Blechle anticipated to be hired as CHS coach
<span>A week after head coach Bryan Lee was hired as the new football coach at Carbondale Community High School, Chester High School may have its next skipper at the helm of the Yellow Jackets.</span>
<span>Defensive Coordinator Jeremy Blechle, a 2000 CHS alumnus and head coach of the school's baseball team, is anticipated to step into the role as the Yellow Jackets' 19th head coach, pending District 139 Board of Education approval.</span>
<span>"Did I want it to be Chester? No doubt, I'm from here and my family is from here," said Blechle, who added that the BOE approached him about the position. "Did I think it would be Chester? Honestly, no. Just the fact that I thought Coach Lee would carry it out past my time. Am I glad it was Chester? Absolutely."</span>
<span>Blechle, who will remain as baseball coach, joined the CHS football staff in 2007 and has been defensive coordinator since that year. He also replaced former football coach Dennis Roth as Social Studies teacher at the school.</span>
<span>"It's a tough position to replace a legend (in Coach Lee) and he's a man who inspired me and gave me a remote chance of running my own program," Blechle said. "He gave me his blessings and without that, I don't think I would be apt to take this.</span>
<span>"I want to carry on his legacy and do right by him."</span>
<span>When contacted by the Herald Tribune, Lee spoke highly of Blechle.</span>
<span>"Coach Blechle is a man of integrity and is someone I know constantly does right by kids," Lee said. "He's passionate about what he does and I think it's a choice (the Board of Education) couldn't go wrong with.</span>
<span>"He's going to create his own traditions, his own program and I couldn't be happier for the town."</span>
<span>A former running back/cornerback, Blechle's defenses have consistently ranked among the best in Southern Illinois and he will have some prominent weapons to work with in the fall.</span>
<span>One of the priorities for Blechle will be finding a replacement for Jim Howie as offensive coordinator. Howie, a CHS Hall of Fame receiver, will be joining Lee at Carbondale.</span>
<span>"We will be actively looking for a quality candidate," Blechle said. "We've got to see what the next month holds."</span>
<span>Blechle added that he has "all the faith in the world" with the current staff and the ones he will be bringing in.</span>
<span>"I'm going to put every piece of my soul into this and I want to make sure I bring the tradition that's been here for several years and keep it going," he said.</span>
<span>Blechle was inducted into the CHS Hall of Fame on April 4 as part of the 1999 Yellow Jacket baseball team that won the Southern Illinois River-to-River Mississippi Division title, a IHSA regional championship and finished runner-up for the sectional title with a record of 27-3-1.</span>
<span>As coach, he led Chester to a runner-up finish in the Class 2A Harrisburg Sectional in 2014. In regard to coaching two sports, Blechle said he got his family's blessing first.</span>
<span>"Family's always first," he said. "I was brought up that way. Getting my wife's blessing on that was key."</span>
<span>As far as summer workout days are concerned, Blechle said he is looking at a mid-June start date with the Yellow Jackets' annual camp in July.</span>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-dad9bef7-9d90-091a-0ddf-e487c51fd2fe"><span>"I had to readjust some things this summer," he said. "We're looking at camp the last few weeks of July."</span></span>