The Perry Bluejays football program has hired Josh Vannornam as the new head coach.
The Nebraska native is already well known to PHS athletes because he has been the strength and conditioning coach for the last year in his role with ETS Performance, which has a contract with the Perry Community School District.
“I feel awesome about taking the football program over,” Vannornam said. “Every day will have its challenges, but I am ready to attack each day with all I have.”
Vannornam is a graduate of Papillion-La Vista High School in Papillion, Nebraska, and St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, where he played football for four years. He began coaching strength and conditioning at St. Olaf and continued with ETS Performance.
Vannornam’s leadership follows that of Bluejay Head Coach Tyler Hovey, who led the Bluejays in 2023, and former Bluejay Mark Schilb, who was hired in February and resigned in May.
“I am surrounded by a bunch of great people in the community as well as assistant coaches who share the same vision and mission,” he said. “I am very excited for this season as we will continue to build on last year’s success!”
The Bluejays will open their football season Aug. 29 at Hoover High School in Des Moines. Vannornam is aiming not only to build a stronger football program at PHS but to strengthen the athletes’ moral character.
“The goal for this season would be to be more successful than the week before,” he said, “but another goal for Perry football is, yes, to create great athletes but better men! What we do on and off the field matters. Who we are outside of football matters. It is our job as coaches to develop athletes to be well-rounded human beings. X’s and O’s are super important but if we do not focus on building a strong team culture and foundation, things won’t go our way.”
