GRINNELL, Ia — The Grinnell Tiger football team will have a new Head Coach when they take the field in 2018. After three seasons, Aaron Shipley will not return to the sidelines next year as the Grinnell-Newburg school system will not offer him a contract to be head football coach. Officially, the school system has no comment about the move but according to sources, Shipley has met with assistants and players the last couple of days and has told them that he will not be returning as head coach. Shipley remains as a physical education teacher at Grinnell Middle School.
Shipley took over the Grinnell football team for the retired Jim Dunne and won 4 of his first 6 games in 2015. But a loss at Benton Community in week 7 started a downhill slide. The Tigers lost their last 3 games that season to finish 4-5 and Grinnell had back to back 1 win seasons in 2016 and this past fall to have only 2 wins in their last 21 games. Shipley leaves Grinnell with a 3 season record of 6-21.
This past season, Grinnell ranked last among all Class 3A teams in total points and was second to last in total offense. Grinnell was shut out 4 times during the 2017 season including 3 straight weeks after their lone victory, a 24-23 OT win over North Polk. The 24 points against the Comets were a season high – Grinnell scored just 39 points combined in the other 8 games.
The question now is who will Grinnell turn to next as a replacement. One obstacle in bringing somebody new into Grinnell will be finding a position in the school system to go with the football coaching job. That could take some time to see what openings will be available. Grinnell will not be the only 3A football job on the market – Adel ADM and Boone are also expected to be looking for a new football coach. If Grinnell decides to look at in-house candidates, Defensive Coordinator Mike Baker has the longest tenure on the football coaching staff and is also the Boys Golf Head Coach. Offensive Coordinator Travis Smith is also the Boys Swimming Coach. Tony Stenberg is the Head Baseball Coach and Tony Farmer is the Girls Tennis Head Coach. Josh Wardenburg led the freshman team to an undefeated season this fall and was just recently named as the Boys Track Head Coach. Bryan Woods and Chad Rose were also on Shipley’s staff.
Once again, repeating our top story, Aaron Shipley will not return as the Head Football Coach at Grinnell High School.