It's a new era at Stevenson

More than any other high school sport, football can mobilize an entire community.

Crowds are usually bigger at football games than most other school-sponsored events. And if the team is winning, big can turn into gigantic, as in gigantic traffic jams in the school parking lot on Friday nights.

Meanwhile, with every win, football players often become more and more popular at school, and the leader of it all, the head coach, sometimes goes from mere teacher to mini community celebrity.

Or more.

When a high school football coach is successful not just one year, but year in and year out for nearly 30 years, he might be seen as something of a-

"Legend," said Stevenson senior quarterback Kevin Earl. "That's what Coach Mitz was. He was like a legend. You heard the stories about him when you were younger and you imagined what it would be like to play for him. He was just really, really revered."

Bill Mitz retired as head football coach at Stevenson last fall, after 28 seasons, 197 wins and a dizzying 21 consecutive playoff appearances.

Just as Earl, the starting quarterback for Mitz's final team, helped one legendary career end, he's hoping that this fall he can be in on the start of another.

Beginning Friday, with a nonconference tilt against visiting Highland Park on Opening Night, Earl will help facilitate the dawn of the Bill McNamara era at Stevenson, a school that switches up its head football coach as often as the "Tonight Show" switches up its host.

The 43-year-old McNamara, who had been on the Stevenson football staff for the previous 18 years as an assistant coach, is just the third head coach in the program's history.

Tom Baumann was head coach from 1965 until Mitz took over in 1982, way back when compact discs debuted in Germany, gas in the United States averaged 91 cents a gallon and E.T. was a smash hit at the box office.

Kids like Earl, whose older brother Preston was also a star quarterback under Mitz, were long from even being born when Mitz took over the Green and Gold.

"You just respected Coach Mitz so much for that," Earl said of Mitz's longevity. "He had done a lot and he had been around for a really long time."

In fact, it's been so long since Stevenson has had a new football coach that the Stevenson of today looks nothing like the Stevenson that existed back when Mitz was hired.

Enrollment was at about 1,400 then. Now, Stevenson boasts a robust enrollment of 4,421, with a sprawling campus that dwarfs the 1982 version.

But for as much as life has changed since 1982, some things at Stevenson will be staying the same way they've been for decades.

Or at least that's what McNamara hopes.

"When you come into a situation like this where a coach like Bill Mitz has done such a great job for so many years, it's kind of like, 'If it's not broken, don't fix it,'" said McNamara, who has barely changed the staff, which includes all but one of the assistants who coached under Mitz last year. "Everything was already in place. We're going to have the same mentality about winning and getting to the playoffs. And I think you'll see us doing a lot of what we've done in the past."

That means rushing the ball. Hard.

Mitz, an old-school offensive lineman in his playing days, spent nearly his entire career pounding the ball down the opposition's throat with a punishing, ultra-physical running game.

"We're going to try to run the ball like that, too," McNamara said.

But McNamara isn't going to stop there.

As much as he endorses Mitz's rush-first mentality, McNamara also wants to put his own stamp on the program, which he says first felt like his own on the opening day of summer camp, "when everyone was excited to be playing football again."

McNamara, a former honorable mention Division III all-American quarterback at Lawrence University, likes passing the ball, too. No surprise there.

Of course, Earl says that he would be more than happy to help his new head coach personalize his new team in that way.

"It's crossed my mind a few times that (McNamara) might be more of a pass-first coach and that's fine with me," laughed Earl, who developed a tight relationship last year with McNamara, Mitz's quarterbacks coach for years. "I was really excited when I heard that he was the new head coach because I knew we had a good relationship, and I knew that he would keep things interesting.

"I knew he wouldn't be afraid to open the game up and throw the ball around. But I also know that he'll do whatever we need to do to win. So if that means we have to run a lot, he'll do that."

"Coach McNamara is a lot like Coach Mitz in that they both have a real fire inside of them to win."

The pressure to keep winning as Mitz did will be there. But so will a new pressure.

McNamara says he is determined to bring Stevenson its first football state championship in school history. Sooner rather than later.

The Patriots' best showing in the state playoffs came in 2002, when they finished second in the state. They lost to Lockport in the Class 8A title game, 35-14.

Earl believes the Patriots could help McNamara reach his biggest goal as early as this season.

"I feel really fortunate to have my senior year be Coach McNamara's first year," Earl said. "We have a great group of seniors and a great group of teammates to really start him off on the right track.

"I think this team is going to go down as a team that will be remembered for Coach McNamara. There's pressure on us, but I feel so confident that we'll be successful."

In other words, patience in the Stevenson parking lots on Friday nights is still a must.

New chapters: Ironically, the two most tenured/now retired high school coaches I've covered in my 14-year career at the Daily Herald both hailed from Stevenson.

Former Stevenson baseball coach Bob Mackey retired in 2007 after 30 years, 681 wins and eight regional titles. He now spends his winters in Utah, skiing and enjoying the mountainous scenery. Each fall, he returns to Stevenson to help coach the football team.

Meanwhile, Mitz is now retired from teaching but couldn't rid himself of the coaching bug. Over the winter, he was hired as the new head football coach at Jacobs. He'll have one Lake County connection this fall when his Golden Eagles host Grayslake Central on Sept. 16.

pbabcock@dailyherald.com