Morrison brings in Steve Snider as new head coach

Morrison football has a new coach.

Steve Snider with take the reins of the Mustangs this fall, taking over for Ryan Oetting, who stepped down following the spring season.

Snider had been the coach at Orangeville, leading the Broncos to a 2-4 record in the abbreviated spring 2021 season, capped off by a 28-6 win over Milledgeville. Even when he was up the road and in a different conference in Orangeville, Snider could see the type of program Morrison had.

“Obviously it’s a great program, historic success,” Snider said. “Obviously the 2009 and 2011 seasons they won state championships, when I grew up, an NUIC kid, I got to see Morrison play a couple of times playing in some great playoff games.”

Snider, an Orangeville native, joined the Broncos coaching staff as an assistant coach in 2013. Orangeville was 7-4 in 2019 to cap off a three-year run of playoff trips. Snider was the defensive coordinator for those teams, putting together a Broncos defense which pitched a pair of shutouts in 2019, including in a playoff win over Chicago Hope Academy, and held two other teams under 10 points.

“He’s had experience taking Orangeville to the playoffs,” Morrison athletic director Greg Dolan said. “They have 100 kids in their school. He’s got a pedigree that we felt would fit in well here at Morrison.”

In Snider, Dolan sees a lot of positivity as he gets to work.

“He sells himself well, sells the program, already has kids excited,” Dolan said. “We’ve had kids in the weight room. He’s dedicated, driving from Orangeville twice a day. He has everything we think he needs to get the job done, and done well.”

In making the move from Orangeville to Morrison, Snider moves to a school with an enrollment of 270, which put the Mustangs squarely in the Class 1A bracket the last time playoffs were held in 2019. He has plenty of small-school experience, with Orangeville being consistently the smallest school in Illinois with an 11-man football program. Orangeville’s enrollment is 101; the next-smallest school in Illinois playing 11-man football is Chicago Harper, with 149 students.

“There are people that coach at huge schools, and you can do things that small schools can’t do. I was part of a program for eight seasons that never had more than 30 kids in it, and what we were able to do with our strength and conditioning program and our football program is unmatched in comparison to what they’ve had to do,” Snider said. “Orangeville had the smallest enrollment in Illinois for any school that had a football program every year I coached there. There are challenges that come with that, good challenges. Those challenges made me better. It made me think about the game in a different way and how to develop young athletes in a different way, because you have to do it in a different way or else you’re not going to have a program.”

Oetting told Morrison administration the Monday following the spring season that he would be stepping down. Morrison went 2-3, closing the spring campaign, and ultimately Oetting’s coaching tenure with the Mustangs, with a 38-6 win over Erie-Prophetstown.

In four seasons under Oetting, the Mustangs were 27-18. Morrison went 2-7 each of his first two seasons at the helm, then turned things around drastically in 2019, going 9-0 in the regular season and reaching the Class 1A quarterfinal.

“He had some pretty talented athletes and those athletes believed in him,” Dolan said. “They believed in the coaching staff. From 2-7 to 11-1, that’s not a bad turnaround. Kids bought into what Ryan was selling, and that’s a big part of the battle.”

Snider came in soon after, able to meet with the returning players before the end of school. Since then, he has been back and forth between Orangeville and Morrison to work with his players, and also has plans for a summer camp next week and the week after.

“Morrison had a day left of school and I was able to get down there and meet all the kids that day,” Snider said. “We’ve had some walk-through type things and weight room, and we’ve got a 7-on-7 in Lena on Thursday to do some exhibition with Le-Win and Stockton. I’ve gotten somewhat familiar with the kids. When I first got hired, track and wrestling were still going full swing, and there’s some absolutely great athletes competing up until the state series in both those sports.”

Snider said there is still some feeling out to do before he is set with offensive and defensive schemes.

He will make his debut as Morrison coach August 28 at Newman, a Saturday night game at Roscoe Eades Stadium.