SAULT STE. MARIE — After 19 years as the head coach for the Sault Ste. Marie varsity football team, Scott Menard, is taking a step back. He will still be coaching the girls’ basketball and track & field teams.
The Soo is currently the only team in the Eastern U.P. with 11-player football.
Menard took some time on spring break to think about the decision.
“I was just confident in the fact that I thought that the guys that are still here, as far as coaches. would be able to do a very good job of continuing what I think I built, and I others and built in the last 19 years.” Said Menard. “I had a little bit more, I guess, security in the idea that what we had done would be able to be continued with the guys that are here now.”
Menard was emotional when talking about what the opportunity of getting the chance to be on the sidelines with family and the support of the community was like.
“I coached with my dad when I first came back here. I got to coach with my brother for my first couple of years here. I got to coach my son a couple of years ago. So, it’s been a true family affair. And that’s kind of been our motto for our team has been that we’ve been this big football family,” said Menard. “The parents of the kids here have been as much a family as — I’m getting kind of choked up now. Just the fact that the parents here have been so supportive. It’s been a true extended family for football, you know, for the last 19 years.”
Menard added that it’s been a blessing, and he wouldn’t change anything from the past 19 years.