Steve Ringholz retires at Monroeville

Veteran Norwalk volleyball coach Grace Hutchinson retired after the 2009 season. Veteran Monroeville football Steve Ringholz made it official Tuesday — he is retiring from the Eagles program.

Good luck to Steve in his future endeavors.

By SCOTT SEITZ
Reflector Staff Writer

MONROEVILLE — It’s official.
After much speculation, Monroeville head football coach Steve Ringholz said Tuesday afternoon he is retiring at the end of the school year.
By retiring, he means no more teaching or coaching.
Ringholz had said before the start of the 2009 football season he was “95 percent sure” he would retire.
“It’s time,” he said Tuesday. “I’ve been very blessed. When I get up, I don’t dread going to work. People that can say that I think are a lot more happy than someone making the big bucks, but dreading their job every day.”
Ringholz said he left for the door open at the beginning of the season for a return to coaching for a couple reasons. Tuesday, he closed all doors.
“I didn’t want distractions during the season or during the awards,” he said. “And I owed it to some people who had asked me to stay to give it some time.
Ringholz has been teaching and coaching for 38 years. The last 32 season he has been head football coach at Monroeville.
“I’ve given everything I had and I’m not getting any younger,” the 59-year-old said.
So Ringholz will work the remainder of the school year and then attend graduation where his son Brian, and exchange student Johan Both, who lives with him, will graduate.
What then?
“I don’t know,” he said. “I want to travel, mainly out West. There are some places in the U.S. I have not seen. I would also like to go to Normandy sometime.”
When you are a coach, it’s pretty much 365 days thinking football.
“Yeah, I’d like to go skiing again,” he said. “It’s been a few years since I’ve done that.”
The Eagles are coming off a 7-3 season in 2009.
“This past season was a lot of fun,” he said. “This group ranks right at the top, if not at the top of the kids I’ve coached. But that has been the norm here, I’ve been blessed.”
There has been much talk about Ringholz taking a job with the Jacksonville Jaguars, considering former Eagle Gene Smith is the team’s general manager and senior vice president.
“That’s never been discussed,” Ringholz said.
Ringholz got to spend Sunday with Smith, as the Jaguars were in Cleveland playing the Browns.
“I was up with him during the game in the pressbox,” he said. “Gene is very intense most of the time. A lot of people think what he does is glamorous, but he is working from sun-up till sun down.”
Game film is now a thing of the past for Ringholz.
Like after school Tuesday.
“I’ll stop at the grocery store on the way home and then make supper,” he said. “It might be gourmet goulash or the ‘Perfect Storm’ which is sausage, hash browns and some other secret ingredients.”
He’ll get some card-playing and fishing time in soon, too.
“My brothers (Chuck and Doug) are always going walleye and perch fishing in the fall and always have these fish stories,” he said. “I might do a little of that.”
Ringholz said he was fortunate to have coached at his alma mater all these years.
“People told me I was crazy.” he said. “That it doesn’t work out at your alma mater. I always wanted to coach at a small school.”
Monroeville athletic director Ben Paul talked Tuesday evening about what happens next.
“We are compiling applications,” he said. “The deadline is Feb. 1. That gives us enough time to collect resumes and applications.
“Then, we will organize interviews,” Paul said.
Paul said a committee will be formed to conduct the interviews and ultimately make a recommendation to the school board. Applications can be sent to Paul at Monroeville High School.
Paul said Ringholz will be missed in the classroom and on the field.
“This is one of those things that is immeasurable,” he said. “Yes, we are going to hire a new coach, but there is no way to replace Steve. What he has meant to not only the community, but to the players in the program, I’m not sure you can describe it in words.
Paul said Ringholz stressed accountability, responsibility and knowing the meaning of hard work.
“Things they can use in the rest of there lives, in their jobs or with their families,” Paul said. “The impact Steve has had on the Monroeville community is almost unparalleled.”