Brian Ryczkowski is back as Ashwaubenon football coach after resigning

It took a few months and several interviews, but Ashwaubenon has announced its new football coach after Brian Ryczkowski stepped down in November after seven years with the program.

It’s Brian Ryczkowski.

Yes, that Brian Ryczkowski.

He remained a math teacher at Ashwaubenon when he left football, has seen players every day in the hallway at school and already knows the entire roster.

The transition should be quite smooth.

“I’d like to first start by saying thank you to the school district of Ashwaubenon for giving me the opportunity to be the head football coach at Ashwaubenon High School,” Ryczkowski said. “It’s an honor. Football takes a balance of time, energy and priorities, and I got off-balance with those and how to spend my time on those things.

“When I resigned, I made the best decision I could based on the time. Since the resignation, I knew I loved the game of football. My family loves it. I had a chance to cross a line I never crossed before, to back out 10,000 feet and take a look at what it was. I still love the game of football. … I think I have a lot to offer the community, the school district and the football team here at Ashwaubenon.”

But how in the world did this all happen?

After Ryczkowski resigned the second week of November, he told the school’s administration the following month that he did not regret his decision but that he was interested in being the head coach again. He wanted to know what he needed to do to make it happen.

It was simple.

Ryczkowski had to apply for his old job and go digging in his closet for a sport coat to wear for what turned out to be two interviews. He treated the process the same way he prepared Ashwaubenon for football games, with the goal of winning.

“It’s different, because you are interviewing for your job and people could analyze the things you have done and really look at the man and is he going to be somebody we can trust again with this position?” Ryczkowski said. “I can tell you, they hired Brian Ryczkowski, but it’s not the same person. I’ve changed, my perspective has changed. How I feel has changed.

“Along with that, we will make some changes with the program. I am going to ask the leadership team made up of players to help with some of those decisions. But I have heard feedback from administration, read player exit interviews after the season and I am reenergized and ready to take on that challenge.”

There have been moments the past couple of years when Ryczkowski stopped trusting his instincts. It might have been on a third-down call on a Friday night or something on the practice field during the week.

That will change moving forward.

Ashwaubenon went 4-6 in 2025 and lost to New Richmond in the opening round of the WIAA Division 2 playoffs.

The Jaguars made the postseason six times under Ryczkowski despite having one of the smallest enrollments in the Fox River Classic Conference-North.

After Ryczkowski informed Ashwaubenon athletic director Nick Senger in the fall about his decision to step down, Senger asked Ryczkowski to give himself more time before doing it.

But Ryczkowski did not need more time. His choice had been made.

When Ryczkowski expressed a desire to return, Senger told him that he had been their guy and would have been their guy had he not done what he did in stepping away.

He loved that Ryczkowski was interested in the position, but Ashwaubenon was going to complete the search process that had started.

Ryczkowski only was promised an interview.

“I was surprised, I am not going to lie,” Senger said. “But at the same point in time, inside, I was pretty excited about the opportunity for him that he could come in and sell us on it.”

What Senger already knew is that he believed Ryczkowski is good for kids, and that as a teacher at the school, he didn’t have any questions about his character or his priority to help develop student-athletes.

“Anybody coming in would have had to have been above and beyond,” Senger said. “And that’s tough to do.”

Senger was asked if there was anything during the evaluation process that he wanted Ryczkowski to perhaps change.  

“We looked at feedback from stakeholders,” Senger said. “Those are conversations that we have with all coaches at the end of a season. This year, we didn’t really get to have that conversation because of the timing of things.

“Those are still some conversations that we are going to have. Brian is good at adjustments. Brian is good at taking feedback and making adjustments with the team, whether it’s a Friday night thing or a practice structure thing. He’s the guy who makes those decisions. Conversations that I have with him are more, ‘Here is what I am seeing, here is what I am hearing, what are your thoughts?’”

Ryczkowski told his wife and four daughters at the end of the season that he was probably done coaching.

But after he stepped down, his wife could tell it was bothering him. When Ryczkowski was not present one day, she asked the kids for a family vote at the dinner table about dad coming back to coach.

Everybody raised their hand.

“My kids were handing out water bottles on Friday nights, they have a lemonade stand in August,” Ryczkowski said. “They mean the world to me. They signed up for flag football this spring. I just think football brings families together. My kids have grown up with football. They are going to go to high school here. I bleed green and gold.

“I think any kid being around the game of football is good for their childhood. They are 100% behind me returning to coaching.”

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Brian Ryczkowski is back as Ashwaubenon football coach after resigning