Lee leaving Chester for Carbondale
<span>Chester football coach Bryan Lee is moving on.</span>
<span>The Carbondale Community High School Board of Education approved Lee as its new football coach at its meeting on Thursday.</span>
<span>Lee, the second-winningest football coach in CHS history with 51 wins, is a three-time Southern Illinois Coaches Association (SICA) Class 2A Coach of the Year, winning the award for the third time in March after leading the Yellow Jackets to the Elite Eight in 2014.</span>
<span>"I love Chester," said Lee, who added he is very appreciative of the support of the community over the years. "I love the kids in Chester and I love the people in Chester, but I felt I owed it to my family to see what else was out there and Carbondale was."</span>
<span>Lee will teach social studies at the school, and said there is a possibility of an expanded role by the start of the 2015-16 school year. He confirmed that Chester offensive coordinator and head assistant coach Jim Howie will be following him to Carbondale.</span>
Howie, a CHS Hall of Fame receiver, was promoted to offensive coordinator after Lee's arrival in 2008.
<span>"It's a really short list," Lee said on what he generally expects from assistant coaches. "I know a lot folks concern themselves with experience, especially experience in your system, but it comes down to coaches who are loyal to you and loyal to your kids."</span>
<span>In an interview with the Herald Tribune in March in regard to the Coach of the Year award, Lee mentioned a desire to become the Yellow Jackets' all-time wins leader.</span>
<span>"Eventually, I would like to be the all-time wins leader," he said at the time. "Dennis Roth is a heck of a football coach and to be mentioned in that same breath would be pretty amazing."</span>
<span>On Thursday, Lee was asked what changed.</span>
<span>"It's not a big secret that I worked very hard to get my Masters in Educational Administration with the eye on becoming the principal or assistant principal at CHS and it didn't work out," he said. "I'm not bitter about that. (The school board) made the decision that was best for them and I look back at it and I made the best decision for my family.</span>
<span>"For me, I'm ready to put that administration degree to work and it didn't look like it would happen here."</span>
<span>Lee will replace Mark Albertini, who was promoted to athletic director earlier this spring. The Class 5A Terriers finished 1-8 in Albertini's lone season with the team.</span>
<span>Lee will be Carbondale's fourth coach in the past four seasons. The Terriers haven't won more than five games in a season since finishing 7-3 under Fred Heinz in 2004.</span>
<span>"The cupboard is certainly not bare, there's a lot of young coaches I'm excited to work with," Lee said. "I've been in this situation before with a building a program and the important thing is to build the foundation you want to."</span>
<span>The Yellow Jackets made the playoffs in six of Lee's seven years with the program, going 27-5 over the past three seasons. Chester finished 10-2 in 2014, the first time in school history the Yellow Jackets had won 10 games in a season.</span>
<span>"The thing I'm most proud of is that I think we got the most out of our kids," Lee said on what he was the most proud of during his tenure at Chester. "I took a lot of pride in the fact that we were undersized or undermanned and the kids gave it their all and were able to get some pretty awesome results."</span>
<span>Lee will be bringing some of the staples of his program to Carbondale such as Midnight Madness, Sweeties and the Toy Drive.</span>
<span>Summer workouts begin June 15 and Lee said he plans to use all 25 contact days with a couple of 7-on-7s thrown in.</span>
<span>"I've watched all of Carbondale's video from last year and broken it all down," Lee said. "We're going to hit the ground running. We'll have a little bit of a late start, but I don't think it will impede what we're doing."</span>