Sunday Conversation: Catching up with Bloom-Carroll football coach Jeremy McKinney

CARROLL – Jeremy McKinney paid his dues as an assistant coach for almost 20 years before he finally got his shot to become a head coach at Bloom-Carroll.

McKinney more than proved his worth in his first year in 2022 when he led the Bulldogs to a 14-2 record and a Division III state runner-up finish. In two years, he has a 24-5 record.

He served under seven different head coaches and took a little something from each of them, but he has been steadfast in doing things his way, and in the last two years, it has proven to be successful. As he begins his third season at the helm, the expectations are still high.

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Here is our conversation:

Question: Talk about where you grew up, what high school you attended and what was that experience like?

Jeremy McKinney: I went to school at Fisher Catholic and I graduated in 1999. I had a great experience in high school. I graduated with 70 people, so it was the same group of people from first grade to the 12 ^th grade. Our football coach, Mark Crabtree, was outstanding. We won 36 games in four years and the league championships. I always loved football, but he really influenced me to be able to pay back how he made me feel.

Q: What were some of the lessons you learned while playing sports that helped you know in your adult life?

McKinney: I think the most important thing you learn playing sports is how to overcome adversity. A lot of things are out of your control so it’s how you respond to situations you may not have anticipated, from a mental and a physical standpoint. I think that’s probably the biggest lesson, and how to play on a team. Football is unique in that in my mind, it’s the ultimate team game because if all 11 guys aren’t on the same page, usually things aren’t going well.

Q: When did you decide you wanted to be a coach and why?

McKinney: It was early on. My youngest brother died from cancer when I was a freshman in high school. Coach Crabtree lived across the street from us and he would take me home from school every day. Having that extra time with him kind of solidified how important that role is and how much he meant to me, personally. In high school, I was getting Christmas gifts of coaching football books. I got books on how to coach defense and defensive line by Fritz Shurmur. Since high school, I knew coaching was what I wanted to do.

Q: Did you get a coaching job right out of college?

McKinney: I took the scenic route to through college. I changed my major a lot, trying to decide if I wanted to teach or go into exercise physiology. I didn’t start teaching until 2008. I was an assistant at Fisher Catholic a couple of times, I was at Fairfield Union, Bloom-Carroll, Lancaster, and then back to Bloom-Carroll.

Q: You had been an assistant coach, including the last several years as Bloom-Carroll’s defensive coordinator, and then you become the head coach, and in your first year, you go to the state championship game. Was that a whirlwind, and what was that experience like?

McKinney: It was surreal, to be honest. I had worked for almost 20 years for that opportunity so that fact that it played out that way, and now looking back, it still seems surreal. I remember standing in the stadium in Canton looking up at the press box and thinking not a lot of people get to do this. Hartley Coach (Brad) Burchfield sent me a message and said to make sure I take it all in because you are living a lot of people’s dreams. I took that to heart, so I took the time in pregame to just absorb it all because you never know if is going to happen again. There weren’t those expectations on us, Externally, we knew we were good, and we knew where we wanted to go, but no one was talking about Bloom-Carroll football going into the 2022 season.

Q: You must have a lot of pride in that after all those years of being an assistant coach, you were able to not only put your stamp on the program, but you led the team to the state championship game. What do you think makes a successful head coach?

McKinney: I was fortunate to work for seven different head coaches at four different schools, and you learn something from all of them. You have to show you love your players, and genuinely do it. We want our guys to believe in us and we believe in them and we truly form these bonds. We talk about being family all the time, that’s our big thing here, and the fact that we can come together, the formula has worked because we have been very successful the last two years. Probably the most important thing is to be true to yourself and not to try and be something you are not. I coached for some very successful guys. I’m not those guys and I don’t want to be those guys, but you can learn from them, so being genuine and truly loving your guys because of who they are and not necessarily what they can do on a football field.

Q: What was the biggest thing you learned after being an assistant coach all those years to becoming a head coach?

McKinney: After being an assistant for so long, there is still some stuff behind the scenes that I never thought about, As the head coach, when you are in this seat, often the X’s and O’s is the last part of your program that you are thinking about, so then it becomes important in hiring great people that believe in what you believe in and can they execute to vision of your program. As a coordinator, I was able to think about defense all the time, and now it’s everything else, and oh, by the way, you play on Friday night. More than anything, as the head coach, you have to make sure everyone is aligned in the same direction in your program from top to bottom.

Q: Finally, tell me something about yourself that most people wouldn’t know.

McKinney: I am an introvert. Outside of teaching and coaching, I am a loner who likes being at home and having quiet time. It’s how I recharge my batteries and I can relax. I like to read, and I like to be by myself. When I’m working out, I’m not listening to music, I like it that way.

Tom Wilson is a sports reporter for the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette. Contact him at 740-689-5150 or via email at twilson@gannett.com for comments or story tips. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @twil2323.

This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Sunday Conversation: Catching up with Bloom-Carroll football coach Jeremy McKinney