Commentary | This one is easy: Make it Paul Maechtle Field at John Kiker Memorial Stadium
BRADENTON
This should be a slam dunk for the School Board of Manatee County.
It will vote Tuesday on whether to name the football field at Southeast High after Paul Maechtle, and it doesn't get any easier than this.
Maechtle, who retired after the 2013 season, is much more than the most successful high school football coach in Southeast history and a statewide legend.
His achievements during his 33 years as Southeast's head football are so huge they may overshadow what he did off the field, at least for those who don't know him.
He won two state titles, eight region championships and 17 district titles and went to the state championship game five times.
But he also touched lives, made people smile and brought them hope with deeds you didn't expect from a football giant.
In 1993, Southeast won its first state football championship and finished with a perfect record to become the first football program in state history to win 15 games.
Southeast began the '94 season ranked No. 1 in the country by USA Today. The Noles won another state title, but unfortunately a loss to Riverview on a rain-soaked field without star Peter Warrick prevented them from winning the mythical national championship.
"The highs are never quite as a high as the lows are low, but when I see the number of kids that I coached it's very special," Maechtle once said.
It's not just the kids he coached and games he won that created his legion of admirers.
Despite all the accolades he brought to the school and kids he sent to college on football scholarships, most people who know Maechtle admire him for what he did away from the field, where there were no bright lights and cheering crowds.
The list of those he walked the extra mile to help is endless.
A lot of people don't know this because he didn't want it known.
Just as Maechtle never seemed to run out of ingenious ways to win football games, he did the same off the field for his fellow man.
When Hurricane Charlie destroyed much of Punta Gorda and Charlotte High, Maechtle went there and volunteered to repair houses.
When the late Eric Robinson, a former Southeast teacher, was fighting cancer and needed help, Maechtle often drove him to the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa for his chemotherapy treatments.
When Sam Sirianni, his longtime nemesis and legendary football coach at Fort Myers High was battling cancer, Maechtle made trips down there to spend time with him in his hospital room.
His good deeds still haven't stopped, though he left the athletic director's job at Southeast in February 2014.
Last January, when a custodian had a heart attack prior to Southeast's wrestling tournament, leaving the staff short-handed, Maechtle showed up to help.
"He has been here to help me many times. He is always there to help when we need him," says Daniel Bradshaw, Southeast's current athletic director. "He is the most respected person I've ever seen walk into a coach's clinic. Everybody who knows him thinks the world of him."
Maechtle was in Gainesville last week to watch former player Brian Poole, who will be a senior defensive back for Florida next season.
Maybe one of the biggest reasons to celebrate his name is that Southeast almost didn't get Maechtle.
He was passed over for the head coaching job when it opened up after Maechtle had been an assistant at Southeast for seven years despite nearly everyone in the football community calling for his hiring.
He was finally offered the head job on the last day of the school year, but Maechtle had his car packed and left for his home state of Wisconsin, not sure if he would return.
"I didn't know if I would be back. If I had gotten a job up there, I don't believe I would've returned here," he recalled.
Fate intervened, and it was the best thing that could've happened to Southeast and its football community.
There is no reason to wait; no reason to name a field after someone only after he has passed on. He should be here to see it and all those he touched should be here to see him.
Paul Maechtle Field at John Kiker Memorial Stadium has a nice ring. It's a slam dunk.
Alan Dell, Herald prep sports writer, can be reached at 941-745-7056. Follow him on Twitter @ADellSports.
This story was originally published April 9, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Commentary | This one is easy: Make it Paul Maechtle Field at John Kiker Memorial Stadium."