Schmitz unanimous choice to lead Greenville football program

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GREENVILLE – Bart Schmitz was named Greenville head football coach recently with unanimous board approval.

“I am really excited for Bart to lead our football program in the coming years” said Greenville Athletic Director Aaron Shaffer. “He has a tremendous amount of experience through his playing days at Versailles playing under Al Hetrick and his dad Dave Schmitz who was defensive coordinator.”

Schmitz has served as an assistant football coach for the Green Wave under the direction of former Greenville Coach Aaron Shaffer.

“I’m extremely excited Mr. Shaffer our athletic director, Mr. Fries our superintendent and the Greenville City School Board has given me the opportunity to lead this program,” said Schmitz. “I am pleased to continue here at Greenville and continue what we have built to this point and take it to the next level.”

“I learned immensely under Coach Shaffer, how to game plan, how to handle players, how to get the best out of each individual player, how to break down films,” Schmitz stated. “Coach Shaffer was a great mentor. I learned a lot in my seven years coaching with him. I am looking forward to working for him and continue to build this program into something the entire community can be proud of.”

Schmitz, a Versailles alum played for former Tigers Coach Al Hetrick where the legendary coach accumulated a 334-95-4 record including 18 conference championships, 16 playoff appearances, 13 regional titles, three state runner-up finishes and six state titles.

“I learned a lot of things that I know about this game from Coach Hetrick,” noted Schmitz. “He was a great teacher of fundamentals.”

“A big slogan we had when I played was, ‘if you can block and you can tackle, you’re going to win’,” shared Schmitz. “It really doesn’t matter which you do offensively or defensively, the game of football comes down to those two things, you have to be able to block and you have to be able to tackle better than your opponent and if you do those things you’re going to win more often than not.”

“I also learned from playing for Coach Hetrick – hard work and dedication,” continued Schmitz. “It’s more than about just being a football player. It’s about being a good person, giving yourself the opportunity to have great success not only on the field but off of it, so I learned a lot not only about the game of football from Coach Hetrick but how to be a good person, how to handle yourself, how to be a good father, just little things, how important little things are and how you can handle them – how you can handle the little things with great excellence and the big things will take care of themselves.”

Coach Schmitz looks to build on what is already an excellent Greenville football program.

“I want as many players as possible to be on our team,” Schmitz said. “I think the more players that you have the better off you are going to be. That’s more competition you can have for each position and I believe in competition. Competition makes better players out of everybody and the more players that we can get out to play, to be involved with the program, the better off we’re going to be as a whole.”

“Coach Schmitz relates well with the kids,” Shaffer stated. “He has a vision, he has a goal that he can relate well to the kids and pass along to the kids and athletes so they have every opportunity to be successful on the field, in the classroom and out in the community because all those things are important to Coach Schmitz.”

Coach Schmitz took time to thank the many who have helped him on his coaching career path with family at the top.

“First I would like to thank my wife, Lianne and my three children; Kayla, Makenzi and Noah,” said Schmitz. “I would like to thank my family for their love and support. Without them, their sacrifices they have made, this opportunity would not be possible for me. I would like to thank the Greenville City School Board, Mr. Fries, Mr. Shaffer and Mr. Hughes for giving me this great opportunity to lead this program.”

By Gaylen Blosser Sports Editor AIM Media

Reach Gaylen Blosser gblosseraimmediamidwest.com or (937) 548-3330

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