West Noble has been fortunate over the years to have had some elite level coaching come to Ligonier. Longtime West Noble athletic director Tom Schermerhorn has made a lot of those hires, but has been pretty vocal the past couple weeks about his latest hire, to whom he is very excited to have on board.
West Noble boys soccer, one of the most successful programs in area soccer, is adding a local coaching legend as head coach of the program. Hank Willems will take over the program this fall, bringing a laundry list of accomplishments over the past 30 years of leadership.
“I’ve had a really good view of West Noble developing as a program in the area coaching at Bethany and having to play West Noble all the time,” Willems said Tuesday afternoon. “I saw the program develop some incredible players and have seen it grow tremendously over the years. I’ve been impressed with the number of kids involved, the excitement from the kids, the community support. From those angles, I feel like I’m walking into a really good situation here and hope West Noble can reach that next level that they want to get to.”
Willems hiring is pending board approval at tonight's West Noble School Board meeting.
Willems has coached at a handful of different schools, having coached both boys and girls soccer on his tour. His first year in 1994 was spent at East Noble coaching boys soccer, but made the move to Logansport, where Willems captained a budding powerhouse through the end of the decade. A combined six years of girls and boys soccer coaching for the Berries, Willems went 99-13-5 with five sectional and four regional titles to his credit to go with five conference titles.
Moving back to northern Indiana and after an assistant coaching stint at Fort Wayne Canterbury that included a boys state title in 2001, Willems took over at Bethany Christian in 2006 and, again, steered a successful ship with the Bruins’ girls and boys programs. Specifically, Willems’ nine-year run at Bethany covered 110 boys wins that saw the program win its first-ever sectional title in 2006 and later oversaw Bethany’s first-ever future professional athlete in Femi Hollinger-Janzen.
While at Bethany, Willems also won 24 matches on the girls’ side to stack up eight combined sectional titles, a boys regional championship and seven combined conference crowns.
A standout soccer and track and field athlete at Trine University, Willems was a four-time All-Conference/All-District soccer star that included a 1993 Honorable Mention All-America nod. That same year he was a WHAC indoor pole vault champ, and in 1996, was inducted into the Trine University Athletic Hall of Fame.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” Willems said. “As Bethany grew, my principal job grew. I only coach one way, and that’s all in. It wouldn’t be fair to me to just coach a little bit and not do it the way it should be done. The administrative duties as a principal didn’t let me focus on coaching how I preferred, so I stepped back. But, I got to step back when my kids went through high school, and got to be a program assistant the past couple years, when Bethany made their run to state (in 2023). Doing more of the administration, I kind of have that new desire, new energy to reinvest into that coaching mindset.”
West Noble’s tournament success in boys soccer is somewhat recent, with all six of the program’s sectional titles coming in the last 13 years, the most recent in 2023.
Head coach Emanuel Ibanez has stepped away from the program to handle a professional military matter this fall. The Chargers were 13-6 overall this past season with a host of talent returning this fall.
“I speak soccer,” Willems said. “Bethany became a very diverse school in the past few years. I really enjoyed that challenge to learn. Being able to get in and show the guys what I know, I think that will translate very quickly.
“These kids want to win. You have the talent, let’s get to the next level. I’ve lived it, let’s do what we need to get there.”
During the day, Willems will become the new Work Based Learning Coordinator at West Noble. He most recently served as principal at Bethany Christian Schools.
Willems and his wife, Cori, have two children: Beck, who is playing college basketball at Albion College, majoring in elementary education; and Zoe, who is also playing college basketball at Trine University, majoring in elementary education. Cori is a third grade teacher at Jefferson Elementary in the Middlebury school system.
“We are thrilled to have Coach Willems leading our soccer program,” noted Schermerhorn. “His experience, knowledge, and leadership will be a tremendous asset to our already successful team. Coach Willems has a proven track record of success in high school soccer, and we believe he has the ability to elevate our program even further. His familiarity with our program, alumni, and student-athletes will help ensure a smooth transition. Additionally, his presence in the high school building throughout the day as our Work-Based Learning Director will be a significant advantage — both for him and for our student-athletes.”