New Fairbury Coach Sees Football As A “Platform” For The Future

By Gordon HopkinsFairbury Public Schools (FPS) recently announced the hiring of Jeff Savage as the new junior-senior high school head football coach for the 2025-2026 school year. FJN spoke to Savage this Monday. He talked a little about background and how it led him to Fairbury.“So, I’m actually a retired teacher,” said Savage. “I continue to have a strong desire to coach, so that is what’s led me to this position here in Fairbury. I’m a kind of a veteran coach. This will be year number 45. I guess the years add up quickly. Throughout my career, I’ve kind of searched out programs that have struggled and find a sense of joy and accomplishment to go help some kids that maybe haven’t seen a whole lot of success out on the field for a while. And I noticed that Fairbury’s program has struggled recently, so I looked into it and was offered the position and decided to take it.”Savage indicated he has already met with some FPS students, “I did have a meeting with the kids about a month ago, and actually, I’ll be coming up again this week to speak to them a second time. Right now, we’re just in the building process.” A priority for Savage will be recruiting.“I know the numbers are really, really down right now. I had just 23 kids show up to the meeting. So, priority number one is going to be finding some some quality assistance, and then obviously recruiting kids and getting them involved,” said Savage, “We would love to recruit kids that are currently in the school that are not in another fall sport of any kind, that have some ability and any inkling or desire to play. We need to get more. We just have to get more kids involved.”Savage noted he will not just be recruiting players but assistant coaches as well. “There are some assistant football positions that are open. Two of the three positions are open. So, we’re trying to find people that want to help and build the program up at this point in time, and we’re going to implement, I believe, a style that the kids are really going to enjoy, a style that has seen a lot of success through my years of coaching and so on, and hopefully throw the ball some if we can develop a quarterback that can throw the ball and try to make it exciting for the kids and a rewarding experience for the kids and and a place where they want to come and kids want to be part of.”Savage currently resides in Kansas. He said, “I live in a small town south of Topeka called Burlingame. My wife and I are renovating an old home here in town. And calling this the place, you know, for the rest of our time.” Despite living in Kansas, Savage anticipates spending a lot of time in Fairbury, “I’ll be up every week this summer. We plan on hosting a team camp. Right now, we’re unsure of exactly when, but it could be that last week of July. And then it is our hope to go to a college team camp, where the kids get to openly scrimmage other schools from all over. That is the summer plan, then, is to be up weekly and to help develop the kids skills and added techniques throughout the summer, and then having our own camp towards the end of summer.” Savage made clear be believes football offers students more than just exercise, “I’d like to stress that it’s a great way to help your son develop skills that will help him in his future life. The game of football is a platform for me to help kids become better people in life and I use that as a platform to help kids develop. The biggest thing is commitment. The world needs people that commit to things and respect. Everyone. It’s going to be a program where kids come and learn to respect everyone, regardless of their differences in life, and develop skills that will help them in their future life. So, we want to recruit all kids that have a desire to improve themselves.” Savage will be replacing Matt Edson, who became head coach in 2019 after previously serving as offensive coordinator. While no longer coaching football, Edson will continue to teach at FPS.Longtime head wrestling coach Derek Garfield has also resigned from coaching but will continue teaching at FPS.

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