New Coach Hired

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Oglesby will wear multiple hats including handling duties as the assistant softball coach at Chester Grade School and and teaching PE at the HS. With excitement and enthusiasm in tow she will begin some of her duties in early August.

Although the Board was expected to hire him at the meeting on Thursday, excitement and enthusiasm were not enough to bring the anticipated new basketball coach, Jason Bauer to Chester. Earlier this week Bauer said he was "excited" about coming to take over the reigns of the Yellow Jacket varsity team. He was especially challenged by coaching in the Southern Illinois River to River Conference which includes "some of the best teams in the state

Just a few miles made the difference said Bauer, "if it were only forty miles closer we could have worked it out." He was referring to his wife who is a teacher of Middle School math. She was looking for a job in Randolph County but was coming up short with only few days left before the deadline for giving notice to her current employer. Bauer said they decided "in the last 24 hours" that it was just getting "too late in the game."

With his wife residing out of the area and living in Chester "by himself," Bauer said, this "just wasn't going to be a good fit." Bauer will stay as a tenured teacher in Bunker Hill teaching Social Studies and Driver's Education

When the search resumes, high school principal Keith Kittell has some clear ideas about what is required in a head coach. A broad view of coaching described by Kittell requires that "coaches must be good teachers. They must teach the sport"

Kittell who received 25 applications for the job says that at least one other candidate met his initial criteria.