Former Football Coach Talks About His Post-Gridiron Future

Before Tom Sullivan was Watsonville High School’s: head football coach, an assistant coach, or player, he was a middle school ball boy for the team his older played on. In Sullivan’s words, “I’ve held just about every position at from ball boy to head coach at Watsonville and that’s special to me.”

After a six-year run as head coach, Sullivan announced his resignation from that position last Wednesday, Feb. 1. With a week passed since that announcement, Sullivan, who will continue as a special education teacher at Watsonville High School, spoke to Patch about the reaction to his announcement, what led to his decision, and what his plans for the future include. Check out the lightly edited conversation below.

Patch:What’s the reaction been to your resignation been like?

Sullivan: It’s been real positive. I think that as far as the players are concerned, their initial response was, "are you leaving us to go somewhere else?" I think once they realized if I wasn’t going to coach at Watsonville High School it was, No. 1, for an important reason, and No. 2, I wasn’t going to leave there to coach somewhere else. And once they knew that their questions turned more towards logical questions such as what’s the process, who are they looking at, when will we have a coach, what kind of system are they going to bring in.

Patch: Was this something you planned on for a while or more of a recent development?

Sullivan: I think that it was more the end of the season. It didn’t have anything to do with specific events. There is a process I go through when I make any major decision, talking with my wife, talking with my kids. I talked to my advisor at CSUMB (Cal State University-Monterey Bay) about how long it was going to take to finish my credential and from that perspective I couldn’t see myself coaching this season and being able to finish my credential in the time allotted. You have three years with an interim credential to finish your level one as a special education teacher and so I’ve completed two of those years so far and so this is my last year basically to finish classes and it was looking like I was going to have to take three (classes) in the fall and that’s just not right to do to the kids; where I’d be missing possibly three days of practice and that’s just not doable.

But Watsonville is my heart. I’m going to continue to teach there. I’m still going to go out to games and support the kids but I just have to shift my focus for a little bit. I’ve got to take to take care of the things that are important and allow me to coach.

Hopefully down the road I’ll get the chance to coach, hopefully back at Watsonville, but we’ll tackle that issue when I finish (my credential).

Patch: I was going to ask you about what you’re going to do with all your extra time now but it sounds like you won’t really have too much of it.

Sullivan: It’ll be back in school for the majority of it and definitely trying to pick up some time with the family and maybe get some sleep now.

Patch: As things move along and get closer to football season what do you think you'll miss the most about coaching?

Sullivan: I think three critical things. I’m definitely going to miss my players. We created a family in the program so I’m really going to miss the life lessons you can teach in football. Those opportunities are special and not something you can create or manufacture in just any environment. You have a situation where kids are put to the test physically, mentally, emotionally at times. Those are teachable moments. Those are coachable moments. I’m going to miss those.

I’m also going to miss the friendships, loyalty and all the hard grinding days I did with our coaches. It’s just such a special group, all the coaches that come through the program with me. It’s just different when you’re not there coaching and working in the trenches together. So I’m going to miss that.

And then for me, just the competitiveness of the game. (One of his former) coaches used to say that coaching was the next best thing to playing. For me that’s 100 percent true. I love the game as a player. I love the game in a different way but equally as a coach. I’m going to miss that portion for a couple of years. But I know I’ll get back into it once I finish (his teaching credential) and have a little more security for my family.