North Putnam hires new athletic director and head football coach

Monday, May 23, 2011
Brian Crabtree

BAINBRIDGE -- North Putnam School Corporation has finally filled two holes in its sports program at a special meeting Monday night. The board has hired Brian Crabtree as the new head football coach, succeeding Greg Barrett, and Richard Bagienski as the new athletic director, replacing Jason Sims. Both replacements are Indiana natives.

Crabtree was the head football coach at North Central High School in Farmersburg since August 2005. In 2006, he was named the Southwest Seven Football Conference Co-Coach of the Year and the Indianapolis Colts Region Six Coach of the Week. He was named to the Wabash Valley All-Star Coaching Staff on four different occasions.

Crabtree's best record in his years at North Central was 8-3, and he ended his time at the high school at 24-38. After going 3-7 in his first year at the school in 2005, he took his team to back-to-back sectional finals and 8-3 season records. North Central then had two 1-9 seasons in a row before finishing last year at 3-7. The school's record in the years before hiring Crabtree, between 1970 and 2005, was 78-239.

Players and friends also made a Facebook page for the coach when rumors moved through the school corporation that Crabtree would be moving to another school in the corporation. The move was later shot down.

Richard Bagienski

Bagienski has spent 11 years as a teacher at Madison Consolidated High School in Madison. He has served as a chemistry teacher, girls' basketball coach and assistant athletic director. He also coached at Hanover College.

He is a licensed administrator and has an undergraduate degree in chemistry and physical education from Purdue University and a master's degree in chemistry and physical education from Ball State University.

Bagienski also applied for the last athletic director opening.

Comments
View 3 comments
Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. Please note that those who post comments on this website may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
  • GREAT HIRE! WONDERFUL GUYS!

    -- Posted by infiremanemt on Tue, May 24, 2011, at 5:47 PM
  • can't wait to watch the football games under the new head coach, and hopefully he will lead us back to state! I hope Richard Bagienski can do his job well as he has a lot to handle now! next year should be a good new year! Great hire NP!

    -- Posted by northputnamcougars! on Fri, May 27, 2011, at 3:47 PM
  • We shall see. Go cougars!

    -- Posted by CitizenKid on Fri, May 27, 2011, at 8:21 PM
Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: