Staff photo / Preston Byers Springfield head coach Adam Slopek blows his whistle during a practice in New Middletown on Wednesday.

Sean Guerriero, as he has been for much of the last two decades, plans to be on the sidelines for Springfield’s football season opener tonight vs. Lakeview.

He will just be in a different part of the sideline, without the headset and, hopefully, much of the stress he had become accustomed to on Fridays.

Tonight will mark the first time in more than 30 years that Guerriero will not be either playing or coaching a football game in the fall. The longtime Tigers head football coach announced his retirement in December, entirely focusing on being the Springfield Local School District’s athletic director, a role he assumed last summer.

“Obviously, I miss coaching a little bit,” Guerriero said of his summer. “Being around the kids, I miss being around the coaches. But I had a little bit more free time. I’m trying to prepare, and the athletic department is trying to do a couple things that might be a little bit different this year for the games and events, and things of that nature. We planned a little bit, so it’s been good so far. But I do miss being around the kids and the coaches.”

Succeeding Guerriero is Adam Slopek, who was already on the Springfield coaching staff when Guerriero arrived in 2007. Under Guerriero, Slopek served as the Tigers’ defensive coordinator, helping lead them to back-to-back state championship game appearances in 2019 and 2020.

Slopek, a first-time head coach, will be leading the Springfield football program into a new era, even if it might not look too different from what Tigers fans have seen over the last 18 years.

“I think one of the hardest things for a new head coach is going in and establishing a culture and building relationships. I didn’t have to do that,” Slopek said. “I have relationships with the players. It’s a little bit different now, but it’s really been very, very similar to what it was before. And I just love our players so much. That’s really why I wanted to take the job. … If I had gone to another school, now, I’m the new guy, and I have to try to establish those relationships before I can maybe coach them hard and stuff like that. But I could coach our guys hard right from the very beginning because they already know me, and they know that I care about them.”

Both Slopek and Guerriero have been trying to find their footing in their respective new roles, although their challenges are quite different.

While Slopek has taken on a greater burden in logistics and fundraising as a head coach, Guerriero – and his family – have dealt with not having to do all of those things.

“[I’ve been] spending a little bit more time with my family. It’s been positive, to me, whether you pick up different things or you spend time together,” Guerriero said. “I guess probably about three weeks in, my wife told me that I need to find a hobby. I’m home a little too much for her, so it was an adjustment.

“But I really just try to spend some more quality time with my family. I’m watching my daughter, who is a junior, she plays on the soccer team. I’m able to go to all of her games now.”

In addition to some of the off-the-field adjustments, Slopek said that he faces one glaring in-game obstacle in his transition from coordinator to head coach: he’s got to move.

For the past decade, unlike Guerriero, who paced up and down the sidelines, Slopek has spent his Friday nights in the press box, where he called in defensive plays from a bird’s-eye view.

Slopek said he will continue to call the defense’s plays as head coach, albeit from the sidelines.

“Being down on the field, I could see things all right, but it was just different than being in the box and having my notes over here and this and that,” Slopek said. “Having to be more involved in the game management aspect of things is a challenge that I’m trying to get better at.

“I have a great, great coach that’s coached with us for years, coach Bill Miller. He has been our defensive signal caller, so I would relay a call to him, and then he would signal it in during games. And we’re going to continue to do that, even with me on the field. It still helps me to be a little bit away from things. I can see better. So he stands by the ball and makes the call. And, I mean, he’s just an absolutely fantastic asset to have on our staff, like all our assistants are.”

While it may seem logical that Guerriero would be a source of advice for Slopek as he approached his first game, the former head coach said that was not the case because Slopek, he said, was already well-suited to be a good head coach.

“He’s so organized,” Guerriero said. “He has a plan … I was blessed to have him on my staff. He was kind of my go-to if I needed something or I needed someone to do something. He kind of was my guy. So I had no hesitation that he wasn’t going to be able to just flip that over and take that on.

“I really never gave him any advice. I’m the one who needed advice.”

Slopek, having spent more than 20 years coaching and teaching in New Middletown, understands there are always great expectations for the Tigers. But he maintains that expectations, much like praise and criticism, cannot be points of focus for his team as they embark on the 2025 season.

“The only voices that really matter are the ones in our locker room, because they’re the only ones that are there on a day-to-day basis,” Slopek said. “Of course, we love the encouragement of family and friends and fans and stuff like that. And there’s also going to be criticism that comes with that, and you have to kind of take it with a grain of salt because you’re never as good as you think you might be when you do well, and you’re also never as bad as you might feel like you are when things don’t go well…

“I said this in my interview with the administration – there is a long history of Springfield football. This is our 79th year of 11-man football. There was a long time in Springfield football before me, and I know there’s going to be a long time after me and after our players and after our assistants. So we just want to try to leave the program better than how we found it. We found it in a really great spot. So if we can do things incrementally to leave it better, to make it a stronger bond, make it a great experience for kids, that’s really the expectations that we have – [to] play football the way our community wants to see it, and how they can be proud of it.”