Jeremy Lochner still remembers the IHSAA’s high school football sectional game Nov. 1, 2024 against Delta. Not only because the former Mississinewa football assistant coach helped the Indians win the game, but because of what he saw from the Delta fans before the kickoff.
“Walking out of my own locker room and smelling that grill right outside,” Lochner said. “Hey, man, they're doing football games right…. I felt like I was on a Saturday game and for college again.”
Going into that contest, he was aware that it could be the final game former Eagles’ head coach Chris Overholt coached in as he announced he was becoming the assistant principal at Delta High School following the season’s conclusion.
After Overholt stepped down, the search was on for a new coach, and Monday evening, it was announced that Lochner was hired to fill the position.
Lochner attended Eastbrook High School Following college, he began coaching and eventually made it to the collegiate level. He made stops at Taylor University, Anderson University and Indiana Wesleyan. After that, he became a teacher at Mississinewa High School and was an assistant coach for the last two seasons.
In his time with the Indians, the team went 23-2.
“Coach [Kyle] Buresh has done a great job,” Lochner said. “One of the biggest things is just taking it day by day and trying to focus on one victory at a time, one day at a time and never looking out over in front or paying too much attention to what's going on around us.”
Though he witnessed the team and program on the field for the first time in the sectional game, Lochner knew about Delta football’s reputation when he was with Anderson. During that time, he heard nothing but great things about the Eagles.
“I recruited from Overholt and worked with him,” Lochner said. “I was always impressed with just how things were handled over there. He always seemed like an awesome dude and put out good football players, but most of the guys always seemed like they were solid human beings and you don't always get that everywhere.”
When he applied for the job, he knew what type of program he was applying for. In the last few years, the Eagles have had success in multiple sports, and that was something that stuck out to Lochner.
“Look at every sport. Tennis is rocking, swimming just did a bunch of stuff just the other night. Boys’ basketball went to semi state last year… The list goes on and on,” Lochner said. “As far as the excellence that is achieved across the whole athletic department, that's just a testament to the community and how invested they are into their student-athletes.”
In the interview process, one of the main things that stuck out to the interviewing staff was his ability to help student-athletes become more than that. This is something Delta athletic director Tilmon Clark has been pushing for in his hires.
"I wanted to make sure I didn't take [this] lightly. He's going to be our fourth head coach in the past 31 years," Clark said. "That in itself shows that Delta High School football was very special and special to a lot of people. So I wanted to make sure that I did my due diligence and to see who would be the best fit to take over Delta football."
But it wasn’t just Clark who was happy to see Lochner’s vision and hear from others about his style. Delcom Schools superintendent Greg Kyle thought the signs proved he could be a great fit for the blue and gold.
“I see integrity, I see honesty and I see quality,” Kyle said. “I see a guy who I think is going to not only treat our boys the way that we would hope … I think he's going to treat them like like a family.”
Though Lochner thinks the program is in a good spot, he wants to see what he can add and how he can help the Eagles perform well on the gridiron. He also thinks the future of Delta football is in a good spot because of how the metro leauges and middle school programs are ran.
“They’re very disciplined… Let's keep a steady improvement and keep building a program where we don't have lulls,” Lochner said. “We're not rebuilding. We're reloading.”
Contact Zach Carter via email at zachary.carter@bsu.edu or via X @ZachCarter85.
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