Owen to leave Olathe East Hawks

Jesse Owen resigns from Olathe East Football

In a stunning move and out of the blue, Jesse Owen, who was about to enter his sixth year as the Hawks Football Coach resigned due to personal reasons. 

In most High School Football circles, resignations tend to come within weeks after the Thanksgiving weekend and the State Final game clock has wound down to 00:00 and a Champion is crowned. 

2020 for some reason has been quite the experience world wide, and for all of us locally as Kansas City residents.

For A.D. Kaleb Stoppel, a new hire will be looked upon immediately, either as on an Interim-emergency one season gap hire, or could be found internally within the Owen coaching staff of the last five seasons. 

For those Sunflower alumni Hawks tied deeply to the program, the 2020 season is 29th year of Football in the Olathe #233.

There have been only two Head Coaches in the program, and both are former Olathe-North Eagles. Jeff Meyers, who led the team the first 23 seasons with an overall record of 162W-75L in 237 games. His playoff record was a steady 16W-14L in 30 games. Back in the 2005 season, the Hawks made it to their first and only 6A State Final, losing to Randy Dreilings Hutchinson SaltHawks 24-7 and the best record in team history to this day at 12-1. 

Following Jeff Meyers after his 23 seasons, was long-time Olathe North Eagles Head Weights Teacher, and 1996 State Title member Jesse Owen in the 2015 season. 

Although his Hawks started off slow his first two seasons, the program took a turn, and found success soon after. Back to back 3-6 starts are not easy in a new opportunity but it happens to many new Coaches around the country. After a successful one year stint with the Eudora Cardinals, the Owen hire gained traction and strength quickly from 2017 to 2019. In that time, the Hawks finished: 5-5, 4-6, 7-3, and Jesse Owen and his staff finished 22W-26L overall in 48 games played, and a 3W-4L post-season record under the new @KSHSAA playoff format in the 6A East bracket. 

In 28 years of Varsity Hawks Football, the Hawks are 184W-101L-285 games since the 1992 season.