There are some jobs that are just too good to pass up. For the Hays High Indian’s football and track coach Ryan Cornelsen, this was one of them. Cornelsen has announced his resignation at Hays High after five seasons. Cornelsen will be taking over as head football coach for the Hutchinson Salthawks, who recently had their coach Randy Dreiling resign for a similar position at St. Thomas Aquinas. He also will serve as an assistant for the track program.
Cornelsen had immediate success in Hays winning his first seven games in a 7-2 season that included a loss to Hutchinson in district play. In fact, his Indians hosted Hutchinson in a 2011 opening round loss. Cornelsen went 35-12 over his five seasons in Hays and is 88-24 in his two head coaching stops in Hays and La Crosse. His 35 wins rank him sixth all-time at Hays High and his 74.5 percent winning percentage ranks first.
In a sport measured by post-season success, Cornelsen was able to do something at Hays that hadn’t been done since 1995 — make the playoffs. He led Hays to the playoffs in 2011 and 2012, the first time in school history that the Indians had made the playoffs in back-to-back seasons.