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After 32 years of coaching high school football, Independence High defensive coordinator Bill Geiler says it's time to stop.
Geiler, 53, will retire next month and break up one of the most successful coaching staffs in North Carolina history.
Geiler and Patriots head coach Tom Knotts have worked together for 24 of the past 27 years. Since 1987, Geiler has coached in 12 of the past 21 championship games in the state's highest classification.
He's been a part of seven state titles. Patriots offensive coordinator Jon Strong, also a part of the championship successes, plans to retire at the end of the school year. Strong joined the staff in 1982, one year after Knotts and Geiler hooked up at Harding High.
Knotts and Geiler said that's added some special significance to this playoff run, which they hope ends with an eighth state championship in nine seasons. Independence (12-0) will play Butler (12-1) Friday in a 4AA quarterfinal at Memorial Stadium.
“I've turned my papers in,” said Geiler, 53. “I put my time in and so has Jon. It's time for me to pay my wife (Candy) back for all the dinners I missed and vacations I haven't been able to go on. My anniversary is at the end of August and she's always at a football game. She's been a real trouper. It's her time now.”
Geiler said he's tired and probably would've made this move before the 2007 season, but didn't want to leave the program in shambles. He was coaching the team in the spring and summer of 2007 while Knotts was recovering from shoulder surgery and dealing with the loss of his father.
Geiler said the '07 season, marred by an eligibility scandal and a four-month probe into the program that didn't turn up any concrete evidence of wrongdoing, was particularly trying.
“Last season took a toll on all of us,” said Geiler, who plans to work for a petroleum company.
“It was a bad time. We didn't have fun. I didn't rest. Not just me, but everybody. I'm fortunate enough where I've got my years in and I can go home and be with my wife. Me and Strong will play golf. I don't have to get up at 5 a.m. and get to school to watch the buses roll out.”
Geiler and Knotts began working together in 1981 at Harding, when Knotts got the head job and Geiler was moving over from Spaugh Junior High, where he had been head coach for six years.
“The first year, Tommy did everything,” Geiler said. “We stood around and watched him coach. It about killed him. Then one day, he called me and said, ‘We'll make the kids do it our way and I want you to help me.'”
Harding went 3-7 in 1981 and '82, but quickly improved. In 1987, the Rams reached the N.C. 4A championship game. By then, Geiler had become what Knotts calls “my right-hand man.” Geiler interviewed and helped hire assistants. He became “the good cop” when Knotts needed to tear into his teams.
“We're definitely like brothers,” Knotts said. “We're yin and yang. When I'm being a good guy, he turns into the hard guy, but it's usually the other way around. He tries to find a way to smooth it over and get everything right. He's an upbeat guy.”
Geiler, Knotts and Strong have won big at Harding, at West Charlotte and now Independence, which once won 109 straight games. Since leaving West Charlotte in 1999, the trio is 133-4 at Independence.
They coached against each other once, in 1989, after Knotts left for West Charlotte and Geiler and Strong remained at Harding. Knotts' Lions won 10-7 in overtime.
The next season, 1990, Geiler and Strong rejoined Knotts at West Charlotte. After the '99 season, they left with him for Independence. Geiler was head coach of the 2004 state champions when Knotts was an assistant at Duke.
The next season, 2005, Knotts came back to coach the Patriots and Geiler started a program, with Strong, at Union County's Porter Ridge High. In 2006, they rejoined Knotts at Independence and won another title. In 2007, New Bern beat the Patriots in the 4AA final.
“It's been a fun ride,” said Geiler, who didn't rule out a return to coaching if “the bug” bit him again. “I remember the guys who come back to me after they graduate and say, ‘You know, I didn't listen all the time, but the things you guys taught us made a difference in my life,' and then they show me their own kids.”
Geiler said he has no regrets.
“I've done everything possible a football coach can do,” he said. “I've won championships as an assistant, been a part of one as a head coach. I've been to the Shrine Bowl. My career has been a joy, and I think now it's time to do something else.”
GOING TO THE GAME?
Friday's Independence-Butler rematch at Memorial Stadium starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $8; parking, $3. Gates open at 6:30.
Langston Wertz Jr.: 704-358-5133
