MITCHELL – During the Mitchell Community School Board meeting Monday night, the School Board introduced the new Mitchell Head Football Coach, Kevin Kling.
“Before we hired Coach Kling, it was important to him and his family to visit the school corporation so they could get a better grasp on the school. We didn’t just get a new football coach, we got four quality people,” said Mitchell Community Schools Superintendent Dr. Brent Comer.
The hiring process began in December, after ninth year Head Coach Troy Pritchett stepped down at the conclusion of the 2021 football season.
Kling spent three years as the Head Coach at Triton Central, before moving to Princeton High School as an assistant coach before accepting the position at Mitchell High School.
“I love coaching kids and turning programs around by pushing the right buttons and pulling the right levers to get the kids to buy in, and once that is done you can start taking things off,” Kling said. “I worked at a school in Kentucky that had four wins in six years and took them to a state championship by the end of my time there, so it can be done, you just have to do it right.”
“This is a blue-collar town with a blue-collar mentality, so we are going to play blue-collar football. There will be a lot of players touching the football, and if our physical brand gets disrupted in the game, we will be able to open up a whole other side of things,” said Kling. “We are going to build our brand around the kids we have and the abilities they have to put the best brand of football we can on the field.”
Mitchell Athletic Director Amos Wegner shared the hiring process to the board and expressed that there was a thorough look at each candidate over winter break with the focus on finding a coach who could come in and help to build a quality program.
A total of 37 applicants applied for the position which featured 17 interviews in the first round, with the final four candidates going through an informal one-on-one interview with Athletic Director Wegner and Dr. Comer. Following this process, Wegner took the candidates on a more detailed look at the facilities, and classrooms.
Coach Kling will be the head coach for the school for the next three seasons, where he will also teach at the High School. The subject he will teach has yet to be determined, though Coach Kling has experience in teaching World History and Latin, among other subjects.
“We are very excited to be here and get things started,” said Kling.
