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The Telegraph/JIM BOWLING -- Edwardsville football coach Tim Dougherty talks to QB Joe Allaria (10) during a game in 2006. Dougherty, the football coach and athletics director at EHS, has resigned to coach football at New Lenox Lincoln-Way Central.
‘The Best 16 Years Of My Life’
Edwardsville’s Dougherty resigns; will coach football at New Lenox Lincoln-Way Central
EDWARDSVILLE — A few years after taking the varsity football coach’s job at Edwardsville High School in 1992, Tim Dougherty recalled the difficulty of leaving “Peoria with a U-Haul, two kids and a wife crying.”
The kids, Jimmie and Amie, are now adults. And while wife Lynn may shed a tear on the day of departure, Dougherty takes a new coaching challenge at Lincoln-Way Central with crying duties now handled by baby granddaughter Katelyn.
“Life spins, doesn’t it,” the 51-year-old Dougherty said, with a laugh. “She’ll find PaPa.”
The complexities involved in Dougherty’s decision to leave Edwardsville after what he calls, “the best 16 years of my life,” go far beyond football at Edwardsville and Lincoln-Way Central.
Lynn Dougherty recently opened Kate’s Lullaby, a boutique that sells maternity and baby apparel. And Amie and Katelyn are currently living with Tim and Lynn while Amie’s husband Shaun Davis is serving with the Army in Iraq.
Daughter and grandchild are scheduled to return to Georgia in March when Davis’ completes his tour in Iraq. And as for the store, Dougherty says, “We’ll work all that out.”
Dougherty accepted the Lincoln-Way Central football coach’s job on Sunday and informed District 7 superintendent Ed Hightower of his decision later that day after returning from San Antonio, where he was coaching in the annual Army All-American Bowl high school football game.
At Lincoln-Way Central, Dougherty takes over a Knights football program at a high school with an enrollment of 3,041. Located east of Joliet in New Lenox, Central opened in 2001 when Lincoln-Way divided into two high schools — Central and East.
In the previous five seasons before the split, Lincoln-Way football posted a 61-5 record that included a 14-0 state championship season in 1997. In seven seasons as Central, the Knights are 46-27 with all seven seasons producing playoff berths. Central opened the 2007 season with a victory at East St. Louis.
Dougherty came to Edwardsville in 1992 and went on to build Tigers football into a powerhouse program. Edwardsville, which finished second in the Class 7A playoffs in 2001 and again in ’02, won seven Southwestern Conference championships in the 12 seasons since rejoining the league in 1996.
He leaves as Edwardsville football’s all-time wins leader with a record of 132-40 and 12 playoff appearances. The Tigers finished 4-5 last year, their second losing season in Dougherty’s 16-season tenure.
“I really want to thank Bob Stuart, Gerald Rains and Rich Essington,” Dougherty said of Edwardsville’s superintendent, high school principal and athletics director, respectively, in 1992. “They hired me 16 years ago, just some guy up in Peoria.”
Dougherty’s impact on Edwardsville athletics extends past football. As the school’s athletics director for the past 13 years, Dougherty was the point man for the drive to return to the SWC after Edwardsville’s 17 years spread among the short-lived Gateway East Conference, and South Seven Conference (football only) with Independent status in between.
In Edwardsville’s first season back in the SWC, Tigers athletics produced two conference titles. “Since then, we’ve won 74,” Dougherty said of a span covering 11 years. “That’s 16 years of blood, sweat and tears.”
Under his watch as AD, the athletics facilities have undergone major upgrades. The baseball stadium currently is getting a complete renovation and there are tentative plans to install an artificial surface at the football stadium this summer.
“One thing I’ve been adamant about, whether it was field hockey or football,” Dougherty said, “I did it like it was my own and it was going to last forever. We’ve accomplished a lot here.”
Edwardsville claimed 10 sectional titles in the 2006-07 school year after winning 11 sectional titles the year before to join Winnetka New Trier as the only schools in IHSA history to win as many as 10 sectionals in a school year.
But while Edwardsville has experienced significant growth, it can’t match the boom experienced at Lincoln-Way. In March, 2006, voters approved funding for construction of two new high schools for the rapidly growing district.
Lincoln-Way North will open in August 2008 for grades 10-12. Lincoln-Way West will open for the same grades in 2009. Each of the four schools is expecting an enrollment around 2,000.
Central has experienced success in other sports, but football is clearly king. The team’s Web site lists a staff of 16 assistant coaches. And after Rob Glielmi, a 1982 Lincoln-Way graduate, retired after 16 seasons and a 123-53 record as head coach, the district went hard after Dougherty once it targeted him as candidate No. 1.
Dougherty said he did not apply for the job and was not seeking a move from Edwardsville. But when he received an exploratory call from Central athletics director Joel Pallissard the week before Christmas break, Dougherty agreed to a meeting.
Dougherty said he informed Hightower and EHS principal Norm Bohnenstiehl of his intention to visit Lincoln-Way before departing for San Antonio. On Dec. 29, two days after his trip to New Lenox, Dougherty got a call offering while he was boarding the plane to Texas.
After many phone conversations with his family, Dougherty decided to accept the job and the challenge at a Class 8A program competing against a loaded Southwest Suburban Conference schedule.
The entire process took less than three weeks after first contact. And while Dougherty was diligent in researching the job, he understands buyer’s remorse is a danger considering the limited time for reflection.
“I’ve thought of that, on the plane ride,” Dougherty said of Sunday’s flight from San Antonio. “I don’t know. You’ve just got to go with your gut. ... Am I crazy? I don’t know. I just look at it as an opportunity. It’s a great position and it’s a great opportunity to better myself. This job has a lot of things to offer.
“And in one frame of mind that I have, I felt like my work at Edwardsville was done.”
