Breaking: Why Olympic High football coach Jason Fowler is resigning

Olympic High football coach Jason Fowler won’t coach a third season with the Trojans.

Fowler told the Observer on Thursday afternoon that he is resigning. He will replace Ec Little as athletics director at East Mecklenburg. Little is retiring.

Fowler said East Mecklenburg officials reached out to him earlier this month about the soon-to-be-vacant athletics director position.

He coached football at East Meck for six years, before leaving to become head coach at Rocky River in 2010. Fowler said the new position intrigued him because East Meck is 3 miles from his house. Olympic is 23 miles — through heavy traffic on Interstate 485.

With a young daughter and a teenage son who plays baseball, Fowler said he and his wife were having trouble making all their kids’ activities. This new position will help with that.

“It’s been tough on my family,” Fowler said, “but I’ll miss coaching tremendously.”

Fowler coached Olympic the past two seasons, going 3-8 twice. He was head coach for seven seasons at Rocky River. He always figured he would coach football for a long time.

“This is probably the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make,” he said. “I’ve got my principal’s license, but I don’t want to be a principal right now, and I figured that if I did anything around administration, I’ll do it around athletics.”