Desson Hannum crossed a milestone number last week when his Southmont football team defeated Frankfort.
It is his 100th win as Mounties’ Head Coach.
Already the winningest coach in school history, he is only the fourth coach in Montgomery County football history to hit triple digits.
His 100 wins ties him with Crawfordsville’s Glenn Knecht. The Athenians Rick Schavietello has 124 victories and they all trail North Montgomery’s Charley German, who has 172.
After coaching the Mounties to a school-record 11 wins last season, he has South off to a 3-1 start this season and they face those same Athenians Friday with the county title on the line after a win over the Chargers a couple weeks ago. Hannum has held the upper hand against C’ville, with 18 wins, the most against any team.
His 50th win was also against Crawfordsville, in 2017. His first win was in his first season at South, a 14-13 win over Lebanon in September of 2007. He owns three outright Sagamore Conference titles, earned in three consecutive years (2009-’10-’11).
“I was 26, it was my first head coaching job, and I had a whole new system to install and teach,” Hannum said of the early days. “We lost our first game by one point to Fountain Central, and we lost a few as we learned together, but we got better, and we all got more comfortable withw each other, and then we got hot in the middle of the second season, won five in a row and ended up playing Coach German and North in the sectional championship. That convinced me that we were doing things the right way.”
The mention of the early years is important when celebrating 100 wins, because the coach was very clear that since that “hallelujah” moment of season 2, the basic way he and his staff have coached has not changed much in the now 20 years he has been in charge.
“Experience leads to consistency,” Hannum said. “As I’ve gotten older, I realize that you have to pick and choose some of the day-to-day battles, but what I have learned is that as long as my decisions try to lead us to a win on a Friday night, and that everyone is treated as fairly as possible, I can be comfortable with it. Of course I’m a different coach than I was 20 years ago, but my goal is that I coach a little smarter every year. There are still things from clear back in Year 2 that I still know are important to any team I coach.”
From Year 1 to day before yesterday, Hannum credits great assistant coaches.
“Mike Sowers mentored me those first years,” he said, “and I had Bob Young as offensive line coach. Bart Jochim was our defensive line coach, and now he is the Athletic Director at North Putnam.”
This year’s staff includes Mitch Dehne, along with Jeremiah Sparks, Hunter Thornton, Quentin Quarles and Steve Masters.
Sowers was both on the selection committee and then was an assistant coach those early years.
“Desson was an energetic and enthusiastic young coach,” the former Chargers assistant turned administrator said. “I knew he had all the abilities, but he was only 26. We made a great choice. My role was to bring that experience. My constant message to him was to stay balanced. It’s even my message to him today.”
Twenty years in one place is a rarity for coaches. Hannum and his wife Linsey made the conscious choice to stay at Southmont when their children got to school age.
“We wanted to be closer to family early on,” Hannum said, noting that both he and Linsey are from Dugger. “After graduating from Wabash in 2002, I was an assistant coach at Logansport, and I heard about the opening at Southmont. I reached out and talked with Alan Clifton, who was Athletic Director at the time, but he said they were hiring a new A.D., a bunch of new coaches and that I should stay in touch.”
South hired Jeff Irwin as A.D., and one of his first hires was a football coach.
“I remember going to Logansport to meet with Coach Hannum one on one in 2007,” Irwin said. “Although he had never been a head coach, I admired his humility and knew he would grow and learn. We went 1-9 in year one, started year 2 at 1-5 before beating Frankfort and winning five in a row only to lose to North Montgomery in the sectional final with a huge crowd in attendance.”
“I left for Webo and Southmont went on to win 3 straight SAC championships as one of smallest schools in conference. Why? Because of Desson Hannum and his growth as a leader.”
“He is a great coach, and an even better person.”
Irwin is now the A.D. at Frankfort, and watched his old hire beat his current team for Hannum’s 100th win.
The role of coach has as much administrative work as coaching sometimes, and Hannum has worked with current Southmont A.D. Aaron Charles for the last 15 years, which includes South’s only two football sectional titles (2023 and ’25) and regional title (’23).
“Coach Hannum and I have developed a good relationship over the years,” Charles noted. “Being together for 15-plus years, we have talked a lot as colleagues, but being together for that many years has given us the chance to talk as Dads which is very rewarding in my opinion.”
“I think we relate on many things in terms of expectations of our children and the busy lives we live as educators in athletics,” Charles continued. “We have two kids playing together now and we have two kids that play baseball at different levels too. Both our families’ lives revolve around athletics year-round so there is a lot of common things we are both going through from the late nights at school or at travel baseball to when we both are trying to find a good time to mow the lawn. We both agree that time does fly by too fast and it is important to soak in the moments as not only as educators but as dads as well.”
Hannum was varsity track coach from 2015 through 2011, and has served as an assistant basketball coach and JV baseball coach “a couple times.” It speaks to the 20-year career of an educator, coach and parent.
“Coach Hannum truly loves Southmont,” Charles added. “He wants this to be a special place and he wants all our sports to be successful. He comes to a lot of events that people may not realize. I do think his approach to our strength and agility program is something he along with Coach Dehne don’t get a lot of credit for at all. Schools of our size or smaller can sometimes get labeled to having a “football workout” because of the number of those players that attend these workouts. Coach Hannum has continued to work hard in this area and improve the curriculum over the years to help every student and student athlete grow in these areas whether it is during APC or during the summer.”
Those 20 years have seen the Hannum family become part of the fabric of Southmont.
“Most everyone thinks we both graduated from South long ago and we have been here forever,” he said. “We have great relationships, great friends and our kids have grown up in a great community. We have been embraced through all these years, and there were some lean years to go with some success.
Two decades of work that has led to 100 wins, and a lifetime of experiences.
The experience of time has led to those great experiences.
