O’Shea sparks new energy at North Central High School
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH-TV) — First-year North Central Head Coach Kevin O’Shea called quite the audible. After winning five Indiana High School Athletic Association Class A state championships at Lafayette Central Catholic, O’Shea packed up for a new challenge at the perennial Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference cellar dweller North Central.
Even Panthers senior cornerback D.J. Johnson wasn’t sure about the move.
“My first impression of Coach O’Shea was a guy I respected,” Johnson said. “The first day he was talking to a 1-29 team and what was he really going to say? We knew we had to buy in.”
Week one under O’Shea brought win number two for this Panthers senior class. Running back George Stokes’ touchdown with under a minute to go knocked off No.10 Fishers.
“I stood back there with a couple of my older coaches and kids were coming out of the stands, they are coming down to the field, we had kids crying and others that didn’t know what to do,” O’Shea said. “Just to see what they felt Friday, it made this decision worth it.”
To put a cherry on top of the upset win, Johnson, a four star cornerback, made his college decision on his mother’s birthday. Johnson made mom proud, selecting Iowa over Notre Dame and a bevy of other schools.
“She actually started crying and I started to cry a little bit too,” Johnson said. “She was happy for our family and that I had this opportunity to go to college without her having to pay for it.”
O’Shea and the Panthers are fully aware that it’s just one win but walking the hallways at North Central is already a little different.
“The last couple seasons we would tell kids we thought we had a chance to win a game and we would hear otherwise,” Cole Maguire said. “Now, they actually believe in us.”
Are you on the North Central bandwagon? Or, is this just a MIC mirage? We’ll find out beginning with another tough test Friday night at home against Hamilton Southeastern.