Shelbyville High School found a soccer coach skilled in player development.

Garrett Belden was introduced Wednesday night at the Shelbyville Central Schools board meeting as the new head coach of the Golden Bears’ girls soccer program.

A 2018 Franklin College graduate, Belden is co-owner of Footworx, a soccer skills development facility in Greenwood.

Belden graduated from Perry Meridian High School and played soccer at Franklin College. He has worked as an assistant varsity coach the last four seasons at Martinsville and Center Grove.

“I was looking for a challenge and decided to finally take the reins and be a head coach and see what I can do,” he said after the meeting.

Belden continued playing soccer professionally after his graduation from Franklin College, where he was a four-year goalkeeper for the Grizzlies. Now he is in business with Brynnan Montfort as co-owner of Footworx.

“It’s an athletic training facility that specializes in sport-specific training, but specializes more specifically in soccer,” said Belden. “We train roughly 75-100 kids a week in general athletics and we do more sport-specific training.”

Shelbyville finished 9-5-2 in 2021 in head coach Chelsea Dourson’s final season. In seven years with the program, Dourson was 46-69-4. The former Golden Bear and Franklin College soccer player announced prior to the season that it would be her last due to her family moving to Fort Wayne, where her husband was taking over ministry work at a church.

After a decade of sub-.500 teams, Dourson led the Golden Bears to a 10-8 mark in 2018 and rebuilt the squad with 4-12-1 and 8-10 seasons prior to 2021.

“I know they’ve gotten better over the last couple of years,” said Belden. “It’s been progressively getting better and I look forward to keeping that momentum moving forward.”

With Belden’s hiring approved Wednesday, he planned to hit the ground running immediately to meet the team and start setting up practice times.

“I think the best thing is to focus on what I have available to me now and try to get the best out of the girls at practice,” he said. “Now that it’s official, I get to meet them and start practicing.”