And nearly all who do never leave the love of coaching behind. They use their leadership skills to impact their district on a larger scale, but that love of sports never leaves.
I’ve come to find you can take the coach out of the sport, but you can’t take the sport out of the coach.
“It’s something like that,” said Northeastern High School Principal Mark Klopfenstein.
He ought to know. He came to Northeastern in 1975 to coach and teach. And now, 41 years later, after putting it off for years, it’s finally time to retire.
Klopfenstein came to the Jets from Fairlawn in Sidney, chasing a passion in his heart.
“I came here to coach and be a social studies teacher,” he remembered. “They actually had the jobs filled when I got here and I planned on just staying a year, getting my master’s degree and then looking for a head coaching job somewhere.
“But I got into basketball here the next year, and a couple years later cross country and track. That kept me here for a lot of years.”
Klopfenstein coached cross country from 1977-93 and track and basketball until 1999. He had some very successful years with the girls cross country team, the most memorable being 1983 and ’84 when the Jets were state runner-up in back-to-back seasons.
“That’s definitely been in my blood,” he admitted.
It has allowed him to excel as a principal as well.
“That’s a leadership quality, you build it up over the years of coaching,” he said. “All those years, I never had any aspirations of getting into administration. Then in 2000, it came up and seemed a natural step, as I was getting closer to retirement.”
He was also an army reserve for 26 years, retiring with the rank of Master Sergeant from the 83rd ARCOM with headquarters in Columbus, and was Senior NCO in charge of Recruitment/Retention for all of Ohio.
“I was coaching three sports and in the army reserve, so I guess I was pretty active,” he said with a reflective chuckle. “It feels like I haven’t slowed down much.”
He will now.
“It’s just a good time,” he said of his reasoning. “Rick Broderick (Northeastern superintendent) was retiring and I was going to retire last year, and since he had one more year I stayed one more year.”
He’s been torn about it leading up to this point.
“I was originally planning to retire at 35 years, but just kept coming back,” he admitted. “It’s a difficult decision for me, definitely not easy.”
He finally made a decision to leave education behind. But he knows he’ll never leave sports the same way. He’s been a track official for 38 years and has helped good friend Mike Chatfield get the wildly-successful Finish Timing business off the ground — which runs track meets for area schools.
“That’ll keep me active around the sports world,” said Klopfenstein, a former road racer himself. “Track and cross country are something dear in my heart all of these years. You just can’t quit that.”
He can’t help but feel torn as well.
“A lot of people look toward retirement and can’t wait, but it’s not something I’ve looked forward to,” he confessed. “It’s something I’m not really wanting to come.
“I’m going to miss being involved and not be with the teachers and kids every day. We’ve had a lot of good years together.”
In education and in sports. He finds comfort in knowing he’ll always have at least sports to come back to.
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