Seaholm Hires Andover Football Coach Jim DeWald

It was an offer Jim DeWald just couldn’t refuse.

The Andover varsity football coach accepted the same position with on Monday afternoon.

“It’s been a whirlwind of a day,” DeWald said in a phone interview Monday night.

The Bloomfield Hills Board of Education voted in June to merge both and high schools into a new Bloomfield Hills High School for the fall of 2013. District officials are currently planning for the consolidation of students, administrators and staff, including coaches.

Facing uncertainty after next season, DeWald applied for the Maples vacancy around Christmas time and interviewed in January.

“I talked to my principal, my family and I just think it was the right time and the right decision,” DeWald said. “I know there was one year left at Andover and I do wish I could see that out, but I thought this was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”

The job opened up at Seaholm after coach Jim Pobursky stepped down following the 2011 season.

Applying a tough decision

Initially, DeWald was torn about applying for the position at Seaholm.

“This was very tough, to be quite honest,” DeWald said. “Andover has been very good to me and the kids have been great. I decided to apply for the Seaholm job because the situation at Andover with the schools combining.”

At the conclusion of Andover's winless season last fall, the possibility of not having a varsity football team for the school's final year in 2012 was real given the low number of returning students and little interest from others in joining the program.

DeWald, Andover Principal Rob Durecka and key district administrators began meeting with current students, parents, and members of the coaching staff to determine the program’s next steps and enhance interest in the team.

By early December, DeWald said they had nearly 30 committed players that would make the non-cut team. Leaving those players wasn’t a decision he made lightly.

On Monday, DeWald expressed disappointment that he wasn’t able to personally tell his players he was leaving before the news leaked out of Seaholm.

DeWald broke his foot over the weekend and spent most of the day at the doctor’s office. He teaches Physical Education at Andover and would have told the students today after accepting the position had he been in school.

“I was shocked at how many people found out, my kids have been texting me and I’ve been confirming,” he said. “I was hoping I’d be the first one to tell them. With Twitter and Facebook, news just flies, so I was disappointed that I didn’t get to tell them personally first.”

He plans on meeting with the Andover team on Tuesday to discuss his decision.

“I have to thank the great administration at Andover for allowing this to happen,” DeWald said. “They understand the scenario, it’s a really good school; it really is.”

On Monday night, Kris Andonian, former president of the Andover Football boosters from last season, offered nothing but praise for DeWald.

"I think that Jim DeWald is both a fantastic coach and a great role model for high school boys," she said. "He has been a tremendously positive force in the lives of my sons and so many of their friends. He’s enthusiastic, knowledgable, a great teacher, a tireless worker and genuinely cares about his players. Seaholm is getting a terrific coach and I expect that they will be very happy with Coach DeWald."

Brand new day

While DeWald is leaving a program entering a phase of transition, he hopes he can provide some stability to Seaholm’s football program.

He is the fourth Maples coach in the last year and half.

At the end of the 2010 season, coach Chris Fahr resigned and his replacement . In June, Deane’s friend and assistant coach Jim Pobursky agreed to coach the team.

Deane had brought Pobursky, a long time friend, out of retirement to coach Seaholm’s defense. Pobursky decided to step down after a successful 2011 season that saw the Maples reach the playoffs for the first time since 2005.

“It’s an awkward situation for those kids and I have to be sensitive to that,” DeWald said. “First thing I want to do is set up stability with the program.”

DeWald stressed that he’s not going to try and “redo everything.”

“I see a lot of possibilities here,” he said. “I think it’s a great program with a rich tradition of football. It’s just a matter of putting my stamp in there.”

And he’s going to hit the ground running. DeWald plans on meeting with the team after school on Tuesday, parents on Wednesday and the Seaholm booster club on Thursday night.

“I want them to know who I am as a coach, what they can expect out of me and how I’m going to coach,” DeWald said.

He also plans on personally meeting with all the coaches Pobursky had last year and seeing if there’s a fit for them on his staff. DeWald was in the process of notifying his own assistants about the change on Monday. He sees his staff next year being a combination of the two.

DeWald hopes he can get his off-season conditioning program in place starting next week. Players are currently lifting weights and that’s where he’ll begin his evaluation process for next year.

“I can’t emphasize enough, it’s the commitment in the offseason and what you put in, — that's what I’m going to evaluate,” DeWald said. “If you sweat, I can find a place for you on the field.”

Bloomfield Patch Editor Art Aisner contributed to this report.