Jason VanPelt, longtime Sandwich assistant and ex-player, tabbed as next head coach: ‘It’s special for sure’

Jason VanPelt can trace the genesis of his coaching career back to his last day of high school at Sandwich.

Walking the hallways, he was approached by his baseball coach Derek Avery who asked VanPelt what his plans were. VanPelt, at the time, was not certain.

“He said ‘Why don’t you become a teacher, come back and coach for us,’” VanPelt said. “That’s how I got into it. I enjoyed it because of the players I coached when I was younger.”

VanPelt, a three-sport athlete at Sandwich and 2002 graduate, started coaching right out of high school. He volunteered to coach the quarterbacks while playing baseball at Waubonsee Community College. He got into it full-time after earning his bachelor’s degree from Eastern Illinois University in 2007, returning to his hometown, and has been doing it ever since.

Now VanPelt is the next head football coach at his alma mater, approved by the Sandwich school board in March. VanPelt, also Sandwich’s varsity baseball coach and previously the offensive coordinator and associate head football coach, inherits the reins from Kris Cassie, who stepped down at the end of last season.

Asked what it meant to lead the football program in the community he grew up in, VanPelt’s first thought was of those who made it possible.

“Thinking about being the head coach, I think about my parents having rules for me when I was growing up, keeping me on the right track, I think about all the coaches that I have played for and coached with,” VanPelt said. “I think about all the players and coaches along the way. I’ve learned as much from them as they have from me.”

Cassie, who led Sandwich to back-to-back playoff appearances in his last two seasons as head coach, called the relationship he has with the person he’s passing the torch to special.

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VanPelt, 41, was a student when Cassie first came to Sandwich 24 years ago. VanPelt was in Cassie’s senior weightlifting class, and the two were assistants together.

“First and foremost, he is very passionate about those kids. He is a community guy, born here and played here. He loves working with kids and loves the game of football,” Cassie said. “In my opinion, he is a brilliant football mind, one of the best I’ve had the privilege to work with. He puts a lot of time into his craft, he cares about being a good coach and he’s reflective.”

The Sandwich program appears to be in a good place as VanPelt takes over, emerging from a difficult position post-pandemic.

Program participation was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, and Sandwich struggled to an 0-9 2021 season. The following fall, the school canceled its varsity football season because of low participation numbers.

But the Indians returned in a big way in 2023, going 8-4 and reaching the IHSA quarterfinals for the first time since 2011.

Sandwich made it back to the playoffs last year, and participation numbers appear to have the program set up for success going forward.

“Credit to everybody that stuck with it through those hard times. It wasn’t easy, but we persevered,” VanPelt said. “We’re in a position where we are about a year away from having good numbers throughout the program. We have a good amount of freshmen coming in, good number of sophomores, decent amount of juniors, low numbers of seniors but they’re tough kids that respond well to adversity.

“The youth program is in great shape with the leadership and everyone involved. We’re going to attack it with everything we got.”

VanPelt, never the type of person to call attention to himself, agreed that “it’s special for sure, a special circumstance” and a rare opportunity to become the head coach of the football program he played in.

He’s spent his life in Sandwich, as his parents, his mom a school teacher for 20 years.

“Definitely a lot of skin in the game here,” VanPelt said. “It was not necessarily a goal of mine to be the head coach, but it’s something I am thankful for, the goal being the success of the program both on and off the field.

“We’re going to try to continue to get this going in a good direction and have everybody on the same page, and have our program be something the community can be proud of.”