Rob Pomazak might just encounter a few exciting days in the month of August.
He and his wife, Rebecca, are scheduled to have twins – their first children – sometime in late July or early August. Considering the St. Charles District 303 school board approved Pomazak on Monday night as St. Charles North’s new football coach, he will also be gearing up for his his first game as North’s head football coach.
That game, it just so happens, will be against Pomazak’s old school, Elk Grove, where he has taught and coached for the past decade, the past two years as Elk Grove football’s defensive coordinator.
“That’s just a twist of fate, but it’s exciting,” Pomazak said. “My main goal is to make it about the kids because it’s going to be exciting for our kids to get out there and play a good brand of football against a quality team.”
Pomazak intends to be preside over many quality teams at North, with offseason strength and conditioning prowess playing a leading role.
In addition to being the Grenadiers’ defensive coordinator, he was also strength and conditioning coordinator and sophomore baseball coach at Elk Grove. Pomazak will officially begin his physical education teaching duties in August.
The 34-year-old Pomazak has a master’s degree in exercise science and said he will aggressively promote a wide spectrum of mobility and strength training tactics as a central plank of his plan for the program.
“I think there’s so much that can be learned through the commitment and accountability that strength training provides,” Pomazak said. “It really helps prepare kids physically, but moreso mentally, for the sacrifice that football is. The physical strength we’re going to gain is going to be great, but the team bonding, putting the team before yourself, are things that really, really get lost when it comes to strength training.”
Pomazak becomes the second varsity football coach in North history after the retiring Mark Gould completed his 12-year run. The North Stars finished 4-5 last season, the third straight year North missed the playoffs after a run of eight straight postseason berths between 2002 to 2009.
North athletic director Dan Dolney said Pomazak was among four finalists after about “50 or 60” people inquired about the opening.
Dolney said the authoritative way with which Pomazak spelled out his vision for the program loomed large.
“Nothing was hypothetical,” Dolney said. “If you didn’t read his resume or didn’t know he was a coordinator, you would have assumed he’s [been a head coach] already. I think that’s what was really impressive – he had a detailed plan about how he was going to go about accomplishing what he wants to accomplish.”
Pomazak said he has called offensive plays at the lower levels with Elk Grove but plans to continue his recent trajectory as most hands-on with the defense. He said the North Stars will play a base 3-4, cover-2 defense, and the offensive approach is more up for debate, though he would like to see some spread offense components.
Having recently moved to South Elgin, Pomazak said the opportunity to become head coach at a solid program so close to where he lives was “such an unbelievable chance that I couldn’t pass up,” but he acknowledged a degree of melancholy about leaving the Grenadiers.
Dolney predicted that Pomazak will accomplish big things at North, and said Pomazak has been on his radar for quite awhile.
“Three years ago when I got the job I knew that barring someone leaving or something, the first big job open at the school was going to be football coach, and as you go to different schools, as you network with different ADs, you start hearing names, and I would say I heard Rob’s name three years ago as an up-and-coming coach,” Dolney said. “There are many other up-and-coming coaches you hear about, and you sort of put it in the drawer and hold onto it.”
Pomazak is scheduled to meet with North’s football players today and said he intends to assemble his coaching staff in the coming weeks.
