Sevastopol’s Skiba Earns Coach of the Year

Sevastopol Pioneers football coach Justin Skiba with Quarterback Blake Bowden getting ready to call a play. Submitted.

Sevastopol’s head football coach, Justin Skiba, earned the Coach of the Year award for the Great Eight North Conference. Another coach in the conference nominated Skiba and then he earned enough votes from the conference coaches to earn the title.

“We’re a young team so I think we did catch a lot of other teams’ attention this year. We have a bright future and we were expecting to be successful this year but I think we exceeded our expectations somewhat,” said Skiba.

The Pioneers had their best year in school history, finishing 7-3 under Skiba.

“I had a vision for this team and we’ve had some hard times over the last couple of years but we kept our spirits up and I think the hard work has paid off,” said Skiba.

But hard work was paired with a reminder that these were just high school kids and they were in it for sport more than awards.

“I went to Brett Favre’s retirement ceremony in July. Mike Holmgren spoke there and I’ve always looked up to him,” said Skiba. “I remember him saying that coaching is a hard business and it gets tough but you have to laugh at the right time to relieve that pressure. I had a lot of kids that were able to help with that. To have that sense of humor to laugh at the right time, it’s very important in sports.”