FOOTBALL

Tom Tourtillott steps down as East football coach as five-year plan 'fails'

Tim Johnson
USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
Tom Tourtillott has stepped down as the Wausau East football coach after four seasons with the program.

WAUSAU - Tom Tourtillott took over as Wausau East football coach in 2014 with a five-year plan to develop the program to a competitive level.

He stepped down last week with the sense he could not accomplish that goal. 

"After four years I felt I was much closer to Year 1 than I was to Year 5," Tourtillott said Wednesday afternoon. "I believe that I failed to effectively motivate the majority of our kids in the East football program, and that's disappointing from a personal level. I think that I was a failure in terms of the way things worked out with the East football program but I do also believe that I am leaving the program in a better state than the one that I inherited."

The Lumberjacks went 1-8 in their first season as an independent program after a decision to leave the Valley Football Association. A 17-14 win over Southern Door on Aug. 25 snapped the Lumberjacks' 19-game losing streak. 

East has a 4-33 record over the last four seasons overall and Tourtillott is one of five coaches who have led the Lumberjacks over the past decade. 

Now East looks for another new start. 

"We have appreciated Coach Tourtillott's dedication to our program and to our student-athletes the last four seasons," East athletic director Michael Pernsteiner said. "He has guided the program through some difficult times while remaining committed to developing young men of high character."

Tourtillott, who is a social studies teacher at  Wausau East, said continuity was an issue with East as every year in his time with the Lumberjacks there were changes with the football coaching staff. He added that there needs to be a change in the program culture overall before the Lumberjacks can expect to see consistent success on the field. 

Tourtillott said there were a number of players committed to the program over the years but he feels he could never get a team overall to do the same. 

"We had a core value that we were going to work for others (on the team)," Tourtillott said. "The majority of kids, I could not get them to understand how hard you have to work to play at a championship level. We had a number of kids who would miss practice and all sorts of things, and I just can't understand that."

Tourtillott has nearly three decades experience coaching football as an assistant and the head position. He spent 14 years at Merrill, including seven as the head coach, before he stepped down in 2012 and joined Rice Lake as an assistant coach. He said he hopes to remain coaching football at some level. 

"I don't know what my future holds, but I'm not done coaching," Tourtillott said. "I thought there needed to be a change in leadership (at East), The work ethic and the culture needs to make a turn, and I was not effective in doing that."