(Atchison, KS) Harlan native Joel Osborn was officially introduced as head football coach at Benedictine College in Atchison, KS on Tuesday.
Osborn met with media via zoom call and explained some of the things that attracted him to this position. “The leadership that is in place at the college starting at the top. When I got to meet President Steve Minnis, just a phenomenal leader. His vision for where Benedictine College is going and his support of athletics is top notch. Former Head Coach Larry Wilcox, the foundation he has laid here is just incredible. It’s something that I am going to embrace and look to build off of.”
He outlined the three missions for the program. “One is to graduate our players. Two is to win football games. Three is to develop men of characters. There’s more than one way to do that, but the main thing is we are going to focus on relationships.”
Osborn was asked about what he’ll take with him from his experiences at Northwest Missouri State. “I had a ton of great experiences there at Northwest going from a player to a graduate assistant to a full time coach to being in charge of the offense and calling it. The biggest thing we did is we continued to look at ways to make ourselves better. That’s what you have to do everyday is look at ways to get better and not just do things because you’ve done them before.”
Osborn spoke highly of the Benedictine campus. “Growing up in Iowa I’ve been to the campuses of Grand View, Morningside, Northwestern, and Dordt. Those are some of the best programs in Iowa so I’ve been there and seen those. I feel like what I saw on this campus, this is one of the elite campuses in the NAIA in the Midwest. That’s a huge deal to me. When a kid looks at a school he is going to want to see himself being there and if you have one of the best campuses and places to be for that period of time that’s just a huge plus.”
There’s the possibility Benedictine could be an NAIA playoff qualifier and compete for a championship yet this spring. In the case that the Ravens make the playoffs, details on the transition from previous head coach Larry Wilcox to coach Osborn are still being ironed out.
