By Joanna Chadwick
As the third football coach at Bishop Carroll in the past 30 years, Chris Jaax knows what to expect with the Eagles.
He graduated in 2001 from Carroll, then after playing at Pittsburg State, he was an assistant from 2006-20015. After a five-year stint as the Newton football coach, he returned to Carroll as an assistant in 2022.
“It’s amazing to be here,” Jaax said. “It’s an amazing school, an amazing football program. It’s an honor.
“… It’s exciting to work with the kids, coaches, families and the community as a whole.”
His first focus has been to improve the offseason workouts and workouts in the weight room.
“I want to make the weight room a priority,” Jaax said. “The attitude and culture we have in the weight room needs to be a fearlessness, to move a lot of weight and get big and strong.”
Increasing numbers is also key.
“One of the strengths that Carroll has had historically is we have a lot of kids that play football,” he said. “So that’s one thing is getting kids excited about football.
“To me, Bishop Carroll football is a special experience. I’m a product of it, my friends are a product of it, the coaches are products of it.
“It’s a special football program. Our home atmosphere is second to none in the area. It’s exciting to be a part of and building that excitement back with the kids.”
Jaax’s offense will start with one of two quarterbacks — John Corrigan and Jonah Mull.
“They’re in a quarterback competition until the start of the season,” Jaax said. “They’re both great guys, great athletes and will be great leaders. The other one will find a place on the field.”
The offensive line is stacked with returners, who started as sophomores and juniors.
“Physically they’re feeling more confident that they’re ready to go,” Jaax said. “And we have a really deep group of receivers. We have a lot of players returning wtih experience — Drew Ferguson, Nick Wineland, coming up is Harrison King and Aedyn Acosta, who will be a key figure on offense, as well.”
At running back will be Cooper Herrman, who broke his collarbone in the first game of his sophomore season.
Defensively, there’s also experience coming back at the ends in Zach Helten and Mitchell Frank.
Ridge Trail, who was hurt his junior season after starting as a sophomore, is back at lienbacker.
Landon Steven returns in the secondary, along with Blake Bowmaker at free safety.
“We’ve got to be physical,” Jaax said. “We have to be physical, intimidating, powerful. We have to flip the switch with the kids.
“We only won two games (in 2024), so you can think, ‘we weren’t very good last year.’ But I go back to the confidence — we’ve got good players. I have no doubt about it.”
