‘I love those guys.’ Why this Muscogee County high school head football coach is leaving

The statistics say Phil Marino lost nearly three times as much as he won during his 15 seasons at Columbus High School.

But there’s a clear reason why he’s the longest-tenured head football coach among the eight programs in the Muscogee County School District.

“His dedication and hard work have been evident through his time at Columbus High,” MCSD athletics director Jeff Battles told the Ledger-Enquirer. “… He’s done an excellent job molding young men and doing what we set out to do: help them get ready for the next chapter of their lives.”

Now, Marino, 63, is ready for the next chapter of his life. He plans to retire at the end of this school year, concluding four decades as a coach and physical education teacher.

“I’ve spent 40 years away from my wife and missing out a lot on what my kids have done, and now I’ve got grandchildren,” he told the L-E. “I don’t want to do the same thing to them. I want to watch them grow up and be at their events and have more time with my wife now. It’s just time.”

Who will be Columbus High’s next head football coach?

The hiring of Marino’s successor will be up to Columbus High School’s leadership, Battles said. CHS athletics director Chad Mathis told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email Monday that interviews for the position are starting this week.

“Coach Marino has been a loyal, caring, and hardworking educator for CHS for more than 15 years,” Mathis said. “His impact in the classroom and on the field of play will be hard to replace.”

Marino has a career record of 43-112 as a high school head football coach in Georgia, all at Columbus, including 1-9 in 2023. The Blue Devils had two winning seasons and two state playoff appearances with Marino: 8-5 and a first-round loss in 2015, then 7-5 and a second-round loss in 2018.

Ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the second-best public high school in Georgia, CHS is a total magnet school, meaning it doesn’t have an attendance zone and all of its students (1,131 as of October) can reside anywhere in Muscogee County. Students must apply to enroll in CHS and must pass an entrance exam, then maintain a certain level of academic and behavioral performance to remain at the school.

“With the types of players you get there, you’ve got to be a certain kind of person to understand what goes on at Columbus High School.,” Marino said. “… We had a streak where we were 0-18. … Then we were competitive with everybody. We went to the playoffs for the first time in 34 years.”

All of which makes winning football games more of a challenge than a typical high school.

“When I first went in there, I thought if I can’t turn this around the first five years I’m here, maybe I’m at the wrong spot,” Marino said. “But (the administrators) just were happy with the improvements the kids were making year-in and year-out, the discipline they had. They liked that I was making these kids responsible, both in the classroom and on the football field and the way they acted outside the program.”

Players also have appreciated Marino’s approach.

“There are days he disciplines you, but it’s because he wants you to be better,” CHS senior defensive lineman Joseph Baker told the L-E last season. “…When you’re leaving stuff on the floor in the locker room or cursing at your teammates or just not doing your assignment, he sounds pretty angry at you. But give him a couple minutes, and he’ll come back and talk to you.”

Perhaps his greatest victory

Robert Peters, the team’s offensive coordinator, has been on Marino’s staff for 14 seasons. He described him as focused, strong work ethic and resilient.

Those qualities were mighty evident during the 2022 season, when Marino continued to coach and teach while going through radiation treatments for prostate cancer.

“The magic of Coach Marino isn’t so much being committed to winning a state title,” Peters told the L-E last season. “We all want to do that. But he’s committed to making these boys better men, making our school a better school. … He’s taught us all personal strength. The fact that he was able to carry his burden, plus the team, and still come out ahead, it’s a wonderful thing.”

Marino’s last medical checkup shows no evidence of cancer — perhaps his greatest victory.

“That’s tremendous,” he said. “I can leave knowing that I’m not still struggling with my health. I’m coming out of it as healthy as I can be. … I got there pretty quick. I think I surprised my oncologist and urologist how fast it came down. That radiation must have hit the right spots.”

Marino reflected on his favorite memories with the Blue Devils and what he will miss most about coaching.

“It’s that camaraderie I’ve had with those guys,” he said. “The coaches I’ve had there, the majority have been there most of the time. … The new group of freshmen coming in and watching them grow all four years, that always was exciting to see. Then, whether they play college football or just become great people and do great things, those are the things I look back on. We’ve created some good football players and some good-character kids. It’s not all about just wins and losses.”

After starting in MCSD as an assistant coach at Jordan Vocational High School in 1982, Marino was head coach at Woodland Academy in Phenix City (1984-86), AD at Westfield Middle School in Indiana (1986-90) and Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Indiana (1990-95), returned to MCSD and became an assistant at Hardaway (1997-2000) and head coach at East Columbus Magnet Academy (a middle school, 2000-09).

Marino is grateful for the opportunity then-principal Marvin Crumbs gave him at CHS when he was hired in 2009.

“The administration has been great,” he said. “The coaching staff I’ve had, I love those guys to death. I couldn’t have asked for a better place to retire from, and I couldn’t have asked for more than what God blessed me with and put me in a situation where I could touch the lives of kids.”

And his players showed they are thankful for Marino. They gave him this retirement gift after he announced the news to them:

“Every single one of them gave me a hug,” he said.