Northern Lehigh's Brian Schell says goodbye to coaching for a second time

FROM KEITH GROLLER

Northern Lehigh softball coach Brian Schell, who won a state title with the Bulldogs in his first stint as coach in 1988, has resigned for a second time.

Schell was 12-9 in the just completed season, 57-33 over four seasons in his return to coaching and 180-112 in 14 seasons overall.

He also coached Northern Lehigh from 1980-89, winning two league titles in addition to the state gold.

In this stint, he won the 2010 Colonial League championship.

"I had such a good time over these past four seasons as coach and that made this a hard decision," Schell said. "It's difficult to be leaving some of these girls behind because they were a pleasure to coach and they're some great kids who really love the game.

"But there are some health issues, nothing serious, but things I have to take care of, and I also have two daughters living in Virginia right now and I don't get to see them.

"One works in Washington, D.C., and the other is going to be attending George Washington University as a graduate student, so I have a feeling neither is coming back home. So, for eight months out of the year, I don't get to see them because I don't have weekend to take off and go."

Schell said the last thing he would want to do is stay around and "shortchange the girls at Northern Lehigh."

"They deserve 100 percent from a coach," Schell said. "I've given it 100 percent up to now, but it's just going to be too difficult to continue to do that. With me, it's 100 percent or nothing."

The 54-year-old Schell said that he thought long and hard about this decision and it didn't come easy, but he wanted to make it early so there would be plenty of time for the school to hire a new coach and get things rolling for the 2011-12 school year.

Schell told the team members of his plans on Thursday.

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