After two years at the helm of the Coupeville High School football team, head coach Jay Silver resigned this week.

Silver listed several reasons for his decision, with the strain on his family and the inability to land a teaching position with the Coupeville School District as the main concerns.

Silver said, “Essentially I just couldn’t do the drive (he lives in Mount Vernon) without a job, it was way too hard on me and my family…Also, without being in the building it is impossible to build a program. You can’t recruit kids and they don’t want to play for a guy they only see during football season. They have to have some rapport with the coach and trust.”

This past football season Silver’s wife suffered a life-threatening illness, and that heightened his awareness of his need to spend more time with his family.

He said he applied for several job openings in the district but was not granted interviews.

In his resignation letter he said, “Not being able to work in the district puts great strain on a coach’s ability to build a program…to help keep track of student athletes, to run after school weight training or properly take care of athletic fields. The biggest disadvantage is the inability to recruit more players into the program. Students are more likely to play for a teacher that they see in the building and trust rather than playing for the coach that they only see during the football season.”

Not being in the building, he said, also led to miscommunication and the inability clarify rumors.

He said he enjoyed working with the athletes: “The kids in Coupeville really are great, they desire to win and they aren’t afraid to work hard.”

His goal was to “to create a competitive team that was shaped by hard work and character development.”

In his resignation letter, he said he believed he met those goals “as evidenced by the increase in attendance to summer weightlifting sessions, attendance at summer camps, and participation in various other skills development opportunities such as passing leagues and passing tournaments.”

He finished his Coupeville career with a 3-16 record, 0-14 in Cascade Conference play. The Wolves are one of only two 1A schools along with six 2A teams in their league. Silver said Coupeville needs to find a more equitable situation for its athletes.

“I hope the community, school and especially the kids the best, they deserve it,” he said. “I would love to be out there coaching again next year, but I have to take care of my family.”