Program Profile: Owatonna Huskies
Dating back to shortly after he was hired as the head coach of the Owatonna Huskies, Jeff Williams and the football program have had a long run of successful seasons.
Thirteen times since Williams became the head coach, the Huskies have won at least six games. They have won four section titles, played in three Prep Bowls and earned a state title in 2013. The Huskies were successful before he took over, but Williams feels the program has maintained a long stretch of success because of the hard work the kids and coaches put in at the beginning of Williams time.
"Jim Collins wrote a book called ‘Good to Great'," Williams said. "In it, he talks about a fifty ton stone that is carved into a circle, and they use that to mill grain. It is attached to a post in the center, and you have to go to the outside of that stone and exert all your pressure against it. After about three years of exerting all your pressure against it, the stone moves and inch. Then it moves two inches. Then it goes five inches. All of the sudden it starts to gain some momentum. Now that fifty-ton wheel that had inertia keeping it stopped is now in motion, and the inertia is now keeping it in motion. It becomes easier to push. At some point its own weight allows it to spin on its own."
"We've been pushing on that wheel for twenty-two years and if you go back to 1957 with Neal Davis," Williams continued, "we've been pushing on the wheel for the better part of fifty years. (The program) is starting to spin on its own."
Well before Williams was pushing any wheels, he was a kid playing football for the first time.
"I started playing in third grade in Rochester. My dad was the head coach at Rochester John Marshall after I graduated, but before that, he was an assistant at various levels, so football has always been an important part of our family."
Williams played for two years at Rochester Lourdes and then before his junior year transferred to John Marshall where he played defensive back for two years. Although by his own admission he ‘was a very average football player' he watched and learned.
"(Former John Marshall coach) John Drews was a big role model on how you approach the game. In ninth and tenth grade I got to play under Joe Mayer and Denny Nigon. Those coaches and programs influenced a lot of the beliefs I have about how the game is supposed to be played and how classy coaches coach it."
In college, the coaching seed was planted in Williams. He played in a full pads dorm football league for three years. During his fourth year, he decided to coach the team.
"I had never thought about coaching and teaching," Williams said, "but it showed me that might be an avenue to pursue."
After earning his biology degree, he went back to school his education degree. Out of college, he coached under his dad at John Marshall as a secondary coach for two years.
"What I gained from my dad was the importance of developing personal relationships with kids, so they had a reason to play the game over and above the enjoyment of football. We are a family. We are in this thing together and have fun together."
In 1989 Williams took a job at Owatonna and was an assistant for the Huskies for seven years under Jerry Peterson before becoming the head coach.
"It wasn't like I was taking over a program that was in a rebuilding phase," Williams said. "It was difficult because I had my own thoughts on how the program should be run, but on the other hand I was replacing a legend; a guy who is in the Hall of Fame, a thirty-year guy."
Williams didn't want to overhaul the program but realized football was changing.
"When I took over in 1996 we split out an end for probably the first time in Owatonna history. We had been double tight until then."
Williams has never had a problem getting interest in his program from the community. Williams has always been impressed by the number of fans show up – regardless of the sport – in the community. Although slowly changing a system that worked might have had the community wondering if they picked the right man to replace a man synonymous with Owatonna football, success came quickly.
Along with Williams, success continued to come and change to the Huskies' football program came in the form of defensive coordinator Marc Achterkirch. Achterkirch played for Dave Nelson when Nelson was at Blaine. Achterkirch joined the staff as a volunteer at Owatonna and worked his way up to defensive coordinator.
"He is my right-hand man," Williams said. "Every big decision we make in our program we make together. He came with some suggestions from Coach Nelson. He allowed me to see some different perspectives in both systems and in developing relationships with kids."
Williams and Achterkirch changed the program on and off the field.
"We tried to model ourselves after Blaine and Coach Nelson," Williams told northstarfootballnews. "We turned Owatonna into a year-round program with a great strength training program, with camps and clinics we run for kids, and modifying some of our offensive and defensive systems to make them look closer to what is going on in college right now. When you have been doing something for so long – as Owatonna had been – you need a disrupter. I think Achterkirch was the disrupter."
The other disruptor in the Owatonna program came in the form of the Oregon Ducks. Under Chip Kelly, once a year the Ducks hosted a week long coaches' clinic teaching their spread, up-tempo offense.
"I went out there for five straight years," Williams said. "It has changed our view of the game of football. It has changed our entire offensive system, and it has made us more effective defending some things that are now more cutting edge in football."
The coaching staff didn't have to go to Eugene, Oregon to change the defense. A game in 1997 against Faribault was enough.
"We were playing for the conference title," Williams recalled. "We were 7-0, and I think they were 7-0 and they beat us 52-0. They absolutely exposed us defensively."
The Huskies went from a 5-2 defense that was successful for years, to a defense that – depending on the opponent - shows multiple fronts, but is easy for the kids to learn.
"I couldn't even tell you what kind of defense we are," Williams admitted. "We are based on solid principles. We pursue to the ball; we are man to man. We are going to bring people after the quarterback. We are going to make you throw quickly – we are not going to cover for seven seconds. That has become our trademark; we are going to try to get after offenses."
