Heath takes job as Chrisman Head Coach
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Chrisman High School Boys Basketball Head Coach Jon Heath
The Chrisman Basketball program recently decided to go a different route. Lane Good will no longer be the boys’ basketball coach for this upcoming year. This year, the boys will be coached under former head coach and Chrisman Cardinal Jon Heath.
Heath graduated from Chrisman in 1996, then attended Millikin University in Decatur for a year, before transferring to Eastern Illinois University.
“Around the time I transferred, I started coaching at Shiloh,” Heath said.
In 2005, Heath won the State Basketball Championship with Crestwood. He also has four Regional titles, two with Shiloh and two at Crestwood as well as two sectionals at Crestwood. His teams have also won various tournaments in his coaching tenure.
“I always played and knew that I liked teaching and coaching,” Heath told us. “I’ve been off and on with it over the years.”
Heath coached the Chrisman Cardinals after Coach Greg Gisinger resigned in 2015, but only stayed for a short time. “I was getting married. We have two sons with special needs. I felt like that was way more important. I wanted to go into that marriage and have relationships with them. If I was up here all the time, it wouldn’t be fair to them,” Heath said.
After getting married and welcoming another child with his wife Mandy, the time seemed right to give coaching another shot. “He’s going to be five at the end of September,” Heath said of his son. “Everything just seemed to fall into place.”
Heath has been teaching physical education at Westville for two years at an elementary level. When he found out there was an opening in Chrisman, it was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. “I just thought, this is home and we can see the school from where we live. It’s great.”
If Heath didn’t get the job at Chrisman, he would’ve continued to teach at Westville and take his son with him, something he prepared for just in case.
“My preference was to have all of us here in town. Once that happened, I definitely looked into coming back here.”
When a coaching position for High School Boys Basketball became available, Heath realized he never lost his desire to coach. “I’ve been out of it for awhile and kind of got that itch. I wanted things as much in to place as possible, family wise and everything. I feel like we can swing it,” said Heath.
The decision was made official at the recent school board meeting. Now, Heath is looking forward to bringing up the program, starting with the younger kids. “I feel like it was a great opportunity to get the kinds interested at a young age teaching kindergarten through eighth grade PE.” Heath also wanted to bring back biddy ball as a way to get the younger kids used to basketball. “That’s kind of how you build something.”
This time, Heath feels like he’s in it for the long run and knows that there will be a reboot period and that patience will be the key to getting through it. “I understand that it’s not going to happen overnight and it’s going to take time. I do think we need to set a standard right off the bat that we’re going to do this the right way, then go from there,” Heath said.
Meetings with the team have already taken place. “I told them as long as they work hard and do what their coaches tell them, we’ll get along fine.”
Coach Heath wants to make sure that the first group needs to play hard and play together with good attitudes to set an example for the younger kids coming up.
For the assistant coaching position, Heath knew who he wanted. Coach Cyrus Furgeson, who has been a head coach at Tri-County, will be joining Heath on the court once more. “I coached him when he was younger, in the eighth grade, and his freshman year. When he got older, I coached him in a few shootouts. I feel like we’re lucky to have him on board to help out.”
The new boys on the team haven’t had Heath as a coach before. They were in grade school when Heath was the basketball coach. One of the new boys even asked what makes Heath different from the previous coaches. “I said that my style has to adjust to what we have. I don’t have one set style. This isn’t college where you can just recruit who you want and they play to your style. It’s kind of the opposite. You’ve got to adjust to your personnel,” Heath said.
With a late start on everything, Heath has already begun figuring the team out and where they fit. “The more I see them play and things like that, the more my wheels will be turning in my head. I think that the main thing is they have to play hard or they won’t play. The first few times that I’ve met with them, I’ve just kind of observed to see what I have, then I can go there as far as planning things.”
This year, Heath doesn’t see it as a rebuilding, but more of a restart. “I just look at it as something that hopefully we will be a lot better in February than we are in November.
We got a late start and it takes time to figure each other out. I look at the team this year, I’m not worrying about what has happened before. I’m just trying to build them up throughout the year so they’re peaking at the right time. It’s going to take some time.”
Many things are taught as well as learned through the season, some of it having nothing to do with basketball. The boys will learn about teamwork and being unselfish. “There’s a lot of things that you can carry with you for the rest of your life if you do it the right way,” Heath said.
Heath wants the boys to not just be good players, but conduct themselves the right way by working hard and playing together. “When you build something and we start biddy ball back again, the little ones will see the older boys doing it and they get interested in it early, that’s how you build a successful program.”
In the area, Chrisman is one of the schools that have not co-oped with another school for basketball, making the numbers lower. This is something that isn’t a concern for Coach Heath. “I don’t mind that. It’s how it’s always been really. It’s quality over quantity.”
Coming back to the gym for the first time in over five years has brought back that nostalgia feeling that all former players get when stepping on Roger Beals Court again. Championships, season deciding games and tournaments have been won on this historic court. “Coming back and being in that gym again is neat,” Heath said. “I’m excited about that one. Just being back in that gym.”
Playing in Chrisman, Heath had the opportunity to be coached by Jeff Beals when he was in Junior High and was the junior varsity coach while he was in high school. Some of Jeff’s coaching style, Heath has picked up over the years.
“There are things that Jeff did that I’ve picked up on and do them. At the same time, I think I would’ve done them anyway because it just feels natural. Growing up, Jeff is probably the main coach that I look up to.”
The rivalry between Paris and Chrisman this year will possibly become a ‘friendly’ one. Paris Boys Basketball Coach Chase Brinkley was coached by Heath when he was at Crestwood. “He’s like family, one of my best friends. I’ve talked to him a lot the last few years about his team. Now we’ll have all kinds of stuff to talk about.”
The bond between a coach and his players are hopefully something that lasts a lifetime. It’s something that Heath hopes to continue this time around.
“Chase and Cyrus are the ones that I’m closest with. There’s a lot of boys off of that team, they’re grown up and we’re friends now because they’re thirty years old, which is crazy. There’s a lot of them,” said Heath.
“I feel very fortunate. That’s part of coaching too. I never would’ve met those guys. You build relationships and hopefully, I’ll be able to keep doing that.”
