Granite Bay's Ernie Cooper, shown here in the 2012 Sac-Joaquin Section title game, has announced his retirement from coaching.
File photo by Anthony Brunsman
A week after
MaxPreps used him as the poster coach for how to avoid coaching burnout,
Granite Bay (Calif.) football's head man Ernie Cooper has stepped down, apparently, of all things, from burnout.
The high-energy 51-year-old head coach, who just completed his 32nd year in the profession, said in a prepared statement that "for me that fire has not been burning as brightly. … It's just time for me to hand over the reins to some one else. I am retiring today as the head football coach at Granite Bay High."
Cooper, the school's only head coach in its 17 seasons, goes out on a high note. His team won the CIF Division I championship in December, knocking off one of the nation's most storied programs, Long Beach Poly, 21-20.
He finished with a 155-43-1 record at Granite Bay with five Sac-Joaquin Section and 10 league titles. He was named the Cal-Hi Sports Coach of the Year for 2012.
"I have been the luckiest guy in the world to have been the head coach at Granite Bay," Cooper wrote. "I have been blessed with a tremendous amount of support from everyone. … I can not tell you how much it has meant to me.
"To the players, thank you for the dedication, enthusiasm and joy you bring to this campus each and every day. Keep that burning."
Cooper's departure continues a growing trend of high school football coaches leaving the profession earlier and earlier. That movement led to a
MaxPreps examination of what goes into the profession and, ironically, Cooper was the national example of someone doing it right.
He was candid that he often thought about stepping away — 10 times this off-season in fact. Evidently the 11th urge was strong enough to finally do it.
According to the
Sacramento Bee, he told his team Wednesday afternoon that he no longer has the "fire in his belly." He was overcome with emotion according to the report.
On May 23, Cooper told us: "This job has a lot of demands because of people's expectations. It's not just the winning part, it's everything. Some days you ask yourself 'Why do I want to do this?'
"But most days I go out there and see all the guys. You see the energy in the room and they're pumping up each other. … I've tried to take a year off but I just can't do it. There's new kids and a tradition to uphold."
A call to Cooper Wednesday was not immediately returned. He summed up his feelings in the release like this:
"I leave this coaching job with great memories that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I truly thank everyone involved for allowing me to live out my dream."
