Providence Catholic High School fires football coach Tyler Plantz despite 4-0 start to season
Providence Catholic High School in southwest suburban New Lenox has fired football coach Tyler Plantz, despite the team's 4-0 start to the season.
"I was surprised, definitely, that it happened," Plantz told CBS News Chicago.
On Friday, the school shared a post on Facebook celebrating the team's 31-7 victory over Carmel Catholic High School on homecoming weekend. They also posted the winning score on X, along with their 4-0 record and the hashtag #believe.
But one day after that victory, Providence Catholic fired Plantz as the Celtics' coach, after Plantz said a school official met with him and asked the Providence alum and University of Notre Dame graduate to quit.
"I was asked to resign. He listed some reasons, and I explained to him that I didn't feel comfortable doing that, and that each one of these things that he mentioned to me were fixable," Plantz said.
When Plantz refused to resign, the school fired him. He said he believes it had to do with things like practice structures or game scheduling.
"I don't want to be a distraction. I don't want this conversation to be a distraction. The biggest thing that broke my heart, like, obviously it's family and everything else, but it's … my mission in coaching is, how do I serve kids?" he said.
Plantz played football at Providence Catholic and then at Notre Dame. He was later a coach at Notre Dame, but came back to Providence Catholic after his brother, Zak, died in a car crash in 2020.
His family even donated money for the weight room.
"Named it the Zak Plantz Performance Center. When they did that, I kind of pivoted my career, where I actually left the University of Notre Dame to coach a smaller school, to kind of get myself squared away," Plantz said.
Despite being fired from his alma mater after compiling a 35-19 record in five years, and his family's deep connections to the school, Plantz does not appear to harbor any resentment to the Celtics.
"I'm still a Celtic to my core. Did a lot of these things go ways that I didn't want to? Without a doubt," he said. "But I owe Providence a lot. I'm thankful for a lot of different things."
Providence Catholic released a statement this afternoon, announcing a change in leadership and thanking Plantz for his service as head coach since 2022.
The current offensive coordinator will be the interim head coach for the rest of the season.
The statement provides no explanation as to why Plantz was fired amid a 4-0 start.
