After the resignation of the previous football coach Jack Rustman, special education teacher Tyler Belding has taken the reins as the new head football coach.

“Coaching is great, it’s one of the funnest parts about being a teacher being able to work with kids outside the classroom,” Belding said. 

Belding is a 2002 graduate of West Chicago, where he began his football career by playing in the park district program.

“I don’t know what initially inspired me to start coaching. I just liked sports when I was little. It was something that I had the knowledge to do so I started doing it and I found it pretty fun so I kept going,” Belding said.

As a coach, Belding feels rewarded from being a coach to many students.

“I don’t know if it’s like the most rewarding part of the job, day-to-day. It’s working with the kids that is fun but the rewarding part comes later on. When you see the kids graduating and then they come back and they tell you how successful they are, in college, with their job, if they decided to keep on playing. It’s kind of delayed gratification kind of thin,g” Belding said.

Although Belding has coached football, track, and baseball, coaching isn’t always easy.

“Sometimes everything I do seems difficult, and sometimes everything I do seems easy,” Belding said.

As students deal with stress and other responsibilities, Belding tries to be empathetic towards his students.

“Everyone has to deal with stress and being in a sport gives you more stress. Then stress is important and then it’s important that they know they can handle the stress that they’re dealing with where its school, or sports or family or whatever,” Belding said.

Not only does Belding help his students get better in sports, but he also gives them some advice that can apply to situations not just in football.

“I tell the kids they should do what’s right because it’s the right thing to do even if it’s not convenient for them,” Belding said.

Belding has a strong relationship with teachers and coaches alike, both of whom he respects and looks up to.

“I don’t know who my role model is. There’s lots of coaches and teachers who I have a lot of respect for and I can’t pick one out that I would say is the person. But I’ve had the chance to work with a lot of coaches in my time here and I’ve learned from all of them and all those experiences have helped kind of develop my coaching philosophy.” Belding said.

As Belding helps players get better, the results can be shown at the Friday football games.

“This year, we’ve been getting better every week and the results are getting better on Fridays as well,” Belding said.