Edinburgh tabs DeSpain as interim football coach

<p>With time quickly running out before the start of the high school football season, Edinburgh athletic director David Walden couldn’t afford to let the search for a head coach drag on any longer.</p><p>Tyler DeSpain, who served as the Lancers’ defensive coordinator the past two seasons, will be the team’s interim head coach this fall.</p><p>DeSpain replaces Jason Burton, who resigned in November after coaching the Lancers’ football and baseball teams for two seasons each. Another former Edinburgh assistant, Colton Patriquin, had accepted the football job shortly after Burton’s departure, but he wound up leaving in May for a teaching position in Brownstown.</p><p>&quot;We needed some continuity,&quot; Walden said.</p><p>DeSpain takes over a program that has struggled to build a winning tradition through its entire 68 years. Prior to last October’s sectional win at Cambridge City Lincoln, Edinburgh had dropped 20 straight games on the field (one of those later became a victory by forfeit).</p><p>Only one of the Lancers’ previous 24 head coaches posted a winning record at the school — Steve Glesing, who was 17-12 from 1991 to 1993. Edinburgh hasn’t finished a season above .500 since he left.</p><p>But with quarterback Tyson Sackman back and the top two tacklers returning on defense in Austin Streeval and Darius Bennett, DeSpain has some pieces to build around as well as momentum from the tournament victory. The key will be getting numbers up to a point where the Lancers can physically survive a season — there have been games in recent years where the team had as few as 14 healthy players suited up.</p><p>DeSpain is optimistic on that front. He had 26 players show up for the first day of preseason workouts, and with others still away on vacation, he anticipates having between 30 and 35 players, a pretty high number by recent Edinburgh standards.</p><p>Though he acknowledged that he faces an uphill climb because the preference is to have a coach that also teaches in the building, DeSpain hopes he can perform well enough to convince Walden to one day remove the interim tag and keep him on board.</p><p>That performance, he said, isn’t limited to on the field.</p><p>&quot;We’re trying to better these kids in different ways, not just wins and losses,&quot; DeSpain said.</p><p>Walden also announced on Tuesday that Kilah Dickey will replace Tina Bottorff as Edinburgh’s varsity volleyball coach. Dickey is also the head softball coach at Franklin.</p>