The Green Bay Packers have announced that Josh Young of the Saint Mary Catholic/Valley Christian 8-Man football program in Neenah, Wis., has been named the Packers High School Coach of the Week. The program is presented by Buffalo Wild Wings.
Young, in his second year as head coach of the Zephyrs, has a combined record of 14-0 with the program. Prior to being named head coach, the team had years of losing records and decreased participation. In 2019, the program needed to transition from 11-Man to 8-Man football due to low numbers. Upon his hire, Young brought a new approach and coaching style that breathed new life into the program. In 2020, the Zephyr team was made up of only 30 players; this year, the Saint Mary Catholic and Valley Christian Co-Op team has 50 players. Following this season, the Zephyrs will return to 11-Man football again, thanks to Young's ability to grow the program so quickly.
"Last year, we able to get the number to 41 players, so our biggest thing to start turning around the program was to see who we had, who could play where, where they would be best suited," Young said. "From there we made sure practice was entertaining and fun to keep the kids engaged. With any sport, there's kind of a lull and kids' minds tend to wander, so myself and [Coach Lane Peterson] developed a practice plan where we break everything down to five- to ten-minute increments. It's an hour and a half practice but there isn't much down time. We also made the players more of a part of the process. Of course, winning games last year helped obviously, so then this year, we have 50 players with the added bonus of our JV program playing 11-Man."
Young graduated from Appleton North High School in 2000. Throughout high school, he participated in football, baseball and track. He played on the offensive line under Coach Mike Weyenberg. Following high school, Young went on to play one year of football at Lawrence University in Appleton, where he played offensive line under Coach Dave Brown. Young's coaching career began in 2015 at Appleton West High School as an assistant coach. He then coached at Kaukauna High School from 2018 until 2020. Last year, Young took over as head coach of the Zephyrs.
Young hopes the Coach of the Week Award can be used as another opportunity to continue to grow the program.
"Personally, I think it means I did a pretty good job in getting a staff and getting a group of guys that can work well together," Young said. "This is pretty big for our program. This is our program's fourth year at 8-Man and now we're going to be transitioning back to 11-Man. It was the first conference championship the school had in about 50 years, so it's a huge deal for the school. So personally, it feels really good to come in and make a difference, but the staff is the biggest thing. If we didn't work well together, we wouldn't be very successful."
Young and his staff oversee a program of 50 players with 30 suiting up for the varsity games. His assistant staff includes Lane Peterson, TJ Schouten, Gannon Demler, Nathan Jansen, Aaron Rohde, Adam Dwyer, John Leonardi, Rodney Leech and Trainer Ryan Johnson. In addition to coaching, Young is a claims adjuster for Century Insurance. Young and his wife, Melissa have four kids: Tori, Blake, Ella and McKinley.
About the Green Bay Packers High School Coach of the Week Program:
The Packers will recognize one outstanding high school coach as their 'Coach of the Week' winner during the 2022 high school football season. Winners are awarded several items and privileges, including a $2,000 donation to the school's football program from the Green Bay Packers, Buffalo Wild Wings and the NFL Foundation, as well as recognition of the award on Packers.com, Wissports.net and Wifca.org.
Nominations for Coach of the Week should be submitted by 10 a.m. every Monday to Ryan Fencl, Football Outreach Manager, at coachoftheweek@packers.com. Please include the nominee's name, address, school, phone number and reason he/she is deserving of the award.
