Dixon High School announced Wednesday night that Brad Winterland has been hired as its new head football coach. Winterland been on the staff as an assistant for the past six years and served as a strength coach. He currently is a Physical Educator at Dixon. Winterland was the head coach at Ashton-Franklin Center from 2011-to 2019.

“Brad Winterland represents everything we value in a Dixon High School coach,” said Dixon athletic director Roger Fegan in a press release. “He is deeply invested in our students, understands our community and has built strong relationships with our athletes through his work in the classroom, weight room and on the sidelines. His commitment to character, accountability, and competitive excellence makes him the right leader for our football program.”

Winterland follows Jared Shaner, who resigned after six seasons. He went 41-17 at the helm.

Winterland is a 2002 Stillman Valley grad, where he is a member of the Athletic Hall of Fame.

“This is more than a football hire,” Fegan added. “It’s an investment in leadership, mentorship and the future of Dixon High School athletics. Brad believes in developing young men the right way — academically, athletically and personally.”

The press release says Winterland will immediately begin preparations for the upcoming season, focusing on offseason training, staff development and strengthening connections with youth and middle school programs throughout the district.

Winterland said it should be a smooth transition and he learned a lot as an assistant under Shaner. He touched base with the rest of the staff and said he values all of the previous coaches.

While Shaner was serving as principal along with head coach, Winterland and the rest of the staff were also doing as much as they could to help lighten the load. Winterland took over planning practices a few years ago.

“Obviously with his schedule, there’s times that meetings come up or appointments or things like that where he was unable to be at practice. And from there just try to take that leadership role and assert my voice as well as the other guys on the staff.

“Being involved in the performance aspect of it too, teaching the weightlifting stuff with coach [Zack] Heitz, I was able to see where our kids are at from a readiness standpoint. It helped plan the practices.”

Winterland was also the wide receivers and passing game coach.

He hopes to compete for championships and state titles every year. The Big Northern Conference will also have another top team to contend with in Du-Pec.

“It’s going to bring some more competitive games across the board,” he said. “They’re going to fit in nicely and they’re going to be a challenge right out of the gates.”

Winterland sees the rest of the BNC getting better, too.

“I’ll use Genoa-Kingston for example, because it sounds like we’re going to open up with them,” he said. “They bring a lot of kids back. ... I think the conference overall is going to be in a very competitive spot next year and the years to come. So it’s exciting to compete.”