WARSAW – For most of his coaching career, the fire and passion emanating from the pores of Phil Jensen was well-documented and polarizing. His love for the sport of football, for the players and coaches in his programs, and for the adopted community of Warsaw was unquestioned. Wrestling with the decision of walking away from what he knows was a difficult one, but Jensen decided Sunday night and into Monday that he is resigning as head football coach at Warsaw Community High School.

After several conversations with his wife, Debbie, and a final session with his son, Michael, Phil became at peace with his decision. He told the school administration Monday morning and then his team and coaching staff around noon, deciding to hang up the floppy hat and whistle after more than a decade with the Tigers.

“After the season was over I was convinced that I was coming back,” Jensen said. “I felt like we were in a really good spot. Of course, as I always do, I spent some time talking to my wife about how things were going to look and how they were going to happen.

“She looked at me and said, ‘This is all good and well, but I don’t want to hear you complain about having to get back and coach and missing your kid’s stuff. That hit me. OK. The longer time went, the more it sunk in.”

Jensen, a 1983 Penn High School graduate, attended Butler University where he played football. Prior to his time at Warsaw, Jensen coached for Churubusco High School from 1992-95. In 1996, Jensen joined the Warsaw coaching team as head football coach where he remained until 2003. Five years later in 2008, Jensen returned to Warsaw on what he remarked to the administration at the time as ‘a 10-year contract’ knowing his daughter, Sam, and Michael would be through high school at that point and onto college.

It wasn’t the tipping point, but the 26-16 win over Chesterton in October in the sectional afforded Jensen his 104th win at Warsaw, which passed George Fisher’s 103 wins as the most all-time in program history. The loss the following weekend at Penn in the sectional final became Jensen’s final game, an ironic but perhaps fitting place to end it at his alma mater chasing the elusive sectional championship Warsaw hasn’t been able to find.

“Perspective is an amazing thing,” Jensen offered. “There’s critics, you don’t have to go very far to find somebody saying you’re a big school, and haven’t won a sectional championship. I don’t care. I do, but you go back to my first interview here when I was pitching to Gordon Van Etter, and where things were. I was telling him about a student-athlete and how we were going to do things the right way on and off the field. That if you make the young man a better person, he can’t help but be a better football player.

“What I am going to do is help make a better young man. I firmly believe that if you do the right things, those things will follow. We have not won as many championships as I would have liked, but we’ve won a fair share.”

Jensen’s career mark of 133-97 at Churubusco and Warsaw include some memorable games, both wins and losses. Jensen, sitting in an interior office Monday afternoon, talked of his fond memories with the program. Being able to coach Michael is at the top of the list, who graduated in 2016 as the all-time leading passer in program history. His words for the coaches he has worked with – singling out Kris Hueber and Matt Thacker to name a few – brought more stories of why the decision was an obviously difficult one. But the look in his eye when he spoke about his life-threatening accident – about two years ago from today falling from a ladder in his garage – and the bond that has grown between himself and his son, was enough. Michael is on par to become the starting quarterback at Indiana Wesleyan next fall for their first-ever season of football.

He is choosing family over pride.

“Michael and I have a typical dad-son relationship, but yet we have an extra layer with football,” Jensen said, pausing to choose his words and emotions accordingly. “I texted him that I needed to come down and talk about football. I went down, we went out to lunch, and had a great talk. It was like as we were talking through things, I’d start something and he’d finish my thought. He gets it, and knows where it’s at. And he’s in a really, really good place.

“It doesn’t matter if he plays spring ball and is done, doesn’t matter if he plays one game. I’m doing the right thing based on the information we have right now so everybody can move forward.”

Warsaw will begin the search immediately for a replacement. Jensen noted there are currently over a dozen head coaching openings in the state, and wanted the process to be fair to Warsaw and the remaining coaching staff.

“Tiger Athletics has been very fortunate to have a leader like Coach Jensen guiding our football program for these many years. His passion for kids is sincere, and he has been instrumental in many positive initiatives and programs,” stated WCHS Athletic Director Dave Anson. “Coach Jensen has embodied our football program’s Son, Student, Athlete mantra fully and served as a positive model for many. We respect the difficulty of his decision to step down from this leadership role and head coaching position, and we wish coach Jensen nothing but the best.”