CHARLOTTESVILLE — In 35 years as an assistant and head coach, Doug Armstrong won a lot of football games.
Many of those wins came in Hancock County.
Armstrong is retiring from coaching after compiling a 112-95 record in 19 years as a head coach. Sixteen of those years were in Hancock County, including seven at New Palestine, six at Mt. Vernon and the last three at Eastern Hancock.
At the three county schools, Armstrong teams compiled a mark of 109-70. He won conference titles at all three schools and sectional crowns at both New Palestine (twice) and Mt. Vernon.
Winning football games was only part of what Armstrong was all about when it came to mentoring area youths.
“Coaching is a chance to impact kids’ lives, teach them life lessons, help them learn competitiveness, how to deal with adversity and things like that, and teach them how to win and be successful,” Armstrong said. “I think all of those things that go into coaching are what I’m most proud of, to teach all those kids that.”
Armstrong came to Hancock County in 2002 to become the head coach at New Palestine. He had been the head coach at Manual High School, but had previously been the defensive coordinator at Indianapolis Cathedral, helping lead the Irish to four state titles in the 1990s. He was also an assistant on a state championship team at Roncalli.
He had big shoes to fill with the Dragons, taking over for Hall of Fame coach Marvin Shepler, though during the latter years of Shepler’s storied career the Dragons had fallen on some rough times in the win-loss column.
Armstrong came in and got the Dragons back on track.
“When Marvin stepped down and they were doing interviews, I heard Doug Armstrong was involved,” Jim Leisure, who was on Shepler’s staff and later spent 12 years assisting Armstrong, said. “I had a buddy that was on the search committee, and I told him then, no more calls, you have a winner.”
Leisure didn’t know Armstrong at the time, but was aware of him when he was an assistant at Indianapolis Bishop Chatard, recalling how then-Trojans head coach Craig Barr talked about how Armstrong’s impact turned Cathedral into a powerhouse.
“(Barr would say) when Doug Armstrong became the defensive coordinator at Cathedral they basically became unbeatable,” Leisure added.
“(He) will make your kids tougher and more physical. Defensively, they are going to be very, very strong.”
New Palestine went from a 1-9 season prior to Armstrong taking over to a 7-4 team two years later. They had back-to-back 10-3 winning campaigns and sectional championship teams in 2004 and 2005.
“Doug, in my opinion, laid the foundation for what they have (at New Palestine) now,” Leisure said. “What Kyle Ralph has done has taken it to a totally different level, but Doug laid the foundation for that turnaround.”
Armstrong helped turn things around at Mt. Vernon, too.
Two years after taking over a team that went 5-5, Armstrong had an 11-2 season with the Marauders in 2012, winning a sectional title. He never had a losing year at MV, going 45-23 in six seasons.
At his most recent stop in Charlottesville, Armstrong’s team went from 3-7 in his first year to 8-3 in 2019.
His final club went 4-6, having more than just the adversity of playing in a pandemic to overcome.
Early in 2020, the school lost beloved coach Clayton Shultz, who passed away after a battle with cancer. Shultz was an assistant to Armstrong and the team’s defensive coordinator.
During the season, the Royals suffered a number of injuries, leaving the Class 2A program short-handed. They had some tough luck in games, as well, on the short end of four one-score games.
“Between injuries, quarantines, we never were close to our full team, which was kind of sad, but there was no quit in any of them,” Armstrong said of his 2020 club. “Whether we were playing a second-string guy or a third-string guy, other guys stepped up, helped them and away we went. It was real impressive how the kids at Eastern Hancock handled the adversity we had this year.”
Eastern Hancock athletics director Aaron Spaulding said Armstrong brought a lot to the Royals program.
“Doug gave a steadying voice (to our program) and had a lot of great experience way back from being the assistant at Cathedral and head coaching here in the county at New Pal and Mt. Vernon,” Spaulding said. “He’s had a lot of great experiences and great football knowledge. He brought a lot of veteran leadership and knowledge to our program.
“You have to learn from somebody like that who has been there and been in the battles. Not only do our kids learn from that but our coaches can learn as well.”
This week the Eastern Hancock school board approved Phil Morris, another veteran coach with multiple local ties, to be Armstrong’s successor. Morris has head coaching experience outside the county, but is a former assistant at both New Palestine and Mt. Vernon as well as other stops.
Armstrong said he is going to miss the preparation and competition that goes with coaching, but doesn’t plan on disappearing on Friday nights. He said he plans on going to some EH games to root on the Royals, as well as possibly doing some scouting and radio work.
The coach added that along with the wins and teaching life lessons to his players, his biggest joy was coaching his son, Tommy, and his friends, at New Palestine. He also wanted to thank his family and long-time assistant Leisure for their support over the years.
Armstrong made quite an impact on football in Hancock County and in return it has made quite an impact on him.
“The thing I learned the most is, all three of those schools are great schools, surrounded by great communities, with strong administrations,” Armstrong said. “The kids at all three schools were just a pleasure to coach. They would show up and they were going to work hard. They were going to listen. That’s just a tribute to their upbringing and the place where they live and go to school. It was really impressive how all three schools were just a pleasure to be at.”
“Football in this area is excellent. It speaks for itself,” the veteran coach added. “The three schools I’ve had the opportunity to be at, all had been successful long before me and they will be long after.”
