CLEVELAND — At the end of the 2022-23 school year and after 40 years of leading the Saint Ignatius High School football program, legendary head coach Chuck Kyle will hang it up, announcing his retirement plans on Monday.
Kyle—a longtime English teacher, track and field coach and head football coach—will retire after teaching and coaching at the high school for 50 years. Kyle spent 11 years as an assistant and, at the time of his upcoming retirement, will have led the football program for 40 years.
One of the most respected and accomplished high school football coaches in the country, Kyle helped his football program win 11 state titles and four national championships, while also leading the track and field program to two state championships.
Kyle graduated from Saint Ignatius in 1969 and began his Saint Ignatius coaching career when he was a senior at John Carroll University.
In 1988, five years after taking over the Saint Ignatius football program, Kyle led the Wildcats to their first football state championship.
In addition to collecting 369 wins in his football coaching career, Kyle was named Nike National Coach of the Year in 2001, Schutt National Coach of the Year in 2008, Ohio Associated Press Coach of the Year four times and was inducted into the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame in 2013.
“This is a vocation – not a career,” Kyle said in a statement. “There has always been the opportunity to show students if they really love what they are doing and put a work ethic into it, good things can happen.”
After the 2022-23 school year and upon Kyle's retirement, defensive coordinator Ryan Franzinger, who currently serves as the Assistant Principal for Student Discipline at the school, will assume the role of head football coach. He will become the associate head coach for the 2022 season leading up to Kyle's retirement.
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