Hall of Fame Coach Purnell hangs it up for good

Greg Purnell is retiring as a football coach - again, and this time for good ... most likely."At this point, I doubt that I'm going to be pursuing anything else," the Iowa Football Coaches Association hall of famer said.If you have learned anything about Purnell by now, it's never to say never. Not many expected to see him again on the sidelines after he stepped down as Linn-Mar's head coach in 1999.But he resurfaced as a freshman coach at Dubuque Wahlert in 2005 and took over the varsity program at St. Francis High School in Wheaton, Ill., in 2007. He won an Illinois Class 5A state championship a year later.The 66-year-old told supporters at the team's recent postseason banquet that this really is it, though. He'll remain at the school as a major gift officer and director of its annual fund.But the football part is over."I'm just very fortunate that every place I've been I've had great kids and coaches and families to work with," Purnell said. "This was really an exciting seven years over here. It is a place that had really struggled with football for 25 years. It was very similar to 1985, the first championship we won at Linn-Mar. I was able to see a lot of the same reactions and statements and enthusiasm from the families. That part was really fun for me. It was kind of like a flashback."Purnell won three state titles in 19 seasons at Linn-Mar (1985, 1989 and 1990) and led the Lions to runner-up finishes in 1986 and 1994. The Dubuque native was inducted into the IFCA Hall of Fame in 1990.He ran the same Wing-T offense at St. Francis as he did in his Linn-Mar days. His coaching style stayed the same, too.If it's not broke, don't try and fix it."St. Francis is a great place," Purnell said. "It gave me a chance at 60 years old to get back into it. I just can't say enough about it. The thing I'm going to miss are the relationships with the kids and the coaches. Seeing kids grow and mature as football players and people. Being a high school coach has a lot of impact on kids, and I'm just blessed that I've had the opportunity in my career to be around a lot of quality young men."Purnell retires with a 203-90 career record in 29 seasons as a head coach. He spent 47 years coaching the game he loves."I've been a very lucky guy," he said. "God has been good to me, given me great players and great assistant coaches. It was great knowing that if you treated kids and people right, you could get them excited about the great game of football. I think that's something I'll always look back on."