Bass eager for the challenge as new Railer football coach

[February 19, 2015]  LINCOLN  --  You can thank fantasy baseball for Lincoln High School’s new football coach.

Seth Bass, a 32 year old coach last on the sidelines at Hermann High School in Missouri, will take over as the Railsplitters’ top man next fall.

“He was raring to go,” LCHS Activities Director Sam Knox said of Bass. “He sold us on his plans for our football program.”

Bass knows Lincoln Railer football, including the schools less than spectacular 0-18 record over the past two seasons.

“I’ve watched basically every game that Lincoln has played over the last two years on tape,” Bass said. “I see the potential there. I see the fact there is a lot of upside.”

The new coach wasn’t just looking for winless high school football teams to monitor; Bass said he started watching the games to help Railer assistant coach Jake Harnacke.

“(Coach Harnacke) and I talked for the last three years, I was able to get a distant perspective of the program,” Bass said.

Bass coached at Culver-Stockton College in Canton Ohio when Harnacke, a former Railer quarterback, took the snaps at the college level.

“He’s in my fantasy baseball league,” Bass said Harnacke asked for some advice when he became offensive coordinator in Lincoln, and their partnership grew from there.

“We talked, mostly joking at first, until (the LCHS job) opened up this year,” Bass added.

Knox said Bass understood where Lincoln football is, and where the program can go.

“He coached at the high school level and at the college level, he’s eager to get started here in Lincoln,” Knox said.

Even though Bass has seen plenty of game film on the Railers, he’s wanting to meet with coaches and players this weekend to get a sense of the LCHS program.

Bass said he is in the ‘Gus Malzhan school’ of coaches, and is promising a new strategy for Friday nights.

“We’re going to be very, very aggressive on defense,” Bass said he’s looking at a three man front. “We’ll bring pressure, but not out of control pressure.”

On offense, the coach says the days of the jet sweep may be over.

“You can win and give defenses a lot of fits just simply by changing formations,” Bass said. “We’ll be in a different formation almost every play.”

 Bass has to finish the year at Hermann High School before he will take the job at LCHS as head coach and a P.E. teacher.

But the new coach is hoping to meet with players, assistant coaches, and even football families this Saturday.

[Benjamin Yount]