Shelbyville football hit another stepping stone Friday at McKeand Stadium with a 22-20 victory over New Castle.
The Golden Bears secured their first victory over a Hoosier Heritage Conference opponent since Sept. 14, 2018. The win could keep Shelbyville out of the bottom rung in the conference standings – another milestone mark on the road back from anonymity.
“It solidifies or backs up what we’ve been teaching for two years and what we are trying to do,” said Glesing, now 2-9 in his first 11 games as Shelbyville’s head coach. His hiring followed back-to-back winless seasons. “Our players know, our coaches know, everybody in our community knows where this program was.
“To win a conference game and basically be in three out of the four games we’ve played … three of the four games have come down to the last play or the last snap, that is satisfying although I don’t want to use the word satisfying because you are never satisfied. This is what can happen if we get on board with what’s going on. I’ve seen it at other schools that we’ve built football programs. It’s contagious – that winning feeling.”
With the win comes a celebration two years in the making. Week five is Homecoming week at Shelbyville with the annual parade returning Wednesday afternoon to the streets near the high school.
The week-long festivities conclude Friday when Class 4A, No. 10 Greenfield-Central (3-1, 1-1 HHC) visits McKeand Stadium.
“They are going to pound it. They are big and they run their option schemes really well,” said Glesing. “We will have our work cut out for us. They have their plan and they stick to it. They are good at it. We will have to have some breaks go our way – maybe a turnover or two.”
Sophomore quarterback Dallas Freeman (27-of-46 passing, 327 yards, four touchdowns) directs an offense averaging 34 points per game. The Cougars utilize seniors Andrew Zellers (75 rushes, 508 yards, seven TDs) and Brayden Herrell (44 rushes, 350 yards, three TDs) to wear down opposing defenses.
Owen Anderson, another senior, is G-C’s leading receiver at 190 yards on 10 catches.
Friday’s contest is the beginning of Shelbyville’s toughest stretch of the season. The Golden Bears still have games left at Yorktown and Mt. Vernon and host New Palestine and Pendleton Heights.
That makes the win over New Castle that much more important.
“It’s a game. You have to enjoy it,” said Glesing (photo). “It should be fun. You’ve got to have success at some point. You cannot build a program when you get your brains beat in every week. That is frustrating.”
Looking back, Glesing sees a program that has had the opportunity to win three of its first four games this season.
“Of course, I know what we’ve got coming up,” he said. “We all know but we had an opportunity to win a football game and we didn’t do it those first two weeks, but New Castle week, we somehow got it done.
“That’s a big stepping stone. It puts a big belief in what we are trying to do. For us to win, that is huge. I am happy for our seniors. They deserve it, and everyone else deserves it as well. It’s something we can build on, that feeling of what it takes and what it feels like and figure out how to do it again.”
Glesing will look for measured improvement in the weeks ahead against five solid programs that includes four state-ranked teams.
“We want to get better. We want to get stronger. We want to get faster. We want to get quicker. We want to get tougher,” said Glesing. “I think that’s one thing we have done, we’ve gotten tougher. You have to have that on a football team. If you are not going to be fast and you are not going to be big, you better be tough. You better be hard-nosed. I think we are understanding that that is what we have to have.”
QUICK FACTS
Class 4A, No. 10 Greenfield-Central at Shelbyville
Game Time: 7 p.m. at McKeand Stadium in Shelbyville, Ind.
Broadcast time: 6 p.m. pregame show live from McKeand Stadium with Johnny McCrory and Mark Drake on GIANT fm (96.5 fm, 106.3 fm, 1520 am) or on the GIANT fm app.
SHS promotion: Homecoming.
Student section theme: Adam Sandler.
Head coaches: Travis Nolting, 15-19 in fourth year at G-C, 75-47 in 12th year overall; Brian Glesing, 2-9 in 2nd year at Shelbyville, 120-103 in 20th year overall.
2021 record: Greenfield-Central 7-4; Shelbyville 1-6.
Sagarin ratings: Greenfield-Central, 79.11, 33rd overall, 8th in Class 4A; Shelbyville, 31.32, 222nd overall, 50th in Class 4A.
Point spread: Greenfield-Central is favored by 46 points.
Last meeting: The two teams did not play in 2021 due to Shelbyville’s roster limitations from COVID-19 protocols. In 2020, Greenfield-Central won 51-0.
Around the HHC Friday: Class 4A, No. 14 Mt. Vernon (1-3, 1-1 HHC) at Delta (3-1, 1-1 HHC); Class 4A, No. 1 New Palestine (4-0, 2-0 HHC) at Pendleton Heights (2-2, 1-1 HHC); and Class 3A, No. 16 Yorktown (3-1, 1-1 HHC) at New Castle (1-3, 0-2 HHC).
Steve Bush photo
