Providence Catholic (New Lenox, IL) dismissed head coach Tyler Plantz on Saturday. The Celtics are 4-0 and ranked #1 in Class 5A in the Illinois Media Poll, and among the top five teams in the state's Super 25 ranking.
That is not a typo. A program removed its head coach four games into a season with an unbeaten record and a top state ranking. While more tends to come to light with time in situations like this, as of Monday morning the people who made the call have offered nothing close to a reason.
Athletic director Doug Ternick handled the announcement. "Providence Catholic High School is announcing a transition in the leadership of its football program as we move in a new direction," Ternick said. "The Celtics thank Coach Tyler Plantz for his time and service as head coach and for his commitment to our student-athletes and football program since 2022." Plantz did not respond to a request for comment.
While rarer than the college level, mid-season coaching changes happen occassionaly at the high school level. However, they almost never happen to a coach who is winning, and they happen even less often to one who took the program to a state title game the year before.
Plantz led Providence to the Class 5A championship game last season, where the Celtics lost to St. Francis. He went 35-19 over parts of five seasons.
The background of Plantz makes the move even more difficult to nail down. Plantz is a Providence Catholic graduate, class of 2010, who went on to play at Notre Dame and later worked on Brian Kelly's staff in South Bend before coming home to run his alma mater. He had built a consistent winner, and that formula was working again this fall.
Offensive coordinator Adam Nissen has been chosen to take over on an interim basis. takes over on an interim basis to provide some continuity for the program. He also carries head coaching experience, having run the program at St. Laurence HS (IL) or six seasons, where he went 35-28 and led the Vikings to the Class 4A state title game in 2023.
"Coach Nissen is an experienced leader who knows our student-athletes, our coaching staff and our program," Ternick said in the school's statement. "Our focus is on providing our players with stability and support as they continue through the season."
There are levels to "we're moving in a new direction." When a team is 2-6, that phrase writes itself. When a team is 4-0 and ranked first in its class, it raises more questions than it answers, and the silence around it will keep those questions loud in Chicago's south suburbs.
For now the Celtics keep playing. Nissen inherits a roster that has beaten everyone in front of it and a locker room that just watched its head coach get removed in the middle of a ranked, undefeated run. How that group responds is the story to watch moving forward.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.
Update >> Coach Plantz has released the following statement.
