Andale promotes Dylan Schmidt to replace O’Hair as football coach

Andale has promoted Dylan Schmidt, an assistant coach for the past five seasons, as the football team’s coach, Andale athletic director Jason Fawcett announced on Friday.

Schmidt will replace Gary O’Hair, who resigned following this past season after a 15-year career that saw him compile a 150-30 record, make the playoffs all 15 seasons, and win three state championships.

“I think Dylan has demonstrated over the past five years that he’s ready and capable of leading our football team,” Fawcett said.

“Without a doubt, it’s a humbling deal,” Schmidt said. “What a great guy to follow and I have nothing but great things to say about coach O’Hair. I grew up playing my high school football here, so I’m well-versed in the expectations. I’m just so lucky. It’s a great community, a great school, a great administration, it truly is a dream job.”

Fawcett said he brought in four candidates to interview for the position before deciding on Schmidt, who has one year of head coach experience at Wellington in 2011 and worked closely with O’Hair the past five seasons coordinating Andale’s offense.

“We interviewed four amazing coaches and I believe any of them would have been successful,” Fawcett said. “The good thing about this is that coach O’Hair didn’t leave this program in shambles. We’re in a very good position and we just needed the right person to lead us in the right direction and I think Dylan is that person.”

Replacing O’Hair is a daunting task, Schmidt said, but a challenge he is looking forward to.

“Every coach wants to continue to improve on things and make the program better,” Schmidt said. “Is there a lot of room for improvement? No, not really. I mean (O’Hair) was here for 15 years and he won 150 games. That’s pretty impressive. So if I could continue that level of success that would be pretty awesome.”

Schmidt indicated not much will change about the physical brand of football Andale became synonymous with under O’Hair.

“The proof is in the pudding,” Schmidt said. “Our kids know it and our coaches know it. I’m sure I’ll do things a little differently, but at the end of the day the bulk of what we do will be the same. I just hope to continue with the success we’ve had.”

This story was originally published December 9, 2016 at 11:08 AM with the headline "Andale promotes Dylan Schmidt to replace O’Hair as football coach."