'This is my dream job': Anthony Lindsey takes over as Bloomington North football coach

As a quarterback, Anthony Lindsey was the one doing the handing off.

Now, it's his turn to take the ball and run with it. The 39-year-old, who spent the past four years of his coaching career on the staff at his alma mater, Bloomington North, is now the head football coach for the Cougars, succeeding 19-year coach Scott Bless.

"This is a dream come true," Lindsey said. "This was my dream job. When I started getting into coaching, this is where I wanted to end up.

"As soon as I knew Scott was going to be retiring, I was definitely jumping on board here. This is a special place to be. I've made a lot of memories here, and I look forward to making a lot more."

Speaking of... The MCCSC made his hire official at its Tuesday meeting, but Lindsey will never forget the whirlwind day, Jan. 5, he was offered the position.

If that wasn't enough of a rush, just a few hours later, Lindsey, an assistant with the boys' basketball team, also found out he would get his first taste of being a varsity head coach earlier than he expected when the call came that head coach Jason Speer would be out sick for that night's game against Bloomington South.

North won that game, and that's not surprising given his track record.

"He's been an asset to every program he's been in in all those years," North athletic director Andy Hodson said. "He's a winner. I'm happy for him that he gets the opportunity to come back and coach at his alma mater. I think it's been goal since he played for us."

Winning and more winning for Lindsey

In 15 years as an assistant football at Martinsville, Bloomington South and North, Lindsey's teams were 115-54 with six sectional and three regional titles. The boys' basketball teams with whom he's worked over the past five years are 78-37 with three sectional and two regionals.

"I've been able to observe both sides of the coin," Bless said. "I've coached against him and coached alongside of him. He's got a great football mind and has great rapport with our players. I think it's a really exciting time for our program."

Even back to his playing days, Lindsey was a standout. At St. Joseph's College, he was 26-18 overall and named all-conference and team MVP all four years. He left as the school's all-time passing leader and top 25 nationally in NCAA Division II and was the youngest athlete ever inducted to the school's athletic hall of fame.

At North, he led the football team to a school record eight wins as a senior in 2003 and over four years tossed for a North career record 7,198 yards, 551 completions and 65 touchdowns. He won 85 games on the basketball court, with the 2001 team making the final four and the 2004 team going 20-5 and making it to semistate. He left with the most made 3-pointers in school history. His sophomore year (2002), the baseball team won a sectional for first time since 1996.

"His track record speaks for itself, everywhere he's been as an assistant, as a player, football, basketball, baseball," Hodson said. "That part made it an easy choice."

Consider that when the job was opened up and hiring protocols were followed, Hodson sent an email out to every football coach in the state letting them know of the opening. The Cougars, ranked No. 1 most of 2023 and going 9-0, was not lacking for candidates.

But continuity and familiarity won out.

"He's one of the greatest athletes to come through our school," Bless said. "A three-sport guy, and he performed at a high level. So has that credibility."

Community roots deep for Lindsey

Lindsey's challenge is to not just build on the upward trend on which the Cougars are as far as wins and losses, it's to also maintain the strong ties that have been built under Bless. It reaches from having a stable coaching staff to connecting with younger players and their families who are headed North's way.

"I think Scott's done a great job with the community and relationships that he's built with former players and coaches, everybody in the community, and I hope to continue that," Lindsey said,. "I feel have do have great relationship with the community and staff.

"We should have a majority of the staff coming back, and that plays a huge factor in being successful."

That's where coaching at your old school has some benefit.

"There are people in the building still here from when I went to school here," Lindsey said. "Everybody takes lot of pride in being a Cougar, and I'm going to give everything I have to this program. And I'm hoping all the players and coaches will do the same."

Lindsey's coaching roots run deep, too

Lindsey has an impressive tree of coaches under whom he's worked.

Lindsey and Speer have known each other since Lindsey was around 8. Speer was an assistant at North when Lindsey played there and was one of Speer's assistants when he was head coach at Columbus North. At Martinsville, he worked under Fred Kutruff in football and Criss Beyers in basketball. At South, it was Hall of Famer Mo Moriarity. And then Bless at North.

"It goes back to relationships," Lindsey said. "You've got to be able to recruit kids to come out, work your building and pull athletes from other sports. I've picked up a lot of from every coach I've worked for.

"Everybody's got their own little thing I've learned from each, so I'm taking that and creating my own."

And that is?

"I'm definitely a players coach," Lindsey said. "Players are going to respect me and want to play for me. I also think we are going to be a disciplined football team and do the little things right.

"When it comes to crunch time, we're not getting flagged at important parts of the game. That's a really important thing."

At North, Lindsey has worked with two of the best quarterbacks in school history not named Lindsey (Reece Lozano and Dash King) and one of the top runners in Cody Mikulich. He was also prepped for this day.

"I did a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff that head coaches would do," Lindsey said. "I was involved with the offense and continued to work with the quarterbacks and running backs. And then the day-to-day responsibilities, practices and planning the off-season workouts and keeping attendance.

"A lot more going into being a head coach that people realize. Scott definitely let me put my hand in things the last four years."

Bless was thrilled to bring him on board when he had the chance.

"He's played for some great coaches and coached under some great coaches," Bless said. "He's also one of the best I've seen in real-time game analysis and game management skills."

Making the program his own

Lindsey is married to Elizabeth, and they have three boys, Luke (6), Noah (4) and Trey (2), and yeah, you can expect as long as Lindsey's coach, at some point they'll be on the sidelines, growing up around the program as ball boys the way Bless' sons did.

"The boys were super excited for me," Lindsey said. "They stayed up waiting, thinking my name would be called out at the meeting."

Sorry kids, just a simple up down vote on all the extra-curricular hires. Now it's to seeing which staff members want to come back and what new hires he need to make.

North has made great strides with its overall strength and conditioning programs, but in Lindsey's mind, a full-time strength and conditioning coach for the school would be a great start. It's a keeping-up-with-the-Joneses kind of thing at this point.

And as for his basketball coaching days, that will be discussed at the end of the school year. He loves coaching basketball but will have to evaluate how his new responsibilities will mesh with that.

In the meantime, the football is back in his hands at North, just like it was 20 years ago.

"After we went through the process, he presented a good vision for the program," Hodson said. "We're excited to let him begin his work."

Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com and follow on X @JimGordillo.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: IHSAA football: Anthony Lindsey named Bloomington North head coach