Round Lake ousts Moss -- again

Doug Moss said he temporarily lost his job as head coach of Round Lake's football team a year ago.

On Tuesday, he lost it for good, seemingly.

After 14 years as a coach for the Panthers, Moss was informed that he was being dismissed.

"I'm 100 percent broke off from Round Lake football," Moss said. "I told the kids (Tuesday) what happened and I was done."

The Panthers went 1-8 in Moss' first season as head coach two years ago. After the team went 3-6 last season, he said a bad coaching evaluation resulted in his termination as head coach.

But the evaluation was overturned, he said, because it wasn't accurate. District supervisors then reinstated him.

The Panthers went just 1-8 this fall. So now Moss is no longer part of a program he has been with since his hiring at the high school in 1994.

"It is (tough)," he acknowledged, "because we had kind of started the rebuilding process and the kids started to buy into it."

Moss hopes to continue as a social studies/history teacher at the school. He's in his eighth season as freshman coach for the girls basketball team.

Moss and his wife, Cheryl, are expecting their second child in April. The couple's daughter, Ann, will be 2 in February.

While he'll have more time for his young family, Moss is disappointed he won't be coaching football.

"It would have been nice to have more time," he said, "to see if we could build something."