It was not easy for Art Ostrow to recommend hiring someone other than Otto Zeman to be the head coach of the varsity football team at Riverside-Brookfield High School. After all, Ostrow had coached under Zeman for a decade and has worked under him as an assistant athletic director at RB.
But Ostrow, who will officially replace Zeman as athletic director on July 1, decided that change was needed at the top of the football program at RB. Ostrow recommended that Jason Rech, who last year was the head coach of the sophomore football team at RB and before that was the offensive line coach for the varsity team, replace Zeman as head coach.
“I did recommend going with Jason Rech,” Ostrow said. “It was a very difficult situation, for sure, being at RB for 10 years and working under Otto. He’s done amazing things at RB and he’s been there his whole career. It certainly was a hard decision. I just felt that at this point in time it was necessary to go in a different direction with the football program.”
So did a narrow majority of a split school board.
Shortly after midnight on June 9, following a nearly two-and-a-half hour closed session, the Riverside-Brookfield Township High School District 208 board voted 4-3 to hire Rech as the head varsity football coach.
The vote ends the long and successful career of Otto Zeman at RB. Zeman graduated from RB. As a senior in 1965, he finished second in the state in wrestling in the 154-pound division. He went on to post a standout wrestling career at Northwestern University.
When he graduated from Northwestern in 1969, he returned to RB and become an assistant football coach. He never left, except for one year when he took a leave of absence to help his ill father in his father’s manufacturer’s representative business.
After serving 11 years as an assistant to Bill VandeMerkt, Zeman became head football coach in 1982. He immediately turned around a team that had won only one game the year before. In Zeman’s first year as head coach, RB won seven games and lost only two.
The success continued. Zeman had only eight losing seasons in his 28 years as RB’s head football coach. His 2000 and 2001 teams both went 11-1. His overall career record as RB’s head coach is 162-114.
In 2002, Zeman retired as a full-time teacher but was hired as athletic director.
For all his success, Zeman has been a polarizing figure. People are vehement about Zeman both pro and con. He is a man who arouses strong feelings. Some praise his innovative offensive mind, his toughness, his loyalty and his community-mindedness.
Others have questioned his coaching methods, his offensive philosophy and his fundraising programs and describe him as sometimes harsh with players, vindictive and prone to play favorites.
The school board has been as divided on Zeman as the community it represents.
The same four members of the school board who voted in April to remove Zeman as athletic director, Dan Moon, Matt Sinde, Mike Welch and school board president Jim Marciniak, voted last week to hire Rech.
Marciniak, who cast the deciding vote to hire Rech, said that the recommendation in favor of Rech by Interim Superintendent David Bonnette played a large role in his vote.
“I’m very respectful of the thought and consideration that go into any of the recommendations for personnel items that we get from the superintendent,” Marciniak said. “In this case we had a recommendation from our administration that advised us that this is a positive direction for the future that would best benefit the students who participate in this program.”
Voting against hiring Rech, and implicitly supporting Zeman, were former school board president Larry Herbst, Sue Kleinmeyer and MariAnn Leibrandt. In April all three also voted in favor of keeping Zeman as athletic director.
Rech, Zeman and RB assistant coach Dallas Till all interviewed during the last week of May by a panel that included Ostrow, RB Interim Principal Tim Scanlon and a group of coaches from RB. After those interviews, Ostrow recommended hiring Rech. Bonnette interviewed Rech himself before bringing his recommendation to the school board.
“As we looked into this in a systematic, overall programmatic way, it was felt that, for the benefit of the overall program we would make this change at this time,” Bonnette said.
Bonnette rejected the notion that Zeman was fired.
“He was not fired,” Bonnette said. “He was not rehired.”
Technically, all coaches are hired on a year-to-year basis at RB, and their stipends must be approved annually. But the end result is the same. Zeman is gone.
Bonnette acknowledged that it was not easy to recommend replacing Zeman.
“It’s been very difficult for many of us,” Bonnette said. “It’s certainly not our desire to disrespect the great contribution that has been made over many years and not to disregard that.”
Ostrow said that a major factor in picking Rech over Zeman was his desire to have more continuity with underclass football teams at RB and, he hoped, continuity with feeder programs for younger kids.
“One of the things I was looking for was consistency with feeder programs,” Ostrow said. “To be running the same type of offense and defense is key.”
Ostrow said that Zeman’s no-back, five-receiver, wide-open passing attack was a type of offense that was too complicated for younger players. Ostrow wanted the freshmen and sophomore teams, and hopefully feeder programs, to run the same offense and defense as the RB varsity team, so young players could learn the skills and techniques needed to be successful varsity players.
“My philosophy on what I’d like to see in the football program wasn’t the same philosophy that Coach Zeman had,” Ostrow said. “I’m not saying that his was right or wrong. It just wasn’t where I would like to see it go. I just figured that now was as good a time as any to just go in a different direction.”
Herbst was a senior football player at RB when Zeman was a first-year assistant coach returning to his alma mater. Herbst’s son, Brad, was a standout player for Zeman. Herbst says that Zeman has been treated shabbily. He said Zeman deserved a better ending to his career after all the years and accomplishments at RB.
“It didn’t have to end this way,” Herbst said. “RB is a family. It’s not just another high school. You don’t just cut a family member to the quick like this. It could have been a much more ceremonial, much more gracious process than this.”
Herbst said that his vote against hiring Rech was a vote in support of Zeman, not a vote against Rech. He pointed to Zeman’s success on the field producing consistently winning teams and all-staters.
“There could have been some other option here as opposed to how quickly and swiftly it happened,” Herbst said. “I don’t think it needed to happen this way, and it’s a shame that someone who has put as much time and effort into this program is unceremoniously terminated like this or not brought back. I think he was looking for one more year. I don’t think he expected this to happen June 8.”
When contacted by the Landmark, Zeman declined to immediately comment about the decision not to bring him back.
“I just want to wait a week before I comment about it,” Zeman said. “I’m just trying to give my brain enough time.”
Leibrandt also wanted Zeman back as football coach.
“I would have been fine with Otto remaining as head coach,” Leibrandt said. “I feel that he has contributed to many more students than just athletes at RB.”
Herbst pointed to Zeman’s emphasis on community service and his welcoming special education students to serve as managers for the football team.
“He didn’t have to do that, and it was way before it was in vogue to have a Best Buddies program or anything,” Herbst said. “He always did it. He always made those kids feel part of the program.”
Herbst also pointed the community service work Zeman had the football players do.
“He’s always there,” Herbst said. “He’s got the coaches and players sandbagging in the flood. These kids are out there doing something for the community. I’d like to see the rest of our faculty or our administration or even board members do as much as Otto’s done over the last quarter of a century as far as civic response and civic service.
“I challenge the naysayers and critics of Otto. If they’ve done 10 percent of what Otto’s done in the last year, then maybe they could cast the first stone on character.”