MISHAWAKA — Winning isn’t just the expectation for the Penn High School football program. Competing for state championships is.
Chris Geesman won 310 games, five state championships and had three state runner-up finishes in 29 seasons.
His successor, Cory Yeoman, won 208 games and had four state runner-up showings in the ensuing 21 years.
The number of losing seasons between the two?
Zero.
That’s the legacy 46-year-old Pete Riordan has to follow Friday when he makes his Penn head coaching debut against Valparaiso. He’s just the third head coach for the Kingsmen since 1973, bringing an inherit pressure along with it.
“To be honest, I really haven’t thought about that,” Riordan said. “Part of it is trying not to think about that and focus on the things that need to be done. I think I would be in trouble — as would anybody else — if I started worrying about that right off the bat. … Whether there’s pressure or not, there’s still a job to be done. If you start thinking about those types of things, you’re not going to do a very good job at your job.”
High school football:Complete South Bend area coverage of the 2024 season
Sustaining excellence with Penn football
Once Geesman, now 85, had the Kingsmen program rolling, there was no stopping it. His final 17 seasons saw them post a remarkable 200-18 record, winning four state championships and finishing state runner-up three other times. That doesn’t include the state title Geesman won with a 14-0 Penn squad in 1983.
The Kingsmen weren’t just the pride of northern Indiana. They were the standard bearer of high school football in the entire state.
“We never took anybody lightly,” Geesman said. “Every week, we couldn’t wait for Friday. We prepared for everybody exactly the same, and I think that’s the key to it. We didn’t have an easy or hard week depending on who we were playing. Every week was the same, whether it was against Ben Davis or Schmucker Middle School.”
Yeoman — who played and coached under Geesman — was tabbed to take over when Geesman retired following the 2002 campaign. Even being around the program his whole life, Yeoman noticed a difference sliding from defensive coordinator to head coach.
“Every day, Chris had always been here,” the 62-year-old Yeoman said. “Now, when you go out for a theme of the day or theme of the week, you need something to say because you’re addressing the team every day. That’s different. You don’t address the team every day when you’re an assistant.”
Yeoman’s first season, 2003, saw a state finals appearance. Three more followed in 2011, 2015 and 2017, with the ’15 campaign being its best shot at winning during that time.
A victory in week two against Mishawaka last year gave Yeoman 200 for his career. That makes Penn the only program in Indiana with two head coaches to win 200-plus games in their careers. Yeoman notched eight more in 2023 before announcing his retirement in February.
What makes Pete Riordan ready to lead Penn football?
Both Geesman and Yeoman have hired Riordan to be assistant at different points. Riordan was a volunteer coach for the last Penn state title before quickly working his way up to defensive coordinator. When Riordan’s wife, Nicole, headed to medical school in Indianapolis for three years, he asked Geesman to help find a coaching gig down there.
He ended up at Ben Davis, where he quickly made an impact.
“A month after being hired, (former Ben Davis coach) Dick Dullaghan called me and said he had named him defensive coordinator,” Geesman recalled. “That’s unbelievable.”
When Riordan, a 1996 South Bend Saint Joseph grad, and Nicole, a Penn alum, were ready to return to northern Indiana, Yeoman made sure to create a spot for him on his coaching staff.
Just like at Penn the first time and Ben Davis, Riordan quickly worked his way to being one of the top assistants under Yeoman, eventually becoming defensive coordinator.
“Pete’s very qualified,” Yeoman said. “Pete’s going to do great, and he’s going to put his spin on it differently than what Gees and I did. He’s going to add his little nuances, which is great. The staff will tweak and change things to make it their own.”
From March:'They hired the best man.' Penn stays in-house for next head football coach
So, how does Riordan keep Penn being “Penn”? Investing in those around him is a big factor, in the eyes of Geesman.
“We hired great people and gave them authority and responsibility,” Geesman said. “It’s why we had a great staff. … We hired great people and let them coach. Everybody that comes in — once they proved themselves and we knew they were going to do the work and take this seriously, they were going to get some authority and responsibility.”
Handling the outside noise is also key. The pressure to win is higher at Penn football than any other program in the area, regardless of sport. When the Kingsmen had three-straight average seasons from 2019-21, the proverbial sky was falling over the greater Mishawaka/Granger area.
More:Penn football replacing several starters in the first year of head coach Pete Riordan
While there will always be pressure from the outside, Yeoman knows Riordan can handle it — mostly because its nothing compared to the pressure he’s already putting on himself to succeed.
“Everyone wants to talk about the pressure with this job and what Pete’s going to feel,” Yeoman said. “I guarantee you that Chris put more pressure on himself than any outside sources, I put more pressure on myself, and Pete’s doing the same thing. Nothing outside can be anywhere close to what drives Geesman, myself and Pete.”
Riordan admitted he hasn’t thought about how he’ll feel Friday night ahead of his first game as head coach. He, like his predecessors, has focused on one day at a time this week, one of the many pieces of advice he’s used from Geesman and Yeoman in preparing to lead the Penn program.
“You have to practice as hard as you can, prepare as hard as you can and play as hard as you can,” Riordan said. “As long as you do that, we’ll feel good about where we’re at. That’s always been the mentality I took from Cory, and I’m sure a lot of that comes from playing and coaching under coach Geesman. Do your best, and a lot of times, things will work out for you.”
IHSAA Friday Night football Week 1 schedule
Friday, Aug. 23
Elkhart at Concord, 7
South Bend Adams at Culver Academy, 7
Mishawaka at Mishawaka Marian, 7
South Bend Saint Joseph at Lakeland, 7
Fairfield at Goshen, 7
NorthWood at Jimtown, 7
Fort Wayne North at Northridge, 7
Wawasee at Tippecanoe Valley, 7
LaVille at Triton, 7
Valparaiso at Penn, 7:30
Hammond Bishop Noll at South Bend Riley, 7:30
Bremen at East Noble, 7:30
Twin Lakes at Plymouth, 7:30
Michigan City at Warsaw, 7:30
John Glenn at Boone Grove, 7:30
Hammond Central at South Bend Washington, 8
LaPorte at New Prairie, 8
Bowman Academy at South Central, 8
