Barry: Leaving Mustangs 'not an easy choice'

Updated: March 28, 2011 9:38AM

When Mike Barry accepted the position of football coach at Evergreen Park three years ago, he inherited a team that was coming off an 0-9 season.

The Mustangs showed gradual improvement the next three years under Barry, finishing 1-8, 4-5 and 5-4.

And with a strong nucleus of players returning in the fall, led by 1,000-yard rusher Victor Baker, Evergreen Park was expected to show more progress - possibly the program's first playoff appearance in five years.

If that's to happen, however, it will occur under someone else's watch.

Barry resigned and has accepted the top spot at Hinsdale South, where he finds himself in another rebuilding situation. South finished 3-6 last season, hasn't qualified for the playoffs since 2005 and is 13-32 over the past five seasons.

"It wasn't an easy choice to make," said Barry, a social studies teacher. "I met with the players and staff, and it wasn't easy at all. We literally built the program back up with our bare hands - we had to break down walls to expand the locker room.

"We're at the point where we expected this year could be very special. We're returning the majority of our starters on both sides of the ball. The guy who gets the job is going to open the cupboard and be excited by what's in there."

In the end, a generous financial package and the opportunity to direct a more established program proved too difficult to decline.

"Financially, taking care of my family, doing the right thing as a man, this was the right thing to do," said Barry, a married father of a 1-year old boy and whose wife is pregnant with twins. "An opportunity like Hinsdale South doesn't come along too often."

Evergreen Park athletic director Jim Soldan hopes he can catch lighting in a bottle again with the next hire.

Barry, a Downers Grove North graduate, was coaching in Florida when Soldan offered him the job at Evergreen Park.

"I'm the one who found Mike in Florida," Soldan said. "It's just a matter of he found a better situation for him and his family. You've got to jump on those when you find them these days.

"He's from that area. He'll be coaching in the conference he played in. He's going to do good where he's at. You can quote me on this: In two years, Mike will have Hinsdale back in the playoffs."

Evergreen Park fans hope that's the direction the Mustangs are headed in 2011, no matter who's hired. Soldan already has received approximately 50 inquiries for Barry's vacated position.

"This should be a very solid season for us," Soldan said. "We have a lot of very key athletes coming back. I have over 50 resumes (for a combination head football coach/social studies teacher). There are a lot of social studies teachers out there.

"Right now, I don't have any internal candidates. I think we'll have a couple."

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