New coach ready to lead Hawks

Leader sports reporter

It’s easy to understand why Bill Hass is a true family man. Having five children and a wife of 24 years can do that to a fellow.

It is thus no surprise, that Shawano Community High School’s new football coach approaches his athletes with a very fatherly attitude. While he makes no promises about the future in terms of wins and losses, he does pledge to field a squad that the city of Shawano can rally behind, and embrace as a family.

“I’m going to treat their kids as my kids,” Hass said during his introductory interviews on Tuesday at SCHS. “The biggest thing is we are going to institute a family atmosphere and work to win games. We are going to be respectful of ourselves and opponents and are going to be a team that the city is going to be proud to come and see play.”

A product of a military family, Hass spent his childhood in many places, including Chicago, but lived plenty in the Shawano area in such places as Mattoon, Aniwa and Phlox. After a 14-year stint at Fennimore he then coached at Oconto for four seasons before making the move to Peru, Ind., in 2004. And now after a 4-year stint in the Hoosier state Hass returns to his roots as a coach with over 20 years of experience and high hopes of turning around the stagnant Shawano football program.

“From what I’ve heard and what I’ve seen, everybody is ready and willing to work, and we just need to take that final step to take place where things come together,” Hass said. “Now, is that this year? Is that next year? I don’t know, but we are going to establish that foundation.”

Hass’ family-oriented approach includes a no-cursing policy that “rewards” offenders with some healthy push-ups and a team-first approach that he believes can elevate team performance above and beyond where talent alone can get a squad.

“Immediately we want to get them into a family atmosphere,” Hass said. “Part of their life, they are with us and not their Mom and Dad, so we are trying to make them good young men and trying to get them to where they can be successful in life.”

“Of course we want to win football games, but we have to get that core in place first,” Hass added. “A team might not be the best athletes, but if you teach them to work together and build camaraderie and get past obstacles together, the world then opens up and they can achieve much more than they could have initially.”

Hass also emphasized the importance of physical conditioning, particularly in the weight room, calling for his athletes to dedicate themselves to their craft.

“If you don’t lift, you don’t play,” Hass said. “I obviously can’t enforce that during the offseason, but during the season I can, and I will... We need to get kids in the weight room and working to get better, and the thing is that once we get them hooked, they will enjoy it and continue to work. It’s starting that is hard.”

As part of his goal to get the Hawks at their peak athletic conditioning, Hass plans to test his players in 10 drills and then keep track of their improvement on a large chart that is updated every three months.

“The athlete and everyone else can see their improvement, and I believe that helps motivate kids to work harder, either to move up or to stay up on the chart.”

On the field, fans can anticipate to see a similar style of play in regards to philosophy, as Hass’ offensive and defensive strategies will not be worlds apart from that of former coach Matt Zoll, with Hass relying on a predominantly Pro-set/I-formation attack that leans heavily toward the run and should utilize the option attack with some frequency.

“We want to use the run to establish the pass, not the other way around,” Hass said. “If we can have our fullback run for over 1,000 yards, that means we are setting the tone we want. If we get our tailback over 1,000 too, then we really have things going.”

Defensively, Hass preaches controlled aggression, wanting his players to attack the ball and force the action upon opponents, though not necessarily with the blitz.

“We want our kids to play with aggression and make plays fast,” Hass said. “We want to make the opponent make decisions right away, and hopefully get plays moving sideline-to-sideline.”

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