Jake Hogan, the new girls basketball head coach at Festus, has coached only at private schools. But he has a quick answer for those who may ask about that.
“Coaching kids is coaching kids,” said Hogan, 29, who lives in south St. Louis County. “They all come from different backgrounds. I love building relationships with them. I’m going to coach you up and love you a ton and it doesn’t matter if it’s public or private, I will coach the same way and move forward.”
The Festus R-6 Board of Education voted unanimously May 18 to hire Hogan to replace Steve McFarland, who resigned after coaching the Tigers the last three seasons. Hogan most recently coached basketball, football and baseball for four years at Bishop DuBourg, a Catholic school in St. Louis, including one year as head football coach. He also worked as a basketball assistant for two years at Lutheran South, three years at St. Dominic and one year (including football) at Westminster Christian Academy.
Hogan teaches at Assumption School (pre-K through eighth grade) in south St. Louis County and will continue there through the next school year. He’ll join the Festus school district for the 2024-2025 school year in as-yet-unassigned teaching duties.
“I’m all about personal development,” Hogan said. “There are lots of people (in Festus athletics) I can grow, develop and learn from, and having that support within the program is tremendous. That’s what sold me.”
Jason Therrell, who recently stepped down from the Festus boys basketball head-coaching job to take over as the school’s activities director, said he interviewed multiple people for the girls basketball position, and Hogan stood out in the interview process and came highly recommended by his previous schools.
“We are really excited to have Coach Hogan at Festus,” Therrell said. “He brings a good amount of experience in multiple sports. We like his enthusiasm and energy and think he is the right fit for our girls program. We look forward to him being a Tiger.”
In McFarland’s last season, the Tigers finished 15-11, led by recent graduate Josie Allen, who averaged 17 points per game and was named the most valuable player in the large-schools division of the Jefferson County Activities Association. Allen plans to continue her playing career at Jefferson College.
Many Festus fans can remember the program hitting bottom from 2009 through 2013, when the team went 11-72, including an 0-21 campaign in 2012-2013. That ended in remarkable fashion in 2014 when head coach Ron Rhodes led the Tigers to victory in the Class 4 District 3 final over De Soto, the school he had piloted to back-to-back state championships in 1988 and 1989. Festus has had only one losing record (9-13 in 2019-2020) since then.
Despite no experience coaching locally, Hogan’s teams have faced Festus and he’s keenly aware of who the Tigers’ main rivals are.
“There’s that school that wears blue and white,” Hogan said with a nod to Hillsboro. “Festus and Hillsboro, it’s like Michigan/Ohio State and Kansas/Mizzou, but it’s all fun and it’s all high school sports. We’re going to practice and play hard and build this program back up from the ground.
“If you run your program the right way, kids will want to play for you. We’re practicing to beat everybody, not just one team. We want to get to the point in our program that nobody wants to play us. We want people to say, ‘There’s no place like Festus.’”
Hogan inherits a team that loses two starters – 2023 graduate Mya Courtois was all-JCAA large-schools honorable mention – but returns all-conference second-teamer Ciara McDonald, who will be a senior this fall. McDonald averaged almost 11 points and seven rebounds per game and recently displayed her athleticism in another sport, winning the javelin throw at the Class 4 Sectional 1 track and field meet. At state McDonald finished fifth in 37.27 meters.
Hogan said he wants his teams to play with “fire.” He’s running open gyms at Festus this week.
“If we stick to the process, everything else should go hand in hand,” he said. “I’m so thankful to get this chance.
“We will attack every day with a purpose and we will put in a lot of good work, and at the end of the day, the most physical team will win. This is a great opportunity to take over Festus with their history and build things the right way. I want to get everybody excited about the girls basketball team.”