The sidelines at Shawano Community High School football games this fall will feature a new, but familiar face calling the shots. The school district this week hired Alan Tomow as its new varsity football coach.
Tomow, a 2006 SCHS graduate, takes over for Bill Hass, who compiled a 17-37 record in four years before deciding to step down.
“I’m really excited to run the program I played for,” Tomow said.
That Tomow is a product of the program he now leads is by design, as his emphasis going into the season is creating a family atmosphere.
“I think our overall philosophy is being a family and promoting a family environment in our program at all levels,” Tomow said. “Part of that is, when things are going wrong, the first people to have your back are your family. If we can start to play for each other and care a little bit more about each other, we’re going to play a little bit harder.”
As a young coach who played for the Hawks less than a decade ago, Tomow hopes that will give him a perspective the athletes will appreciate.
“I think it’s a huge advantage to be a younger coach,” Tomow said. “I can relate to the players well. I understand their thought-process a little more and how best to get our message across to them.”
That was a big selling point to the hiring committee.
“When we were looking at the candidates, we wanted someone who could relate with the kids,” Shawano activities director Tim Mayer said. “We wanted someone young and full of energy. Al brings that to the table.”
When the team returns for its summer camp July 15-19, Tomow says the practices will have a quick pace.
“We’re going to be built on toughness, being smart and being disciplined,” Tomow said. “The big thing that I’m going to push in practice is tempo. I want to run really efficient practices where we’re constantly moving and getting our conditioning levels up.”
Tomow played wide receiver at Winona State University under coach Tom Sawyer and learned the receiver position from Carson Walch, who was hired in January as an offensive quality control coach for the Chicago Bears. More recently, Tomow has been a head wrestling coach at Cochrane-Fountain City and, for the last two years, an assistant wrestling coach and freshman football coach at SCHS.
“Most of the kids we have coming back, I have a pretty good idea of what we have,” Tomow said.
Tomow said his staff is taking shape and should be finalized by next week. It will include some of the longtime staff and some younger coaches.
The team’s standing goal, according to Tomow, will be to qualify for the playoffs.
“Every year we’re going to try to guarantee ourselves a 10th game,” he said. “As we go on and be more successful, the sooner we guarantee that 10th game, then we can start looking at championships and other accolades that go along with those. I want the kids to enjoy the journey and the relationships along the way.”
Tomow also wants to build relationships beyond the field.
“I want to generate more community interest with our program,” Tomow said. “I want to give them something they can be proud of and something they can support on a weekly basis.”
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