Meet Mission’s new football coach: Jacen Petersen

Mission High School’s tumultuous search for a new head football coach comes to an end with the hiring of Mission’s head wrestling coach and now former defensive coordinator Jacen Petersen.

Petersen is a Charlo resident and is no stranger to St. Ignatius, not only teaching there but also wrestling there during his time in high school.He comes from a football family and his love of the sport proceeds his passion for wrestling, which came later in life. After moving from eastern Montana when he was in the fifth grade, Petersen would finish out his primary schooling in the Mission Valley.

Petersen graduated high school in 2014, moving south to study at Arizona State where he first went into math before pivoting to social studies. He then was hired for a math teaching position and finished out the math requirements at Montana State.

Now, he is a teacher at Mission High School, wearing multiple hats in the district including his recent takeover of the wrestling team last year.

“I think that's kind of what I was planning on doing at some point,” Petersen said. “I didn't know how long down the road before I’d become a head wrestling coach, but my intention was to do that at some point.”

While Petersen was excited to take over the Bulldogs' wrestling team, a more abrupt coaching shift was in play after Mission’s football coach Carson Oakland made the move up to Class A to coach at Polson High School.

Oakland was successful in his brief tenure at the helm, guiding Mission to the eight-man football championship game last season. Prior to him, current East Helena football coach Tyler Murray ran the team for four years including two trips to the eight-man championship as well. Petersen was on the staff through the tenure of both coaches.

After unsuccessful and thorough searches for a new coach, Petersen sat down with people close to him, including his wife and Murray, to discuss taking over Mission’s program.

Petersen eventually met with superintendent Jason Sargent and told him that if they needed someone to take the spot, then let it be him.

“If we can just get somebody to take the title of head coach, we can probably pretty much roll. We've got all the people in place,” Petersen said. “We've got a lot of the same guys that have been here for a long time and we just didn't really find anybody.”

Every coach is different, but Petersen’s goal is to keep a lot of the same terminology for the kids coming back to make this abrupt transition easier.

Petersen’s five-year stint with the team as both a volunteer assistant and defensive coordinator will also help returning players stay comfortable as they adjust to a slightly different style of play and coaching.

Petersen’s approach will be a combination of what he has learned from both head coaches he was on staff with, in addition to his father who helped instill his love of football as a kid.

“As far as the actual football side of it, the two coaches that we had previously were both receivers in college and they were very much focused on the pass game,” Petersen said of the football gameplan this year. “My dad was really big into running the ball and passing a little bit shorter passing for the most part rather than big, explosive plays.”

In addition to an offense that will feature more run plays, Petersen wants to instill a culture of strong character among his athletes.

“I've always kind of said that you can't build a championship football team or team in general and try to build character at the same time,” Petersen said. “It's gotta be one or the other and basically the idea is if you can build that character side of it, then the championship side will follow it.”

Petersen and his Mission Bulldogs will head to Plains to play their first football game of the year on Aug. 25.