ROMEOVILLE – Few get the opportunity to experience what Jim Boudouris did during his 40-year association with Romeoville High School.

The 1974 Romeoville graduate, who played football and baseball at the school right as it split from Lockport, recently retired after a 36-year career during which he served as a coach, teacher and athletic director.

It was Boudouris’ passion for coaching football that led to a career change from being an insurance salesman to becoming a teacher.

When his wife, Lisa, got a teaching job at Romeoville in 1979, the Western Illinois University graduate volunteered to assist two of his coaches, Tony Fazio and Dick Ruppel, with the freshman squad. He started taking night classes and soon was subbing at the school.

Before long, he was a volunteer coach on the varsity team with Dennis Schley and, by 1983, he got his teacher’s certificate and joined the business department. He continued coaching until 2003, when he succeeded Schley as the school’s athletic director.

“I never looked at coaching or teaching as a job, though it was certainly a career,” Boudouris said. “I was very fortunate because I enjoyed going to work. I worked with a lot of great people. And I was fortunate to work with ‘Faz,’ saw a lot of the things that he did and saw his passion for kids. And then Dennis took me on, and he’s been great, and has been to this day. It’s nice when you can have guys who mentored you who are also good friends of yours.”

He got the chance to work on varsity staffs with Schley and Bill Wienke during some successful seasons. When Wienke left for Joliet Township in 1996, Boudouris became head coach.

“As things changed, I thought about becoming a head coach,” Boudouris said. “I knew that it would take time because Dennis was young and very successful, but he retired from coaching to be with his kids when they were playing. And then Bill became head coach, and I’d known him since the 1970s. When Bill left, I was fortunate to get the head job.

“Football-wise, we were competitive, and in some years we were really good. We played good competition but had good players and good assistants, and I was proud to be a part of that. I had a good foundation, first with Faz and then with Dennis and Bill, when I got the opportunity to be the offensive coordinator. All of that gave me a background to become a head coach, and I loved it. I had young assistants who gave me everything that they had. Then another opportunity came when Dennis retired as AD, and I got the AD job.”

Boudouris thoroughly enjoyed his years as a coach. What was most important to him was working with coaches who shared his passion, as well as leading many great kids.

“In coaching, it was just the excitement of being at practice and game day and all of the work that coaches put in to prepare kids for the game and how the kids would respond,” Boudouris said. “Wins and losses are what everybody sees and, unfortunately, oftentimes that’s a measuring stick. But that’s not really the whole story.

“The exciting times certainly were when your team was successful in the playoffs, and there were times that we may not have won as many games. But we had some great kids to work with who may not have been great players, but they went on to [have] successful careers and families. Hopefully, what was happening at our school had a lot to do with that. There were a whole lot more positives than negatives.”

Boudouris can’t imagine making a better career choice than the one he chose.

“I’ve been really lucky,” Boudouris said. “This school has been great to me, and I can’t complain. I don’t know how you can be in a leadership position and not have good support from people working for you or from those above you, and that’s what made Romeoville High School a special place for a lot of us. We always had very supportive leadership and a lot of assistant coaches who had a great passion for kids, both on and off the field. The people that I worked for and worked with all played a big role in my professional career.

“For a campus that’s 50 years old, our facilities are as good as anybody’s, and they’re going to continue to get better. In this district, the buildings are run well, the kids get a great educational experience and also an opportunity to participate in activities and athletics. I’m sure there’s a lot of people who don’t enjoy going to work in the morning. We had some days that weren’t so good, but at the end of the day, I couldn’t have selected a better career or a better place to have that career. I had a blast.”