Cardinal Mooney's Maechtle just can't say no when it comes to helping others

BRADENTON

Paul Maechtle is the type of person who can't say no when he's asked for help.

Sometimes that can get you into an awkward situation, even if it involves football, the game he knows and loves so much.

Next week, Maechtle will be standing on the opposing sideline at Southeast High, putting him in an uncomfortable role.

"I am not so big on that," Maechtle said. "When I took the job at Cardinal Mooney, there was no way I would envision we would play Southeast."

When Maechtle ended his three-decades plus coaching career at Southeast after the 2013 season, we didn't think he'd be back on the sidelines anytime soon.

But this is a man who can't say no to a call for help.

His grandson played at Cardinal Mooney, so when then head coach Josh Smithers asked for help, Maechtle agreed.

Then Smithers left after the 2014 season and Maechtle was Cardinal Mooney's interim coach during the spring. He made it clear he didn't want to be the Cougars' head coach, so the school hired Drew Lascari.

Lasari couldn't find a defensive coordinator he liked so he asked Maechtle and, well, he just couldn't say no.

The Cougars are struggling, which is new to the man who coached Southeast to state titles in 1993 and '94. It included that 15-0 record in '93 and USA Today No. 1 national ranking to begin the '94 season.

Mooney is pretty far from those lofty heights, but it's still football. Maechtle enjoys it and, well, like we said, he just can't say no.

Maechtle was the defensive coordinator early in his career at Southeast and intermittently went back to that side of the ball when a staff change required his services.

He mentored guys who later became head coaches, like Faust DeLazzer at Lakewood Ranch

and Dave Marino, current head coach at Palmetto

Times have changed and Maechtle isn't working with the level of talent he had at Southeast. To make things more difficult, Mooney has upgraded its schedule to include the bigger public schools such as Venice and Southeast.

Lascari installed the 4-2-5 defense he used at prep power Don Bosco (N.J.), where he coached last year, and asked Maechtle to run it.

"I am finding it a little more pressure-packed because of my own internalizations in that I don't want to give up points and that is not happening," Maechtle says. "We are playing with only two linebackers where at Southeast we played with three, The idea is to take away a bigger kid and replace him with more speed back there, using two or maybe three strong safeties."

Maechtle says fewer teams are using the read option than he saw at Southeast. Quarterbacks are running less.

"I am seeing more people using backs to out-formation people and gain an advantage of making a back an extra blocker," Maechtle said. "The chance of fullbacks carrying the football is pretty minimal in today's offensive schemes."

But all of that is peripheral stuff to what happens next week when Cardinal Mooney visits Southeast and his former school officially names the venue Paul Maechtle Field at John Kiker Memorial Stadium.

That will make Maechtle a little uncomfortable because he doesn't enjoy receiving plaudits, no matter how deserving.

Standing on that opposing sideline for the first time, now that is going to be a little disconcerting.

But Maechtle will be there. Mooney needs him.

This story was originally published October 2, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Cardinal Mooney's Maechtle just can't say no when it comes to helping others ."