Football: Newburger steps down at Burlington Central

Burlington Central football coach Jason Newburger resigned Tuesday, citing the impending transfer of his teaching position for the 2016-17 school year from the high school to one of District 301's middle schools.

Newburger, 32, has accepted a job as teacher and offensive coordinator at Highland Park High School.

He broke the news on Tuesday to the Rockets, who went 1-8 last fall in his first season as a head coach.

"It's been a tough couple of days and a tough couple of weeks taking the time to think about it," Newburger said Wednesday. "Telling our players was one of the toughest things I've ever had to do in my life.

"The administration and everyone at Central bent over backward to help me get the program going the way I wanted it to go. Unfortunately, the one thing they couldn't do was keep me at the high school in a teaching position. That ended up being a deal breaker for me."

Newburger said there were multiple reasons why not being in the high school on a daily basis would hinder his duties as coach, particularly in the area of recruitment. He said between 15 and 20 college coaches visited Central in the past year. He was able to adjust his schedule to meet with each, something he would be unable to do if teaching at another district school.

"I shouldn't have to delegate that to an assistant coach in the building," he said. "It wouldn't have been fair to the kids. I would always schedule those meetings around my schedule so I could be sitting down with (the coaches) and ask some of the tough questions. Next year, I was taking a really active role in the recruitment of our players. That's something we won't be able to do. And some other day-to-day operations aspects I thought I would not be able to do."

Newburger said the Central High School administration asked him to be patient after he was informed of the switch because there was an outside chance he could remain in the building next year. However, "a couple of weeks ago when that was no longer a possibility I had to make a tough decision," he said.

Newburger was a three-sport star at Vernon Hills High School and was named Daily Herald 2001-02 Athlete of the Year in Lake County. He played four years of baseball at Bradley and earned a degree in business.

He replaced Rich Crabel, who resigned as Central football coach in December of 2014 after going 22-16 with two playoff appearances in four seasons.

Newburger, who lives with his wife in Des Plaines, said he was fortunate to land a new position at Highland Park.

"Stepping into an offensive coordinator job at a really good high school district is something that doesn't come up every day, but this wasn't an ideal situation for me," he said. "I never wanted to jump from one place to another after a year. It just felt like I needed to do that.

"Fortunately, landing at Highland Park cushions the blow a little bit, but it's been a tough month walking around the halls at Central knowing that in a little while I won't see my guys anymore. Obviously, I wish them all the best and hope they have a hugely successful season. They've worked their butts off in the off-season, so I expect nothing less from them."

Burlington Central athletic director Steve Diversey was not available to return a call seeking comment.