I RECENTLY LEFT my position as a social studies teacher and head football coach at Green Bay West High School and took over as an Associate Principal and Activities Director at Onalaska Middle School.
Yes, I went over to the “dark side.” This was not an easy decision. Leaving behind your friends, school, coaching, players and starting over is stressful. I originally began as an assistant freshman football coach on the staff and moved up to the head coach over the course of 10 years. Eventually I earned my administrative degree and was looking for a new challenge.

I’ll be the first to admit that not coaching this past season was not easy. But I had an incredible opportunity to take care of my family and jumped at the chance to become an administrator. Often, we talk about having hindsight and how it’s 20-20.  I couldn’t agree more with it now in retrospect of my first season away from the sidelines. My advice to all young coaches — or for that matter, all coaches — is to enjoy the experience. Savor what was so hard to create.  Don’t wish it away to another season or in expectation of a better group of freshmen coming through the ranks.

This past fall, I bought my first season of game tickets to a variety of schools and here are my “top 10 list of observations from being an ex-coach.”

    10.    Bribe the custodians and paraprofessionals who make your job easier.

    9.    Athletic directors are tireless workers who are extremely undervalued and under appreciated. Most don’t just buy socks and jocks.

    8.    Practices are not nearly as difficult as we thought as coaches. Kids are much more resilient then we give them credit for. Work shorter and harder.

    7.    The number of fans who truly do not understand the game in spite of all the plays they call from the bleachers, is triple the number we originally thought. Do you know how many times I heard “coaches” in the stands scream out “that deep post that will catch them napping”  — on 4th and less than 1 yard? It’s stunning.

    6.    Most parents only want their kids to play. Scoring the winning touchdown or rushing for 1,000 yards isn’t important. Either is winning or losing. The fact that Johnny played three snaps and two of them were kneel-downs on homecoming night at the end of the game gets the same proud smile from Mom or Dad.

    5.    Screaming at kids does not work. Especially when they are seventh graders who don’t know what they did yesterday, last week or 10 minutes ago.

    4.    High school kids have great school spirit but where did the letter jacket go?

    3.    Spend time with your family! You’ll regret it later on if you don’t.

    2.    Great programs do more of the “little” things right than other programs. They block, tackle, out-coach through fundamentals, have better rapport with their players and are lucky to have a few thoroughbreds. 
Some of the old “chicken-salad” adage holds true — and it’s all about those little things.

    1.    The best seat in the house is standing next to the fence, away from the coaches; close enough to get a sniff of the tailgaters and near enough to feel the energy coming off the field. Football and everything about it is great.

I just wanted to add that I don’t have all the answers to all of the questions. For that matter, maybe none of the answers. I just have a few observations from life away from the sideline for one year. I have no regrets.  It’s funny thinking that by moving 3 hours away, the game would be different. But, in reality it is not. In fact, it made me love and appreciate it all the more.