As of Dec. 29 Missouri Southern ushered in a new era for Southern athletics.

John Ware, former head coach of Truman State University, was named as the new head coach for the University. At the press conference announcing Ware as the new coach, University President Julio León said Southern has spent years making itself an academic institution “that will not take a back seat to anyone, and now, athletically, we will no longer take a back seat to anyone.”

Ware said it took him a while to decide to apply for the job at Southern. He wanted to wait until the end of TSU’s season. Once he accepted the position, Ware said the phone started to “ring off the hook.”

Ware said it is hard to determine how the players are reacting to him as head coach, because he has only had one team meeting. Cody Hilburn, junior tight end and physical education major, said he is happy with the decision to hire Ware.

“I get more excited each day that they are around – him and the new coaching staff,” Hilburn said.

Hilburn was one of two football players involved in the selection process of the new coach. Sophomore inside linebacker Atiba Bradley was the other player involved. Hilburn believes the process went well.

“Looking at it from the public eye, it looks like we didn’t get who we wanted,” he said. “With Coach Ware getting his application in late, he is more than qualified for the job.”

Wayne Neece, president of Stewart and Neece Land Surveying, said the community needs to support Ware. Ware said one of the reasons he took the position was because the community is “hungry for a winner.”

“I felt like if we could ever get this turned around there would be a groundswell of support from the community,” he said

Ware also said he became frustrated over the years with not being able to recruit students who would do well at TSU, because of the high academic standards at TSU. He said Southern has the same standards but would be able to get those students into the program at the University.

Ware was offered the position after the three finalists (Jim Svoboda offensive coordinator at Northwest Missouri State University; R.E. “Rocky” Hager, tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator at Temple University; and Keith Baxter, head football coach at Southwest Oklahoma State University) turned down the job. Svoboda said he turned down the job because it was a career choice that it had nothing to do with Southern or the community. Hager and Baxter were unable to be reached for comment.

Neece said he believes Baxter turned down the job because SOSU offered him more to stay as head coach and Hager denied the position because of his family.

“If his (Ware’s) application would have came in a little earlier, he would have been up somewhere in the pecking order a little different,” Neece said. “It looks like he was a last resort, but he probably wouldn’t have been a last resort.”

Ware said he applied for the job because when he and his wife talked about retiring to a certain location or to a place that they enjoyed, they always talked about the Joplin-Springfield area.

“When I came down and interviewed, I was very impressed with the area and very impressed with the potential of the program,” Ware said. “I was really impressed with the commitment from the administration to try and get this program turned around and tried to get it heading toward a positive direction.”

For the future he said to look for improvement in the next season, but he did not know if the program will have a winning season.