Republic has a new head football coach in Dustin Baldwin. Baldwin spent the last four years as the head football coach at Neosho where the Wildcats went 16-26 in his four seasons, but 13-9 over the last two.
The move to Republic was not an easy choice for Baldwin, but there were a couple key factors that made the Republic job attractive.
“We look at Republic and see a lot of good things and a lot of potential. It is a growing community still with great schools,” Baldwin said. “The potential of a new stadium is awesome. I feel like there is a lot of potential with the athletes and community as a whole.”
In addition to the town, Republic puts Baldwin and his family closer to relatives.
“Geographically for me and my wife it is a perfect fit in terms of our families and friends are all within 15 minutes of Republic,” Baldwin said.
He has coached against Republic for the last four seasons in the COC Large, but will still have some learning to do over the next few months and summer as it relates to his players.
“We don’t a lot of them (the players) yet. In the coming weeks we will watch some film and try to evaluate the players coming back,” Baldwin said. “Really we want to go into it with an open mind on all of our players and try to recruit some new players out of the hallways.”
Baldwin is unquestionably leaving the Neosho program better than he found it. The Wildcats were 0-10 in both his first season and the season prior to his arrival. They built to 3-7 in 2014 before going 7-4 and 6-5 over the final two seasons playing in one of the state’s best football conferences.
The memory of that turnaround is something he will always carry with him.
“Turning the program around and watching the change in attitude, culture, belief and the kids was the most important and fun thing to witness,” Baldwin said. “Helping them to work and begin to believe that they could be competitive and beat good teams was the most fun thing.”
FULL RELEASE FROM REPUBLIC SCHOOLS BELOW
Republic School District would like to welcome Coach Dustin Baldwin to our team. The Board of Education approved Baldwin to serve as Head Football Coach, to teach PE and to also serve as the Strengths and Conditioning Coordinator at RHS for the 2017-18 school year. Baldwin brings with him 18 years of successful coaching and teaching experience, eight of which were in head coaching positions. His track record of on-field success in his previous positions along with his experience in leading all facets of a football program make him an excellent fit for Republic.
Baldwin is known for his dedication to developing players into leaders both on and off the field. When asked about his goals for Republic he indicated it was “Producing a consistent winning football program that also produces consistent leaders on the field, in the school, and in the community.”
Most recently, Baldwin served as the head football coach at Neosho High School where he was also the head strengths and conditioning coach. Prior to his time at Neosho Baldwin served as the head football coach at Miller High School for four years. Throughout his previous head coaching career he lead his teams to three state quarterfinal appearances, four conference championships and three district championships. In 2009, 2010 and 2012 he was honored as SWMOFBCA Class One Coach of the Year. In 2010, 2011 and 2012 was named SRVC Coach of the Year.
The RHS football team received this news from Mr. Overstreet and Mr. Garton this afternoon, and will have the opportunity to meet Coach Baldwin in person later this week.
Coach Baldwin will be joining the Republic community along with his wife, Heather and 3 year old daughter, Hadley. Welcome to Coach Baldwin and his family!
