FRUITPORT – John Shipley got most of his practical experience as a high school football coach in Colorado.

He was originally from southeast Michigan, but moved to the Mile High State right after college and coached there for nine years. There were probably a fair number of old friends who guessed he was out west for good.

But in 2024 Shipley decided he wanted to get back to Michigan and be closer to his family.

He just happened to know Reeths-Puffer head football coach Cody Kater from their days together as students at Central Michigan University. They had remained in touch over the years, and Kater needed a new offensive coordinator.

So Shipley, his wife and their small daughter moved to the Muskegon area, where he spent the last two years coaching under Kater in the R-P program.

After last season, he realized he missed being a head coach, and started looking for opportunities. At about the same time, longtime Fruitport head coach Nate Smith resigned to become the associate athletic director at the school.

Shipley applied for the job, and on Friday was named as the new head football coach at Fruitport High School. He will start working with the players immediately while he builds a coaching staff. He will become a full-time teacher in the Fruitport district in the fall.

“I am feeling grateful, and I’m just extremely excited to get to work,” said Shipley, 35, who is currently teaching at Reeths-Puffer High School. “Fruitport is a school with a lot of great tradition. They have had a lot of great seasons, great coaches and great players.

“I really wanted to get the job because it reminded me a lot of Conifer, where I coached in Colorado. There are a lot of similarities. They both have a lot of rich tradition, and I want to continue and start to build on that tradition in Fruitport.”

While he is a native of the east side of Michigan, Shipley said said he and his wife love the west side and are excited to put down roots here.

“We love West Michigan,” he said. “The people are great, the water is close by, and it’s just beautiful. And the high level of football here will give us the opportunity to play some great teams.”

Fruitport Athletic Director Jonny Morehouse was excited to make the announcement about the new head coach.

“Fruitport is excited to welcome in John Shipley,” he said. “He is a proven leader and coach at the varsity level. He is a high character coach who will develop our student-athletes, on and off the field. I’m excited to see our program take the next step under Coach Shipley’s leadership.”

Shipley grew up in Flushing, Michigan, near Flint, played varsity football and graduated in 2009.

He enrolled at Central Michigan University after high school. He was a physical education major and did not play college football, but the love for the game never left him.

His roommate had a job as an assistant coach at Mount Pleasant High School, just down the road from CMU, and he helped Shipley land a job as a junior varsity assistant while he was still a college student.

He spent one year working under Jason McIntire, Mount Pleasant’s Hall of Fame varsity head coach, and said the experience sparked a deep love for coaching and working with kids.

“He made me fall in love with it, just watching the way he molded young student-athletes into men, and seeing the bonds he created with them,” Shipley said.

After obtaining his degree from CMU, Shipley was ready for a change of scenery. His sister lived in Denver at the time, so he relocated to Colorado, started looking for teaching and coaching opportunities, and landed at Springfield High School in the southeastern part of the state.

He served as an assistant coach at Springfield in 2015, then moved on Conifer High School, located about 30 miles southwest of Denver.

Shipley was on the Conifer football varsity staff for eight years, between 2016 and 2023. He served four years as an assistant coach, then four years as the head coach.

The team was successful, winning three league championships when Shipley was an assistant, and was consistently listed in the state rankings when he was head coach.

Shipley takes over a Fruitport team that has been in a slow but steady rebuilding process over the past few years.

The Trojans were O-K Blue conference co-champions in 2022, then bottomed out with a 0-9 record in 2023, followed by a 3-6 mark in 2024 and a 4-5 record last fall.

Two very close losses this past season – 31-30 to Godwin Heights and 12-7 to Hopkins – kept Fruitport from posting a winning record and perhaps making the state playoffs.

“It’s a solid program,” said Shipley, who will meet with the returning players as a group for the first time next Wednesday. “Coach Smith did a great job. Now we have to focus this offseason on closing the gap. We have to get over that hurdle and create more confidence in the kids. That’s extremely important.”

Like Coach Smith, Shipley does not judge the success of a high school sports program on wins and losses alone.

When asked about his top accomplishments while coaching in Colorado, he said “Our ultimate success was getting to see the kids graduate and go off and become great men, great husbands and great fathers.”