State championship-winning coaches Al Gooden in boys basketball and Sherwood Haydock in football were looking to make Harding their last career stops.
But it didn’t work out that way.
Harding will cease to exist in its current form with a transition into a grades 7-12 magnet school. So Gooden and Haydock will go to fellow East Allen County Schools in New Haven and Woodlan, respectively.
Gooden has guided the boys program at Harding for more than two decades, making five trips to the state finals and winning the 2001 2A state championship. The Wayne graduate, who also coached at Heritage, is 338-214 in 24 years of coaching.
Gooden said he has met with some of his future players but won’t be able to do anything more with them until school is out Friday. But he doesn’t expect the transition from former coach Kurt Dager’s program to his to be that difficult.
“Basketball players are basketball players,” Gooden said. “They come out and play, and Kurt did a great job with them. I just have to fit into their style. From what Kurt has done over the last few years, it will be easy for me to come over there.
“I am going to treat it the same and go over there and do my best day in and day out. When I get a chance to do something with my team this summer, I am going give them my best before the season gets started.”
Sophomore V.J. Beachem and freshmen Jordan Hogue and Jailan Wattley will go to New Haven with Gooden.
“They know what we are doing and what we are about, and they can relate it to others,” Gooden said.
In 11 seasons, Haydock led the Hawks to two state appearances, winning the 2006 2A title and finishing second in 2004. After coaching at three previous schools, he was prepared to close things out at Harding.
But the reorganization happened, and he found the opportunity to replace Barry Ehle at Woodlan.
Haydock, who was 75-54 at Harding, began workout sessions with some of his Woodlan players during the winter.
“This time getting the job in January, I am way ahead of schedule,” he said. “I feel like I have already coached these guys even though we haven’t been on the field yet because they have been coming in for the weights. The transition may not be as hard because they already know me. The transition that is going to be the toughest is I have to adapt to a different level of competition.”
Ehle, who is coaching the Woodlan softball team in the 2A state championship game Saturday, was 20-43 at Woodlan after replacing Leland Etzler, who was 287-117-4 in 40 years of coaching.
“They aren’t used to winning right now,” Haydock said of Woodlan, which went 1-9 the last two years. “The cupboard is not bare by any means. Barry wasn’t forced to resign; he just thought he had enough for right now.”
Haydock is 133-119 in 24 years of coaching football. Eight players from Harding will join Haydock at Woodlan, including junior Zac Haydock (the coach’s son). But after three years at quarterback, Zac Haydock might not be the signal-caller come this fall. After having received a scholarship offer from Western Michigan, the younger Haydock looks to see a lot of time at running back.
The Warriors will get to know their new coach even better when they gather for a team mini camp starting Monday.
“I usually do that anyway, but I definitely wanted to do that here so I could get our kids together and used to everything,” he said.
