MAC ON SPORTS: JOSTES HEADS TO COACHES HALL OF FAME
J. Thomas McNamara
Josh Jostes is going into the Illinois Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
What makes his selection such a great honor is it comes in the first year he was eligible to be nominated which few coaches get selected for induction in their first year of nomination.
“It’s humbling,” said Jostes in a telephone interview with the Decatur Tribune this afternoon (Tuesday, Feb. 9), shortly after the IFCA released the selections that came by way of the Illinois High School Association’s Matt Troha, who sent the IFCA release out to all the media.
“Since its been announced I’ve received calls and notes from Division 1 coaches, coaches I’ve coached against,” said Jostes of his selection which was well-deserved and earned. Many of you will recall I’ve written previously that he should have been inducted already for all his successes with the Maroa-Forsyth Trojans. When I spoke with the president of the IFCA last year, he said coaches had to have done for 25 years or more.
Well, Jostes reached the magical 25 and now he’s going to be enshrined into the IFCA Hall of Fame.
And here’s what makes it even more rewarding for him and the Jostes family. The IFCA coaches induction ceremonies used to take place in the spring in Champaign-Urbana at the coaches clinic at the University of Illinois.
But with the pandemic the IFCA moved its induction program and convention to the weekend of the Illinois Shrine Association’s football game where Jostes will get a chance to coach his son, Wade, who will be quarterbacking the East team.
“It will be a great time for the Jostes family,” said Jostes, who has gone from the youngest football coach in Decatur and Macon County to the longest tenured coach.
“I’ve been blessed with good kids and good families,” said Jostes about the successes he’s enjoyed coaching there.
Personally, it is a thrill to be penning this story on him because I wrote the story when he was hired 25 years ago and now I get the opportunity to chronicle his pending induction in to Illinois Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
I will have more on this developing story including more comments from the coach himself, in a future print edition of the Decatur Tribune.
