TCSF football coach resigns

BY DENNIS CHASE
dchase@record-eagle.com

May 08, 2008 04:00 am

—

TRAVERSE CITY -- Josh Sellers resigned as St. Francis football coach Tuesday amid speculation he'll replace Tim Wooer at Kingsley.

Sellers, who compiled a 57-7 record with two state championships in five seasons as the Gladiators coach, told his players in a meeting Tuesday that he will not return next season.

"We always talk about family," Sellers said. "This was a move I had to make for my family."

Sellers would not discuss rumors linking him to the Kingsley job.

"All I can tell you is I resigned from St. Francis," he said.

Kingsley's head coaching position has been vacant since Wooer stepped down to take over at Traverse City West in February. Mark Olmstead, Kingsley's athletic director, said he's reached a decision and will have a recommendation for the school board to consider at its meeting Monday night.

He refused to indicate if Sellers was the choice.

"There's a process we have to follow," he said.

Sellers, meanwhile, said his future plans should be firmed up "by early to the middle of next week."

"I'm working through the process right now," said Sellers, who did not resign his teaching position Tuesday.

Sellers, who succeeded his father Larry as head coach at St. Francis, said it's been a "tough" couple of weeks as he's agonized over his coaching career. He said telling his players he was leaving was especially difficult.

"It was a tough thing to do, to tell those kids I wasn't going to be back with them next year, knowing how successful they're going to be," he said. "Like I told them, the program was successful before I got there and took over and it will continue to be successful after I'm gone."

Sellers, who started as a water boy on the football team and later played for his father, led the Gladiators to three state final appearances, including last season. His teams won Division 7 state championships in 2003 and 2005 and went 35-0 in Lake Michigan Conference games.

"The level of support there has been fantastic," he said. "The commitment from the players, the parents and the administration has been great. It's been a wonderful experience."

St. Francis athletic director Tom Hardy said he was "surprised" to learn his coach was leaving, given that Sellers has been affiliated with the school most of his life.

"I'm surprised, and sad, and at the same time happy for him -- in that he's doing what he needs to do for his family," he said.

Hardy said the job will be posted in the next few days.

"We're simply blessed that we have a football staff that's in place and that's second to none," he said. "We're certainly going to look at them. But we're going to open the search up, too, although we don't have much time. I guess there's never a good time to do a football search. Certainly starting one at the beginning of May does not give you a whole lot of time to get things done. We'll do our best to see what's out there. Our goal is to announce to our kids before school is out who their coach will be."

Hardy said replacing Sellers will not be easy.

"Josh has done an outstanding job the five years he's been our varsity coach," he said. "He has great rapport with kids. Certainly, he leaves big shoes to fill. But we feel we have a great product to offer somebody to come in and lead our kids.

"We have a great group of kids coming back. They have high expectations of what they want to do, where they want to go."

Kingsley, meanwhile, won a Division 6 state title in 2005.

Olmstead said between 20 to 25 candidates applied for the Kingsley job.

"I wasn't surprised by that one way or another," he said. "I was surprised, however, with the quality of candidates we had. We had a good pool. That was pleasing."

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.