Galesburg Football- “That's our goal, and the next year build on that.”

Galesburg HS football has had a tough time. In the last twenty-five years, the Streaks have had only 2 years where the teams finished above .500. 

To turn things around is not an easy task. It will require a strong team of coaches with leadership, enthusiasm, and relentless energy. Shawn Hickey took over in the Summer of 2024. The process of changing the culture is tough, Hickey and his staff have worked to increase the number of players in football and the enthusiasm for football. Their hope is that the wins will follow if they get the numbers and the commitment raised. 

I sat down to talk to Shawn about the process of building up the football program. 

“Things about culture needed to change.”

Massey- What made you decide to tackle this job?

Hickey-  I was a defensive coordinator for the varsity level under Wes Olson. I got out of it, and got into the JFL and the junior high. I started broadcasting with Bennewitz and Miller on WGIL. It gave me a different perspective and was fun. 

I had been away, but I was still around the Galesburg football program. There were things that I wanted to change. 

Massey- When you go into a program, maybe you have a vision of what you want to do, but how do you decide where to start?

Hickey- Guys like Jacob Carl and Matt Hawkins were the ones who were keeping the program going that summer. I came in there at the end of June, and I had about 5 weeks to prepare for the season. There wasn’t time to make lots of changes.

The biggest changes were when we got through that season and started implementing the ideas of what I wanted. 

Massey- What has been your focus in the program? What things did you know had to change for the program to be successful?

Hickey- Things about culture needed to change. I believe that culturally we need to have a team who has a desire to go to be positive leaders in a school- in the classrooms, in the hallways, in the community and on the field.

To be successful, we needed to try to get more kids involved, get the numbers up.

“We are at a point that we need to get wins to attract players.”

Massey- To be successful, football needs a lot of players. If one team has to have most of their players go both on offense and defense, and the other team can platoon, it is tough to compete.

Hickey- In today's world, everybody wants kids to pick out a sport and specialize. We've had to cancel the JV season the last two years becuase of numbers. 

It's interesting because we had a good spike last year and our numbers at the start of the summer were 90 to 95. 
 This summer, we opened summer with 80. We've lost kids since then. 
But what we had this summer was more consistency in those numbers.

 So, you know, my 2 years or last summer, rather, the 1st summer when I came in, my 1st day, we had 38 kids, and that was at the end of June, you know. Um, So we started last year, we opened up in the summer. 
We were about 60 to 65 and this year we opened up at 80. But what we have are just the more consistency in those numbers. 

That 1st summer, we had roughly 30 kids who would have been at 85% or higher. 
This year, we have at right about 50, who have been at 85% or higher of our workouts. 

We are at a point that we need to get wins to attract players. Once we get to a position where we're winning, more kids will want to be part of a winning program. Then it will be easier to go up to a kid in the hallway and say,”You should be playing football.” 

They don't want to put in a time and a sacrifice it takes to go out there and lose. 


“…if we're going to value weightlifting, they have to be able to be lifting during season.”

Massey- I believe to have a successful athletic program, everyone needs to buy into the importance of the weight room. I really sense the combination of the new weight room and the expertise of Coach Noonan has changed the entire culture of the athletes. Do you see a greater commitment by athletes into the strength training?

Hickey- I do. It was a push we had probably three to four years ago to try to get the weightlifting classes, and now we have multiple ones throughout the day for players to attend.

With our enrollment, we need kids to be multiple sport athletes and if we're going to value weightlifting, they have to be able to be lifting during season. 

When you have a 2 sport athlete or a 3 sport athlete, when can they find time to get in a weight room? Well, the answer was during school. 


Three years ago, we started in the off-season, what we called speed school. They can come into speed school after school twice a week, and do some speed development, and some agility. It is for all athletes. I was just talking last night with Phil Redington (soccer coach) and he said he could see a difference in his players who go to speed school.

“…system designed to create of accountability.”

Massey- You set up “squads” within the team to encourage off-season accountablity. Can you share how some of this works?

Hickey- Carson Johnson was a big part of the point system designed to create of accountability. 
It was accountability squads that we had to generate leadership within the team and hold kids accountable through a variety of things, whether it be discipline or grades or attendance and participate in other sports and those type of things. 

So they got points for all those things. And like this past offseason, we went to, I believe it was the Thanksgiving tournament for the boys. I pick a game, I say go watch a basketball game. Anybody who shows up to get points. 
I want our players to know that we could be leaders in that aspect as well. 

And around a time of the NFL draft, we had our own draft. 
So we put the leadership council up on the stage in a little theater. We had everybody's name, we kind of showed what they had done for the offseason, and we had a draft and they drafted kids onto their squads, which, you know, we continue that throughout the summer. 

The squads are competing to earn the most points- lifting, workout sessions, playing other sports, attending school events- things like that. 

“They're the ones who players need to go to…”

Massey- You have set up a “leadership council”, how does this work?


Hickey- We had a leadership council under Wes Olsen, and I wanted to bring that back. Basically, it's an application process. Those who want to be leaders, just because you're in a leadership council, it doesn't mean that you have leadership skills. 
And so we met, we would meet with them once a month in the offseason to go over skills and develop some things. And now that we're in season, we try to meet once a week. 

We went through the applications and made the decision of the people that we wanted on the leadership council. 
In the end, we had 13. Each leader is in charge of a squad. 

But leadership council is more than just the squads and off-season competition. 
They're the ones who players need to go to, to talk about things and they're the bridge between us and the players. 

As coach, I might say to someone on leadership cornices, “We had our summer workout today. You had 2 people missing from your squad. I'm coming to talk to you about where those 2 were. 
I'm not messaging the 2 that were gone. I'm using you to do that, go and talk to them.”

“…the phone had to stay back in the barracks.”

Massey- You have worked to make football fun and to develop a strong bond in teammates. This summer, the team took a retreat to a camp. 

Hickey- We went on a retreat at the end of our two-week camp. It was the last week of July. 
We went up to Camp Loud Thunder near Andalusia. It was a weekend. We had a lot of rain. 

Besides football, the kids did archery, hatchet throwing, fishing, canoe races, and swimming. We had a rule that the cell phone couldn't be on you, 
the phone had to stay back in the barracks. The idea was to completely disconnect from what was going on in the world, be in the present- there with your players, your with your teammates. We had some team building activities. 

“…the best ticket in town…”

Massey- From social media, you are really pushing themes about Friday Nights and wanting people to come out to make it an exciting night and enjoy all that is involved in a football Friday.

Hickey- Why can't we have a Friday night that’s exciting for anybody to show up. I call the best ticket in town, is to come out and see the football team, the band perform, the color guard, the cheerleaders, and everybody that's out there and have it be one big show. 


We want to have the community view it as a big community event. We are all supporting each other. The band director, Dena Baity came up with an idea, it was everybody having a shirt that said “Team Friday Night.” 
It's for the band parents, it's for the football parents, it’s for Gadet and cheer parents. Anybody in the community can buy that shirt and just know that we are there supporting each other and trying to put up a good night. The price of ticket, there's a lot of entertainment there. 


“That's our goal, and the next year build on that.”

Massey- It takes hard work from your entire staff and from all your players. Success in high school sports is not easy. As you look at this season, what is success for your program? What needs to happen for you to feel like you are making progress?

Hickey- Win more games than last year. Last year we were able to squeeze out two wins with primarily sophomores. So we need more wins. There is an adjusted playoff system this year, so might be able to get into the play-offs with 3 wins or 4 wins. That's our goal, and the next year build on that.