ZHS alum talks college football coaching at Rotary

ZANESVILLE, Ohio- The Noon Rotary Club had a special and familiar guest this week.

Zanesville High School grad Noah Joseph is currently the safeties coach for the Indiana University football team. He visited Zanesville to share his coaching experience and hometown pride.

Joseph said he was honored to be asked to speak at the Rotary meeting, a club his father and grandfather were both members of.

“It means everything, and I always get made fun of no matter where I’m at that everybody knows that I’m from Zanesville, Ohio and how proud I am to be from Zanesville, Ohio,” said Joseph. “It’s one of the things that I have in me that will never go away, that I’ll always want to remember, that I’m able to do a lot of the things that I’m doing because of the people in my upbringing here in Zanesville.”

He credited his professional success to where he was raised, even mentioning another familiar Zanesville name in the college football world.

“There’s been great mentors and people that have come out of Zanesville. I think of Mark Dantonio up at Michigan State being one of them, who I think because Zanesville is a small community that anytime I have a question or need advice he’s a guy I can pick up the phone and say, ‘coach I have this opportunity, what do you think’ and he’s there to give me advice and I think a lot of that comes from just the connection of Zanesville,” said Joseph.

He spoke to the Noon Rotary Club about the culture of the Hoosier football team, sharing their message, mentality and method, with a focus on the defense.

“The message that we tell our young men and try and get them to build into [is] more than x’s and o’s,” said Joseph. “I think you have to define and have a culture and a set of expectations.”