A view from the sidelines during Tippecanoe Valley’s first-ever IHSAA soccer season last year. Mark Gordon, who started up the program four years ago, officially announced his resignation as head coach of the program Monday night. (File photo by Mike Deak)

AKRON — Mark Gordon wears a lot of different hats. The first-ever Tippecanoe Valley High School soccer coach officially hung one of those hats up at the school’s fall sports awards ceremony Monday night.

In addition to his full-time job as a health care professional, the soon-to-be-58-year-old grandfather is a referee for both IHSAA soccer and the United States Soccer Federation, serves as District 2 Referee Administrator for the USSF as well as an assigner for both organizations, a board member for Argos FC, a travel soccer coach in Warsaw and rec coach in Rochester. Something ultimately had to give, he says, and with all the time commitments high school coaching involves, that something was the Valley soccer gig.

“My decision to exit was based on several things,” he explained. “Number one, I am very, very busy with travel soccer as a state referee administrator and assigner. I’m not local to that community — I live in Rochester so I drive from work from Logansport past my house and go all the way to Tippy Valley. And I gave it my all this year, and I just felt that it was time for me to step out and let the school look for somebody perhaps younger. I don’t know what they’re going to look for; I hope they find somebody energetic.

“I just decided something had to give. Something had to give on my part because I spend every day in the spring and fall and summer assigning refs and reffing myself, too, and it’s just not enough time in the day to balance coaching a high school team in the fall.”

Gordon’s exit leaves a vacuum at the head of a program, which is still searching for his replacement. A job posting is listed on the school corporation’s website.

“We certainly appreciate the efforts of Coach Gordon as he was our first soccer coach and started the program four years ago in introducing boys soccer at TVHS,” stated TVHS Athletic Director Duane Burkhardt via email.

As the first head coach in Valley soccer history, Gordon pretty much founded the program, guiding the Vikings through their first two years as a club team before they became eligible for IHSAA membership and then through the past two seasons as a member of the high school athletic association. The team has had some ups and downs over the intervening four seasons, going 4-12-1 in its first year of IHSAA competition in 2016 before registering a 1-15 mark over this past fall, finishing on a relatively high note with a competitive, 2-1 sectional loss to Columbia City at the Class 2A Maconaquah Sectional.

It wasn’t a bad note to end on, and Gordon — who says he made up his mind midway through the season that this would be his last as head coach of the Vikings — was at least happy he could end it with some of the players he helped start the Valley program with.

“I just decided I’m going to finish up with these kids,” he said. “I had some committed seniors that played so hard that deserved better than a 1-15 record, but you know what? We finished, and I’m glad we finished. The end result, last year we lost 3-1 in the Argos Sectional to Bremen, and this year we lost 2-1 in a sectional in Class 2A against Columbia City. We saved our best for last, I guess you could say, so I’m happy with that.”

Since his hire, Gordon has also been pushing for a middle school program, and those efforts will finally come to fruition in the spring after the school board gave its approval in August. Gordon is hopeful the feeder system will help get the Valley high school program to the next level.

And he’ll be back at Tippy Valley starting next spring, albeit as an official and not a coach.

“I’m an IHSAA assigner, and I assigned refs for our games and now I’ve taken over the middle school too, and I’ll just carry on in that capacity for Tippy Valley. I’m not walking away and canceling everything,” he said. “It’s like I told the kids tonight, the ones that are returning, I said ‘You’ll see me next year, you just won’t see me as Coach Gordon. You’ll see me as Mr. Referee.’”

While the past season may not have gone as well as Gordon had hoped for, he’s proud of what he’s done at Valley. From a mere idea to a travel club to a full-fledged IHSAA member in four years and with a new middle school program set for its inaugural season in the spring, he’s left an impact on the community, and it’s a legacy he was happy to share with his young players Monday.

“The kids that were there tonight that made it to the awards thing with me were respectful. They were appreciative. There were some tears. There were some seniors that were just like ‘Gosh, I can’t believe this is over. I wish we had another year because we really were coming together strong, and our record doesn’t reflect it,’” he said.

“I’ve tried to stress to these kids that this is not an established football program or volleyball program or something that’s had success there. This is something new. This is a new idea. It’s a startup group. You guys are part of a startup group. A couple more years, it won’t be a startup group. It’ll be an established organization, and from there you guys can be proud of the fact that you were part of that.”