Republic has hired Dustin Baldwin as its new head football coach. Baldwin comes to Republic after four years at Neosho, where he led the Wildcats to two straight winning seasons in 2015 and 2016 after they were winless in 2012 and 2013.
“First and foremost, seems to be a growing community and a great school system. For that reason alone, it’s an attractive job,” says Baldwin. “I enjoy coaching in the Central Ozark Conference. It’s obviously a challenging schedule, but it’s one that we embrace.”
Baldwin hopes to meet with Republic’s players later this week, and that will start a process of building relationships that is an integral part of what he hopes to accomplish in Republic.
“It’s important to buld relationships with players, parents, and faculty, and to try to get everyone involved with the program. That seems to create a stronger bond throughout,” he says. “That will be important, not just for me but for all our coaches. I really feel like that’s a key to it, because the rest of the program can build on top of that.”
Although he’ll be working in Neosho through the end of the school year, Baldwin says he plans to visit Republic as often as possible during the rest of the winter and spring. He’ll spend that time conveying what he wants his program to be off the field.
“We’re going to stress hard work, accountability, and leadership within our program. Those are characteristics we have to have, and we will strive every day to achieve those kinds of things,” Baldwin says. “You look at the successful programs — not just in this area — they do those kinds of things and they do them right, and they also have community support and buy-in.”
Before taking over at Neosho, Baldwin was head coach at Miller for four seasons, where he helped the Cardinals win three Spring River Valley Conference titles and advance to the state quarterfinals three times. He was offensive coordinator at Neosho for a year before that, and spent nine years as an assistant at Mount Vernon before arriving at Neosho as an assistant.
Baldwin says his experience at Neosho for the past four years has made him a better head coach when it comes to the skills necessary to run a big program.
“Miller was a smaller school and a smaller staff. We have more resources at schools like Neosho and Republic. Being able to manage your time wisely, and manage your coaches and the larger amount of players, and make sure we’re doing things the right way year-round is a bigger challenge. I learned a lot in my time at Neosho,” he says.
Early in his career, Baldwin was a student teacher and an assistant football coach in Republic in 1998, the year that the school district broke ground on the current football stadium at what is now Republic Middle School. He arrives as Republic’s head coach as the community prepares to vote on a new facility in April.
“The potential of a new stadium is nice. It’s obviously not a done deal, by any means,” he says. “I hope it passes and we’re able to use that kind of facility, but it wasn’t a difference maker .”
An eight-person hiring committee selected Baldwin from among the candidates who applied. Athletic Director Greg Garton says Baldwin’s solid interview, coupled with what he’s accomplished at Neosho, helped him stand out.
” the overall improvement in the Neosho program in the years he was there,” Garton says. “We know they basically play the same schedule we do, so he knows what he’s dealing with when he comes here and coaches in the COC.”
On the field, Baldwin won’t be especially run-heavy or pass-heavy in his approach. He says his philosophy is to be “multiple enough that we can adjust to our personnel. We want to be able to use the people that we have wisely. Xs and Os are one thing, and we work very hard at those things, but we understand that creating a culture and an environemnt is a lot more important.”
Baldwin will also serve as a PE teacher and as Republic’s strength and conditioning coordinator, and he knows the importance of that role to the football program’s success.
“Football is one of the sports where you don’t really play a lot, except during the season. A lot of sports have become year-round. So for us, we really hit it hard January to July. It’s really about improving as a player. Most of that is just physically working on yourself, becoming bigger and faster and stronger. We will also do things to develop leadership during that time as well.
“We want to win football games and I’m not going to shy away from that. We want to be competitive every single night. The winning stuff takes care of itself if you do the right things daily. Our focus will be doing things right daily, both as individuals and as a team. We’ll have certain steps we take every day to be better.”