Written by Assistant Editor Jerry Lindsey.
It is only mid-July, 2023, but the Morrison High School weight rooms are busy, as new Varsity Morrison Mustang Coach Nathan Vandermyde prepares for his first season at the helm.
“It is a pretty good feeling,” he says about the new position. “It is a big commitment, but I feel the time is right for my taking this position!”
Nate Vandermyde is a 2008 graduate of Morrison High School; he Quarterbacked the Mustangs during his years as a player. He followed graduation with a successful Football career, while attending North Central College of Naperville, IL. He is supported at home by his wife Ashley and two children, Hadley and Colton.
Vandermyde has high praise for the program left behind by exiting Coach Steve Snyder. In his role as Assistant Coach to Snyder over the past two years, Vandermyde developed a positive relationship with the players. The 2023 offense will look similar to what the Mustangs have been running in the past year, but each play will have 10 to 15 formations from which it can be executed.
“I am just tweaking Snyder’s program and adding a lot of options,” explained Vandermyde.
The 2023 season will be the final appearance in the Three Rivers Conference for the Mustangs, as they will compete in the Northwest Upstate Illini Conference (NUIC) beginning in 2024. The NUIC includes many of the schools that previously were members of the Three Rivers Conference and which own enrollment sizes closer to the Mustangs’. NUIC members include Amboy, Aquin Catholic, Ashton-Franklin Center, Dakota, Durand, East Dubuque, Eastland, Forreston, Lena-Winslow, Milledgeville, Orangeville, Pearl City, Scales Mound, Stockton, Warren, and West Carroll.
Coach Vandermyde will be joined by a coaching staff including Sean Ford, Chandler Gilbrath, Danny Willis, and Nate Anderson with volunteer assistance from Mason Sizemore, Matt McDonnell, Kolten Sage, Josh Holland, and Jason Buikema.
Coach Vandermyde says the Football program’s success is about developing young athletes on and off the football field. He stresses the importance of everyone being involved in the Community and giving back to what the Community has offered them.
“I want to be proud of their actions both on and off the field. We are developing young men for the future, not just to play Football,” Vandermyde said in closing.
