the players and getting us competitive in a tough conference. We look forward to him coming in and rebuilding our staff. Three assistant positions need filled, so it's quite a task for him."

But Olwin is up to the challenge.

"They're successful in all sports," Olwin stated. "It's a proud little community that has great athletes.

"I wasn't sure I would take it (when offered) but my wife and kids (Steven and Kelsey) knew what it would mean to me to take the position and they were very supportive. It's always been a dream-type job for me with my parents an hour away, but you have to weigh all kinds of things."

The athletic director at Fairview in addition to head football coach, Olwin will return to the classroom to teach physical education at Versailles as well as serve as assistant athletic director.

"I have a lot of memories and had a lot of fun," Olwin said of his time at Fairview, pointing to playoff wins over Coldwater (1999) and Patrick Henry (2006) as the "signiture wins" in his time at the school.

Olwin will get more looks at Coldwater in his new position, with the Cavs one of two state football champions from the MAC in 2007. Coldwater won a Division IV state title while Marion Local was the D-VI champ.

"It's not a wholesale rebuilding job but a little tuneup," Swisher said of bringing in a new coach for the second time in three years. "We really liked his offensive and defensive philosophies. We checked references and were really impressed with how he worked with the players and how they developed into young men.

"We know it's a tough loss for Fairview, but we're excited to have him. We're impressed with what he was able to do there and hopefully he can do that for us."

Versailles, which has been to the playoffs 16 times in the history of the school, joined the MAC in 2000-01 when its previous conference disbanded. Prior to coming to the MAC, Versailles won five state football titles in a nine-year span from 1990-98. The last football title for the Tigers came in 2003.

"The conference has a lot of similar communities that takes pride in academics and athletics," Swisher said. "On Friday nights the place to be is at an athletic event."

That became the thing to do in Sherwood as well, making the change a difficult one for Olwin.

"We built up a good program here, something the community can be proud of," Olwin said of Fairview. "I'm going to miss working with these kids, how respectful they are and how they let you push them and the comradarie we had. From coaches to players to parents to the administration, a lot of friendships developed in my 13 years here."

It will bring quite a change to the GMC, with Antwerp's Drew Altimus now the dean of football coaches in the league.

"Bob started his coaching at Antwerp and when I came in I relied on him and he showed me what it was like," noted Altimus, who just completed his 11th year as head coach and 14th overall. "He's a friend, a competitor and an ally.

"His influence on the league tricked down. At first he brought in a smash-mouth Wing-T and you had to deal with that and then when he went to the five-wide that trickled down. Our goal was to win the conference and to do that we needed to find a way to beat Fairview."

In 11 years Antwerp did that just once, back in 2000.

"When they went five-wide we had to change up our defense," Altimus explained. "Offensively you had to outscore them so everybody started to open it up. They had an effect on everyone in the conference. The league now has more offense and it's because of Fairview."

The school board at Versailles will act on the hiring at an April 14 meeting.

"They're used to the Wing-T, they used it for 38 years so what we do is very foreign to them," Olwin said of changes ahead at Versailles. "But they like their football there. It's going to be a tremendous challenge."

Something Olwin passed with flying colors at Fairview.