I ran into an old buddy at Jonathan Alder Friday night.
At the end of the Jonathan Alder-London football game, I saw a member of the Red Raider coaching staff who looked really familiar.
PRINTZ
The London line coach is Payton Printz, a 1982 graduate of Marysville High School and former head coach at Triad.
The Red Raiders squad marks Printz’s latest stop on the coaching trail.
He returned to the local area 20 years ago after serving as a head coach at a high school in Kentucky.
Printz served one season as an assistant coach at Triad and then took over the top spot for the Cardinals.
The former Monarch lineman not only revamped Triad’s gridiron program, but also was a shot in the arm for the entire student body and community.
Printz compiled an 86-72 record during his 15 seasons at the Cardinal helm.
He led the team to five state playoff berths and three post-season victories.
Printz was also an ambassador for student success.
There were countless times at other sports contests that I saw students flocking to him, waiting for his constant words of encouragement.
I also heard stories about how he would help a student with physical challenges off and on a school bus at the beginning and ending of the day.
The real heroic story about Payton Printz, however, is that he beat non-hodgkin’s lymphoma not once, but twice while he coached the Cardinals.
He battled through the cancer without complaint (even though he was, at times, in a great deal of pain, and was an inspiration to many folks.
Printz stepped away from Triad a few years ago and served one season as an assistant coach at Minster High School.
He got the itch to once again take over a program and went to South Charleston Southeastern as head coach.
The Trojans struggled during his three-year stint and finished with a record of 10-20.
Printz resigned as Southeastern’s coach close to Christmas, but decided to stay on as a health and physical education instructor at the Clark County school.
Football, however, kept tugging at him and he latched on with the London coaching staff, which is led by former Jonathan Alder player Kyle Cutler.
At the time he stepped down from the Southeastern head coaching job, Printz said he felt it was time for someone else to make head coaching decisions.
Despite that, he said he looked into several different openings for the 2020 season, none of which panned out.
It appears, though, this year as an assistant has re-charged him even more for another shot at a top job.
I asked him if he would ever want to be a head coach down the road. His response?
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “I definitely want to be a head coach again.”
I don’t doubt he’ll end up leading another football program at some point down the road.