Jarrod Duff hired as the new CHS football coach

Jarrod Duff

CLOVERDALE -- It was a long process, but the Cloverdale School Board officially hired a football coach during its monthly meeting on Monday evening.

Jarrod Duff filled the open coaching position, one that has been on everyone's mind for several months following the board's decision to relieve John Butler of his duties.

Duff, a Greencastle graduate, is no stranger to coaching sports as he spent a significant amount of time at Greencastle Middle School coaching the eighth-grade boys basketball coach and football coach.

He also spent eight years as the Greencastle High School assistant varsity football coach with John Fallis for five years as well as three years with Jim Hummer as the head coach. Duff also coached girls' varsity basketball at Greencastle High School for four years.

Since his time at Greencastle, Duff is going on his second year at Cloverdale. He was previously hired as instructional assistant and has been teaching sixth grade as well as coaching the middle school baseball team.

As of Monday evening, Duff will be moving to Cloverdale High School and will begin teaching social studies.

With his new position he's hoping to take off running to help rebuild the football program, which has been a hot topic for the past year.

"It is my goal that we build a K-12 football program that the Cloverdale community can be proud of," said Duff. "We started in the weight room today and we will be doing that four days a week. I'm really excited to be given this opportunity."

The approval of Duff was one of the last issues discussed at the meeting, but the board all seemed to be in approval of taking on Duff as the new varsity football coach.

"It's been a long process," said board member Brian Asbury. "I think we hit a home run."

Among the other issues discussed during the meeting was the ongoing building project, which is nearing completion.

After beginning the project, contractors discovered that the barrel roof at the high school needed to be redone as well.

The project has since been started and is well on its way to completion. Since starting the barrel roof project, contractors found lots of rotten wood and metal, which has been replaced.

"It was time. It was definitely time," said Project Manager Dan Sulkoske. "It was a good decision to go ahead an replace it."

Both roofs at the high school and elementary school, however, are still waiting on final inspections. After passing the inspection the new warranty will begin.

Due to the delay in inspections money is being withheld until they are completed. Roughly $86,000 is being held for he elementary school and $50,000 for the high school.

The HVAC system is also nearing completion and is expected to be finished by the end of the month. The corporation is hoping to make the switch from the temporary chiller system, which it is currently using to the permanent one by the end of June.

The following personnel items were also approved: the retirement of Cloverdale Elementary School secretary Loretta Fritz, speech therapist Debra Summers, special education teacher Catherine VanHorn, choir and music teacher Deborah Lambert and Cloverdale Elementary School treasurer Julina Price.

The following teachers also resigned: high school teachers Kat Holmstrom and John Butler; Cloverdale Elementary School instructional assistant Nicole Culley.

The following people also declined to continue: Mollie Shobe, Kyle Walters, Paula Thompson, Nicole Cradick and Autumn Butler.

Both Debbie Fidler and Dawn Wade were approved for reassignment. Fidler will now become the Cloverdale High School secretary and treasurer and Wade will become the Cloverdale Elementary Secretary.

Both Susan Jordan and Jennifer Mann resigned as the high school and middle school track coaches.