Personal Decision

The questions hang around the high school stadium whenever a veteran coach with some championships and a reputation for excellence stalks the sidelines. If this guy is so good, why didn’t he get a coaching job at the college or professional level? Why is he still coaching high school football? Frank Lenti has heard those questions before. As one of the nation’s most successful high school head coaches at Chicago’s Mount Carmel, Lenti knows that people wonder why he’s still coaching high school football after 28 years in the coaching business. He also knows such questions come with the territory. “The way much of our society is going today, people always think that more is better or bigger is better,” Lenti says. “Even when I’ve gone around the country and spoken at various coaching clinics, or even college coaching clinics, coaches will ask me all the time, ‘are you