Bill Mitz ponders a question he cannot answer.

Where would he be without football?

Perhaps, back in the early 1970s, he would have joined the Army. Or maybe he would have worked construction.

Mitz’s life might have taken any number of paths had it not been for an old, hard-nosed offensive lineman from Duquesne and the Pittsburgh Steelers who happened to be his football coach at Niles West.

Mike Basrak regaled his players with NFL stories about playing against the likes of Bronko Nagurski and other professional greats. He led the Wolves to a 71-33 record in 13 seasons, dying after the 1973 season. The school named the football field Mike Basrak Stadium in his honor.

To this day, Mitz, a 1972 Niles West graduate, is grateful to Basrak. He helped Mitz pursue college football, which led Mitz to a career of teaching and coaching, one which has Mitz 22nd on the IHSA career wins list (250-135) and in the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Mitz, 64, enters his 10th season as Jacobs head coach, all since retiring as physical education teacher and coach at Stevenson, and says he is not yet considering retiring. He’s having too much fun.

“The love of the game. The love of the players,” Mitz said. “The thrill of the competition and planning. When I don’t have that feeling, I’ll get out. We’re competitive here and a playoff team and want to take it a step higher. We went to the quarterfinals two years ago, which was a great thing, but we’re still building. It’s still fun and enjoyable. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t do it.”

Mitz’s 2016 group is the only Golden Eagles’ team to win two playoff games. The 1979 team reached the Class 4A quarterfinals, but with 16-team brackets that required one win. The 2016 Eagles made the playoffs with a 5-4 record and lost to Fenwick, 28-21, in the Class 7A quarterfinals.

Jacobs has been to the playoffs seven of the nine years Mitz has been coach, although it fell short last year at 3-6.

Mitz and his wife, Donna, have four children (Christie, Jennifer, Brian and Tricia) and nine grandchildren, all girls. Mitz jokes that he has a softball team.

Brian quarterbacked Cary-Grove’s 2004 team to the Class 7A state championship game, where it lost to Libertyville, 13-3, but set a standard that helped the Trojans become a state powerhouse. Bill, who coached 28 seasons at Stevenson, made it to the Class 8A championship game in 2002, where the Patriots fell to Lockport, 35-14.

“I always ask him, ‘Dad, when’s your last year?’ ” Brian said. “He always thinks he’s going to have a better team and have a shot. He never stops believing. He loves developing the kids and a young age and seeing them progress. It’s tough to walk away from them.”

Jacobs defensive coordinator Mike Warren started his coaching career with Mitz at Stevenson, then went to do military ministry work for several years. Warren, who is a pastor in Crystal Lake, rejoined Mitz when he took the Jacobs job.

“I had not been a varsity coach before and he asked me to be defensive coordinator,” Warren said. “He was invested into me and helped me grow as a coach. He is fiercely loyal. I have been the beneficiary of that. I’m growing as a coach and learning from him. He has a tremendous charisma about him that draws the attention of his players. He bends over backwards to get any kid an opportunity at any college level that they want to get to.”

That is Mitz remembering what Basrak did for him and passing it on.

Mitz started his college career at Indiana State, then transferred to Drake, where he started for three seasons. Between Basrak and Mitz’s older brother, Gene, a college assistant coach, Mitz had two coaching role models to follow. He was an assistant at Niles West, then at Chicago Holy Cross, then landed the Stevenson head coaching job at age 27.

Mitz thoroughly enjoys life as a retired teacher. During the season, he works out at the gym, heads to school around 10:30 a.m. and prepares for practices or games. It also allows him plenty of time to work on players’ college recruiting.

“It’s fantastic,” Mitz said. “You can work more hours. Work on recruiting for your kids. You can watch a lot of film, so much so that sometimes you have to move the computer away, you can go over-crazy watching too much.”

He calls his wife “a trooper” for her understanding nature.

“The love of the game,” Brian said. “If it wasn’t for my mom, he’d marry football. When it’s the offseason, he’s always online looking up scouting reports or looking at college football or the NFL. It’s what makes him tick.”

Forty-two years ago, Mitz found his way to what he was meant to do, thanks to his brother and Basrak. He revels in the moments when former players come back to school to visit.

“It’s like those (MasterCard) commercials where they say it’s priceless,” Mitz said. “When we started out in this profession, there were buddies in the business world who used to say, ‘Why don’t you get into this?’ I was like, ‘No, no,’ I’m really happy because I think we’re really able to affect some guys’ lives, hopefully a lot of them positively.”