A week after coaching his final game with the St. Charles North football program, retiring North Stars coach Mark Gould reflected on his 12 year-tenure, which ended with a 63-56 record. Gould, the lone coach in program history, led the North Stars to eight straight playoff berths from 2002 to 2009 – including a 7A quarterfinal berth in 2009 – but ended with three losing seasons, closing with a 4-5 mark this year. In this week’s Weekend Chit-chat with sports editor Jay Schwab, Gould looks back on his time at North and touches on the program’s future. The following is an edited transcript:

Do you like to decompress from football after the season is done or do you follow the playoffs much?

You know, actually it takes probably a good week or more. We have meetings with the kids afterward, equipment turn-in, so you still feel like you need to be out on the field, so it’s a weird feeling, and I have a hard time going to that first week of playoff games when we’re not in it. I have a friend who asked “Do you want to go to some playoff games?” and I said “Maybe the second week.” The first week is just difficult.