Bill Zwaan finishes off a legendary college football coaching career at West Chester

When his historic coaching run was over, Bill Zwaan didn’t relieve himself of his duties quite yet, after West Chester’s football season ended with a 34-7 victory over Clarion, the last of his 20 Golden Rams seasons into the books.

Everyone wanted a picture. Zwaan took charge of that at midfield. His family first, he called out. (His extended family is almost as big as his team.) Then his coaches. Then the trainers. (“OK, more room on the other side guys.”) Then his geezer breakfast club.

Then his players, including all his former players who had shown up.

“All right now,” Zwaan said. “Let’s see if we can pull this off.”

He paused…

“Hold up, hold up, hold up,” Zwaan called out. “Coaches, I need another one. Gerald wasn’t in it.”

The coaches regathered … then all the ex-players squeezed in, current players joining the photo. Golden Rams new and old ended that by yelling out the Zwaan post-game reminder they apparently all knew. … “Be smart tonight and don’t be [jerks!]”

This was lined up to be his Zwaan song, his retirement announced the week before. He got to slam dunk his headset one last time after a first-quarter pass interference flag wasn’t dropped. Yell at his sideline one more time, “Hey, hey, everybody’s got to get back.” Victory secured, he got to hug his offensive coordinator, his former QB, who happens to be his son. After one last postgame huddle, he got to hear players say, “Love ya, Coach.” He got a game ball, with the right number of career victories already etched on it. (There was no alternate ball for a loss.)

Maybe Zwaan’s alma mater blew it a couple of times not bringing the old Delaware Blue Hens QB back at some point as head coach. But life worked out. He was capable of coaching in the big time, but you don’t usually get two decades at the highest levels. Add in seven more at Widener. Zwaan’s 217 career wins made him the winningest active head coach in NCAA Division II.

The Archbishop Carroll graduate coached the Golden Rams to the NCAA playoffs ten times, to the national semifinals twice. Zwaan also got Widener to the D-III national semifinals. How many can claim making the Final Four in any sport at two levels?

Zwaan said during the week he was trying to keep his players focused. Fine so far, he’d said on Wednesday. Of course, this was the last game for a bunch of players, too.

“It’s Senior Day,” Zwaan had said. “I don’t want the seniors to miss out on their day. I’m trying to keep things on the side while we do that. It’s hard. There’s a lot of people who make it bigger than it needs to be.”

How was he doing keeping his own emotions in check? OK, he’d said pregame, but once in a while “something would happen,” he said, like all all the texts and emails he was getting from former players.

“Once in a while a kid will hit a note,” Zwaan said. “Ah [expletive.]”

He laughed.

“You know, this is our lives,” Zwaan said. “This is what we do. You always wonder whether they really are listening to you. And do they really care? When you hear that they do, something where they quote you … ‘Coach, I remember when you said this, and I’ve taken it with me forever.’ Well, that’s the kind of stuff.”

Zwaan turned 69 on Thursday. He was asked if it had become a young man’s job at this point.

“I think it always has been to a certain extent,” Zwaan said. “Here’s the issue. My leg has been a mess for five years. I feel like I’ve aged 15 years in the last five years. I can’t walk. I can’t stand for practice for much of the time. When I stand for an entire game, the next day I am shot.”

He told his own players earlier: “I’ve become the one thing I never wanted to be. A doddering old man hanging out on the football field. And that’s what I feel I’ve become.”

So, he said, definitely time.

“It was time last year,” Zwaan said. “I was ready to go last year. My president said, give it a little bit of time. Don’t make a decision yet. See if you can get healthier. In that time frame, my two best players go in the transfer portal and leave. Not really having dealt with the transfer portal extensively before, I didn’t know how our kids would react to that.”

In other words, the two best players leave. Now Coach Zwaan leaves. Were the rest being abandoned?

“Just hang in there,” Zwaan told himself.

Zwaan had riffed about how “for the last three weeks” his wife had been asking him, “Are you sure?”

The joke was about how he suddenly was going to be home “every damn night … sitting there watching TV,” how she had to tell him, that TV might be on Bravo, not a game.

“Are you sure? … Even yesterday,” Zwaan quipped on Wednesday. “I said, ‘I already announced it.’”

This last one fit in with his career, securing a 6-5 winning season. The Golden Rams converted five of their first six third downs to get a working lead. West Chester intercepted five passes, three by senior safety Izaiah McPherson. Running back Dayshawn Jacobs, a redshirt freshman, ran 16 times for 180 yards and two scores.

It was a proper way to go out, many of the ex-players watching it all from the parking lot up the hill, which still seems closer than the back rows of Beaver Stadium.

Nope, no regrets coaching all these years at Farrell Stadium. He thanked all the appropriate people, started postgame remarks to the crowd by shouting out the band – “every single home game is an event because we have the greatest band in the world.”

This fanfare – “I don’t want to do this stuff,” Zwaan said. “But I do appreciate it. It’s been quite a run. These two decades … I am going to do the Lou Gehrig thing. I am the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”

Later on, every person in the place seemed to want a personal photo. Zwaan may still be out there. He’s not the winningest active coach anymore, but he never was a [jerk.]