The Carlinville board of education Tuesday night approved hiring the 34-year-old Easterday. After spending the past 11 years as an assistant at Carlinville, Easterday will take over for Don Borgini.

Borgini, who guided the Cavaliers to a combined 58-25 record the past eight seasons, resigned in order to take a position as teacher and head football coach at his alma mater and Carlinville’s archrival, Gillespie.

Easterday, a 1992 Nokomis High School graduate and a 1996 graduate of Blackburn College, grew up around football. His father, Dan Easterday, was head coach at Nokomis from 1983-2005.

Chad Easterday came to CHS straight out of college and was an assistant to then-head coach Ric Johns from 1997-99. He then assisted Borgini the past eight seasons, including a 7-4 campaign last fall.

“I’ve had the luxury of being around some great coaches,” said Easterday, who teaches chemistry at CHS. “I spent three years under a guy who won two state titles (Johns, while at Hardin Calhoun); I worked with a hall of fame defensive coach (former CHS assistant Lou Fornero) and another hall of fame coach (Borgini).

“I think I got an education being a coach’s son, too. You live in a coach’s house, you know what to expect out of it. My dad was the main influence for me. I hope I can live up to that standard.”

Easterday said Carlinville’s strong football tradition will serve as an obvious motivator.

“I think that’s the challenging part of being head coach here,” he said. “You want to make sure you don’t let the bar drop at all. We have great kids at Carlinville who want to keep the tradition going. I want to be part of that.”

Easterday’s hiring also means Carlinville will be looking for a new varsity boys basketball coach. A former girls head coach at the school, Easterday stepped into the boys position last fall after Jon Hampton resigned. The Carlinville boys went 10-16 this past season.

Easterday, citing time constraints, said he would give up the basketball post. The Cavaliers’ next head basketball coach will be their fourth in four years.

Dave Kane can be reached at 788-1544.