What Gillespie’s Departure Means to Stephenville
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Updated: February 1, 2015
Photo: Joe Gillespie, Art Briles and Mike Copeland (yourstephenvilletx.com)
The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same
The Stephenville Yellowjackets continued their winning ways this past year by achieving their 26th consecutive winning season. The Yellowjackets finished the season with a 9-4 record making it the Quarterfinals for the 5th year in a row. This past year was also the 11th consecutive 8+ win season. They now have 8+ wins in 24 of the last 26 seasons.
The 2015 Yellowjacket team will be a lot different. They graduate 11 All-District players including 5-Star recruit QB Jarrett Stidham. They will also be missing their head coach Joseph Gillespie who is leaving after 7 seasons to be the linebacker coach at Tulsa University. Coach Gillespie had a 72-23 record with the Yellowjackets and led them to a state championship victory in 2012. The cupboard is not empty though at The 'Ville as they return 7 All-District players with 4 of them being 1st teamers.
Returning All-District Players
1st Team
RB SOPH Kaegun Williams
TE JR Josh Nowell
WR JR Darian Brown
DB JR Jon Clark Giddings/p>
2nd Team
OL JR Grant Isham
LB JR Garrett Crew
DB JR Maso Yoes
Coach Joseph Gillespie's connection with the Yellowjackets is much more than simply coaching them. He was a graduate of Stephenville in 1990 where he played linebacker for some of their previous great teams. As he wrote in his profile when signing up for the Brotherhood, Gillespie said, "I had the fortunate ability to play for Coach Art Briles, Coach Mike Copeland and Coach Steve Freeman while being a student-athlete at Stephenville HS. Played on the team that sent Stephenville Football to the play-offs for the first time since 1952." Since that return to the playoffs, Stephenville has been 25 of the last 26 years!
Coach Gillespie follows several other Yellowjacket coaches to the college ranks. Chad Morris 2003-2007 is now the Head Coach at SMU and Art Briles 1988-1999 is the Head Coach at Baylor.
The Stephenville coaching position will get lots of attention and rest assured that they will look long and hard to make sure the new hire protects the tradition these men have worked so hard to create.
by Lone Star Gridiron
The Brotherhood of Texas High School Football (honoring everyone who every played TXHSFB)
All-Time Coaching Wins ☆ (Premium content)
Consecutive Winning Seasons ☆ (Premium content)
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