One local high school football coach who thought he had stepped away now finds himself back, but another has made an unexpected departure from the sidelines.
Tim Hawkins is returning to Jordan-Elbridge months after he said that family and work obligations would keep him from coaching the Eagles, while Westhill is in search of a new head coach after Jamie Casullo stepped down just two seasons into his tenure.
Just after the 2015 season ended, Hawkins resigned, having steered the revival of J-E football in his three seasons at the helm. From a 1-7 mark in 2012, the Eagles went 16-10 in Hawkins’ tenure, twice reaching the Section III Class C playoffs and advancing to the semifinals in 2014 before falling to Herkimer.
Thinking that Hawkins was done, J-E began to look elsewhere and, by the end of February, appeared ready to hire Jason Trousdale, a former head coach at Weedsport who had gone to Kevin DeParde’s staff at East Syracuse Minoa.
Trousdale had given up his ESM duties – only to see J-E remove his hiring from its Board of Education agenda, once on March 2 and again on March 23. Around that time, J-E officials got back in touch with Hawkins and asked if he would return, so long as the schedule was rearranged to not interfere with work or family.
Hawkins agreed, and the one-time Bishop Ludden assistant is back with the Eagles. Trousdale was able to go back to the ESM staff, though he said he was frustrated that the J-E situation did not work out.
Meanwhile, an entirely different situation was playing out at Westhill. No one expected Jamie Casullo to leave.
In two seasons after taking over for Gary Griffo, Casullo’s Warriors had a solid 12-5 record, reaching the sectional Class B playoff on both occasions and getting as far as the semifinals in 2014. Each season, Cazenovia eliminated Westhill, with the Lakers eventually taking the state championship in 2015.
A former assistant at the University at Albany for six years, Casullo became a father two months ago when his wife, Heather, gave birth to a son. He said that he had no problems in his relationship with the school, adding that leaving Westhill was difficult and that telling his players last week was just as tough.
