At age 28, Eric Schreiber Jr. may be the region’s youngest head football coach, but he arrives with a lifetime of gridiron experience.
The Hobart School Board unanimously named Schreiber, a 2014 Hammond High graduate, to succeed Craig Osika as its next football coach on Thursday.
Schreiber’s first head coaching assignment was at Gary’s West Side Leadership Academy where he coached from 2020 to 2022 and boosted participation from 42 to 84 players, winning a Great Lakes conference title in 2021.
New Hobart High football coach Eric Schreiber Jr. introduced his family to the school board Thursday after his appointment. From bottom left are Brinley, Eric III, and Eli. At left is wife, Sierra. Their fourth child, Noah, wasn’t available for the photo.
“His journey in education and being around coaches spanned his entire life,” said athletic director Mike Black. He said the new coach’s dad, Eric Schreiber Sr., was a teacher and long-time football coach.
“Craig (Osika) tried to get Eric here a year earlier but he didn’t want to leave West Side yet.”
Schreiber, a high school quarterback, did leave in 2022 to become Hobart’s defensive coordinator.
“We’re fortunate to get him, and his family is already embedded in,” said Black. “He understands fully what it means to be a Brickie… he has a very clear vision of where he wants our program to go in the future.”
Schreiber has already coached for nine years. He was also an assistant at Homewood-Flossmoor under current Crown Point coach Craig Buzea and at Hammond Clark, under his father, Eric Schreiber Sr.
“We appreciate you taking this job,” said board president Terry Butler. “But, it can be tough.”
Schreiber, who teaches sociology in the high school’s early college program with Ivy Tech, told the school board he understands the intense passion the Hobart community has for football.
The Brickies won state championships in 1987, 1989, 1991, and 1993. Osika took the team to the state finals in 2020, but lost.
“There is a community and family atmosphere in this district, it’s something I felt right away,” said Schreiber who has four children with wife Sierra.
“Hobart is our home and we want it to be our home for a long time. This is something we prayed for. We’ve been around the block.”
Superintendent Peggy Buffington called Schreiber a dedicated team person who went back to school to gain a master’s in sociology to teach dual credit classes.
“He’s a man who pursues excellence and will do anything to better our district,” she said.
Osika, co-principal at the high school, said he tried to get Schreiber after his first year at West Side.
Even though his Brickies pounded West Side 70-0 in 2020, Osika marveled at the Cougars’ composure. “They even helped our kids up.”
Osika was impressed with Schreiber’s impact on the Gary school and offered him the job that Schreiber initially declined. “He said ‘I owe West Side and the community deserves it’.”
Schreiber stayed a second year at West Side before arriving in Hobart in 2022.
His father did head coaching stints at Hammond High, Michigan City, Greensburg and Hammond Clark and was an assistant coach at Griffith.
Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter at the Post-Tribune.
