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Otto Zeman said Monday he will not be brought back next season as varsity head football coach at
“They’re not going to let me coach,” Zeman said on Monday.
Zeman said he has been told he won’t be rehired and that Jason Rech, a current assistant football coach at RB, will be the new head coach.
No official announcement has been made, but Zeman said the change would be made official at Tuesday night’s school board meeting
District 208 Interim Superintendent David Bonnette said Monday afternoon he expected that the District 208 school board would appoint a varsity head football coach Tuesday night.
Bonnette declined to comment when asked if Zeman was out as football coach or whether Rech was going to replace him.
“I’m not going to comment until after the meeting,” Bonnette said.
Bonnette also declined to say whether any member of the RB administration had told Zeman he would not be brought back as football coach.
Three school board members who were reached by the Landmark on Monday said they were aware of no decision having been made, and they were not certain if a decision would be made Tuesday.
“I don’t know if a decision will be made one way or another,” said District 208 school board member Larry Herbst. “That certainly hasn’t been discussed or decided by the board.”
In April, Zeman was not rehired as athletic director at RB. On May 11 Art Ostrow, a former assistant football coach at RB under Zeman and the chairman of RB’s Wellness Department, was hired as RB’s new athletic director.
Ostrow said soon after he was named athletic director that he would act quickly to make a recommendation as to whether Zeman should continue as head football coach. Ostrow didn’t immediately return a call from the Landmark on Monday asking whether he had made his recommendation to Bonnette.
Zeman has been the varsity head football coach at RB since 1982. He has a career record, according to the Illinois High School Association Web site, of 162 wins and 114 losses.