Southmont’s head football coach Desson Hannum joined an elite coaching fraternity last week with his 100th win as the coach of the Mounties.
How elite you might ask? Very.
Hannum became just the fourth football coach in the history of Montgomery County to earn 100 wins while coaching at a high school in the county.
Who are the four?
• North Montgomery’s Charley German – 172 wins
• Crawfordsville’s Rick Schavietello – 124 wins
• Crawfordsville’s Glenn Knecht – 100 wins
• Desson Hannum – 100 wins.
That’s it. A pretty mighty impressive list I might say. I had the privilege of covering all but Knecht. I might add that all three loved the game, their players and competition.
German needed two different stints to amass his 174 wins. The first stretch was from 1983-1999 and then he came back and coached again from 2006-2013. Ironically, the man many call “The Legend” is still patrolling the sidelines as an assistant coach for the Chargers. Of course, his best years were the back-to-back Class 2A state championships in 1995 and 1996 when his teams went 13-1. He also has the third best record at the school with a 12-1 season in 2008 and even added a 9-1 season in 1986. He also leads all the coaches with the number of seasons as a head coach with 25 and the best winning percentage overall with a record of 174-96 and 64.1 winning percentage. His 268 games coached also lead all coaches. German reached his 100th win the quickest, needing just 14 seasons. That 100th win was against North Posey in the semistate game in 1996.
Schavietello also coached more than 20 seasons for the Gold and Blue as he hung it up after 21 seasons from 1977-1997. His 215 games coached ranks second to German and his winning percentage of 57.6 % (124-91) ranks third. Schavietello’s teams posted three of the top four records (ranked by the number of wins) in the 113-year history of Athenian football. His best team was a 12-1 team which made it to the Final Four in 1989 before losing in the infamous “Snow Bowl” when it suffered its only loss of the season to Hammond Noll to end the year. He also posted nine-win seasons in 1977 (9-2) and 1983 (9-4).
Knecht reached the 100-win in just 167 games (in 17 seasons). His career record was 100-60-7 against what many might consider a tougher schedule than today’s team play, but we will leave that discussion for another place and time. Knecht coached from 1959-1975 and earned his 100th win in his next-to-last game against Frankfort. Knecht’s best season was a 9-1 season in 1972 and the 8-0-1 season in 1968. His career winning percentage was 59.8%.
For Hannum, he picked up his hundredth win in season No. 20. The win came against Frankfort, which was his 16th win against the Hot Dogs. The only team he has beaten more in his career has been Crawfordsville. Hannum’s career record is 100-111 for a winning percentage of 47.3%. His teams claimed three straight Sagamore Athletic Conference titles (the only three the school ever won) in 2009-2010-2011, and his team’s 11 wins last year set a school record for most wins in a season with 11. That was one more than the school’s two undefeated teams of 1971 and 1981 which went 10-0. Overall, the 100 wins account for 36.2% of all wins for the Southmont program since the school started in 1971.
Congratulations to all four coaches for their outstanding accomplishment and their place in Montgomery County football history.
Barry Lewis has been around Montgomery County sports as a player, journalist, broadcaster or a coach for more than 50 years. He tries to keep that rich tradition alive through his column and Montgomery County Sports & More Facebook page.
