Schmit: Are football coaching 'dinosaurs' becoming extinct?

The article questions whether high school football head coaches—described as “dinosaurs”—are becoming extinct as modern demands push shorter tenures. It notes that veteran assistant coaches can remain on sidelines for decades, but emphasizes that none of those examples are head coaches. The piece argues that the old model, where coaches could lead a program until retirement roughly 30 years later, has become rare due to increasing time commitment. It cites several successful programs with long head-coach stability, including Batavia’s Dennis Piron, Cary-Grove’s Brad Seaburg, Glenbard West’s Chad Hetlet and Maine South’s Dave Inserra, whose average tenure is nearly 20 years. The article also points to the continuity factor—programs with few coaches since the late 1970s and early 1980s—and asks what happens after that next generation of coaches retires.