In his first game as Herculaneum’s head football coach, Blane Boss will see a familiar uniform on the opposite sideline.
On Aug. 27, the Blackcats will visit Windsor, where Boss was a star running back and graduated in 2004. One memorable Friday night in September 2003, Boss galloped for a then-state-record 508 yards against Hillsboro; it’s still No. 4 on the Missouri all-time list. He finished with 25 touchdowns and more than 2,000 yards rushing in his senior season.
Boss returned to the Owl sideline for three years as offensive coordinator (2014-2016) and most recently was the head coach at Perryville (2017-2020).
Boss, 35, who succeeds Cody Hunter as Herky’s head coach, received unanimous approval from the Dunklin R-5 Board of Education at a special meeting on April 27. Boss will be paid $48,400 to teach physical education and a stipend of $5,900 to coach the football team.
At Perryville, Boss had a record of 18-21, including a 1-3 mark against crosstown rival St. Vincent and a pair of wins over Windsor by a combined score of 87-18. In three seasons under Hunter, the Blackcats were 6-21. Hunter, a Herky alumnus, will stay on as head coach of both wrestling and track and field for the Blackcats and as an assistant to Boss in football.
In fact, Hunter had a hand in Boss replacing him.
“When I took the (Herky) job three years ago, I made a deal that no matter what happens I’d do what’s best for the school and I wasn’t going to stand in the way of progress,” Hunter said. “At the end of last year, I knew we’d have a good team the next two years and I felt like I couldn’t do it by myself and wanted some help. So I reached out to (Dunklin R-5 Superintendent Clint Freeman) and asked him if I could step down and look for another head coach.
“I felt like we could get a quality head coach. I asked some guys I knew in the coaching world and Blane was one of them. I thought it would be a good fit for him because he did some good things in Perryville.”
A Festus resident, Boss commuted 90 miles round trip to Perryville every school day. He’s looking forward to less road time.
“You can’t beat being 10 minutes from home,” Boss said the day after being introduced at the high school. “It means being able to work with the kids longer instead of being on the road. I wanted to come here knowing how much tradition there is at the school, in academics as well. It’s a good place to be. I’m familiar with (Herculaneum activities director Jason Gillman) and trust him. Another big reason is Cody and how dedicated he is to the program. Traditionally football has been a power here.
“Cody’s going to be my right-hand man. Any sensible person knows how much he loves that place. He’s going to be somebody I rely on.”
In a shakeup of the I-55 Conference where the Blackcats play, perennial champion Valle Catholic is out and Perryville is in. That means Boss will coach against some of the players he led last fall.
“I want to win, but you want the kids you worked with for four years to have success too,” Boss said. “We had a lot of sophomores play last year and they have another strong sophomore class.”
The Blackcats are in a similar situation roster-wise, Boss said. They had 26 freshmen and sophomores on their varsity roster in 2020.
Two sophomores – quarterback Jackson Dearing, an honorable mention pick on the all-conference team a year ago, and second-team all-conference linebacker Mikey Moloney – will be two of their top returning players this fall.
“We’ve got a lot of guys back who should help,” Boss said. “It will be nice to have that. Cody knows this could be a good year if the kids put in the work.”
Johnson steps down at De Soto
After five years as head football coach at De Soto, Chris Johnson has resigned. Next year he’ll teach social studies at Webster Groves High and serve as an assistant football coach for the Statesmen under Matt Buha.
De Soto was 20-29 (.408) under Johnson. The Dragons’ two biggest wins in his tenure came against Hillsboro in 2018 (14-8) and Festus in 2019 (38-20), in both cases snapping long losing streaks to those rival schools.
Johnson previously coached football at Seckman, Kirkwood and in Texas for 10 years. He said his No. 1 goal when he became head coach at De Soto was to get the students there to believe they could compete with the other teams closest to them.
“When I first got here, everyone said Festus and Hillsboro are your two biggest rivals,” Johnson said. “My answer to that was, there’s no rivalry when it’s a one-sided butt-kicking. I didn’t feel you could say we were a rival because we weren’t competitive enough.”
As in any team sport, it takes special athletes to build a winner. Johnson’s teams included three of the best Dragon athletes of recent vintage: wide receiver Lamont Allen, a state high jump champion (Class 4, 2017); kicker-receiver Mayson DeRousse, a state champ in the pole vault (Class 4, 2018) and two-way lineman Landon Porter, a heavyweight wrestler who grabbed the Class 3 state crown in 2020.
Johnson said he was looking for new challenges in his profession.
“I had accomplished some of my goals and I was satisfied with the direction of the program,” he said. “I felt like I hit the ground running and dove into the deep end and did what I could to change the perception that we weren’t on par with the rest of the teams in the county.”
De Soto activities director Jon Roop said the head football position has been posted online and that he hopes to hand the board of education a candidate for its meeting on May 20.
“We want to move fast,” Roop said. “This is an important time when football coaches need to plan for summer camps and strength and conditioning programs over the summer.
“My ideal football coach is someone who’s passionate about the game and (about) building positive relationships with the student athletes.”
Also at De Soto, Char Linhorst takes over as the new softball coach. She replaces Chris Woelich, who coached the Dragons the last two seasons and was an assistant with the 2014 Dragon squad that won the Class 3 state tournament. Linhorst, a Hannibal native, played softball at Jefferson College and later was an assistant coach there.
The coaching shuffle at De Soto also extends to Nate Reiser, who has stepped down as the boys and girls soccer head coach but is remaining as a volunteer assistant. Reiser had coached the boys since 2012 and the girls since 2013. Roop said the two positions are in the hiring process.