The long run: Leyden’s Cerasani surpasses his father’s longevity at Schaumburg

This season, Leyden coach Tom Cerasani Jr. reached a milestone.

With now 22 seasons on the job, he's been at Leyden longer than his father, Tom, was head coach at Schaumburg (1984-2004).

“I was kind of looking at that, saying maybe I should be done when he was done,” Cerasani Jr. said. “But I'm getting close to retirement anyway, so I'm going to try to finish out strong and see what happens.”

The Eagles are celebrating Year 22 with a trip to the playoffs. They'll visit West Aurora on Friday in an opening-round contest.

This is Leyden's first playoff game since 2016. It's a school without much successful football history, outside of a state title in 1977. Not many coaches survive 20-plus years as head coach at any school. So it's worth asking, why has Cerasani stayed in this job so long, when other coaches might leave for schools where winning seasons are easier to achieve?

Part of it is family ties, since his father and several other relatives were East Leyden graduates. Tom Sr. retired from Schaumburg football a year before Cerasani Jr. was elevated to head coach at Leyden. So the father, who passed away in 2018, spent the next three years as his son's assistant.

“One of the things that kind of kept me here, it's a family,” Cerasani said. “It's a community of people who care about everybody within the football program, within the school. It would have been easy to leave, but it wouldn't have been the same kind of feeling. I feel real loyalty to this school and this community.”

There's another twist to the family ties angle. Tom and his younger brother, John, both played for their father at Schaumburg. Tom was a quarterback who played in college at Wisconsin and Indiana State. John was a tight end who went to Notre Dame and Northwestern.

While Tom moved into the family business, John has become a social media star. Scroll through Instagram or Tik Tok for a few minutes and you're bound to run across John Cerasani, playing blackjack in a casino or interacting with his kids or whatever else.

“I know, I have to lay off Instagram or he's the only guy I ever see on there,” Tom said with a laugh. “He had different goals than I did growing up. He always wanted to be rich and he got there.”

The brothers are four years apart, so they were never in high school at the same time. But they are similar, despite the differing career paths.

“We do have a lot of the same personality traits,” Tom said. “Obviously, my dad had a huge influence on both of us and the way we live our lives, even today. We were a football family, with him coaching, with us playing. I don't think he missed many games when we were in college, either.

“Football's been our life. I think my birth announcement was, 'There's a new quarterback in town.'”

There are no plans for his brother to help out at Leyden, the way his father did. But John does show up to support the team sometimes.

“When he's there, he's definitely a presence,” Tom joked.

What Cerasani did add to his staff are some younger coaches with ties to the school. His offensive coordinator is Tim O'Connell, who played quarterback for Leyden in 2007, when Cerasani first reached the playoffs.

“It's refreshing to get some young coaches in here with new ideas,” Cerasani said. “This year's team, we're pretty senior-heavy. Good group of kids. There's not like a star on the team. When we play well as a team, that's when we win and that's kind of been our motto this year.”

Obviously, the expanded playoffs are the reason Leyden (3-6) is still playing in Week 10. As a 1990 high school graduate, Cerasani has some old-school beliefs and mixed feelings about the change, but he's keeping an open mind.

“I always thought making the playoffs, getting to five (wins) was a great goal,” he said. “It separated football from all the other sports in Illinois. But you know what? I've kind of come around on it because the kids are really excited to be in the playoffs. It's going to be a great experience for them.

“I'm interested to see what happens after this season, because I've already heard they're talking about going back. We'll see what happens.”