Principal Tim Youngblood is making a big change, but just not the change you may be thinking of.

Youngblood will be venturing off to become the new head coach for the Oakland University Football Club.

Youngblood has been coaching football since 1998, going alongside his first year of teaching.

Later he had become the Athletic Director (AD) and later after that he begun to coach for his kids at a Rochester football club.

The last 12 years for Youngblood has been just some small coaching jobs at youth clubs.

“Coaching grown men is a little different than coaching 14-year-olds,” Youngblood said.

Now he has landed the head coach position at Oakland, which is a very large jump from coaching youth to coaching young adults.

“The kids who I used to coach a long time ago are all grown up now,” Youngblood said, “and they ran to me and wanted me to coach for them, so I was like, ‘Yeah.’”

Past relationships built by Youngblood stayed strong to allow him this opportunity.

“I think it’s cool,” teacher John Carlin said. “For him [Youngblood] to get back to stuff he was been doing before, I’m sure he loves it and enjoys it.”

The enjoyment is an integral part of a hobby like this.

This organization at Oakland University is pretty successful in their own right having won two national championships in the National Club Football Association or NCFA.

The team now is headed into their 12 season with a new head coach and the team needs to take themselves to new heights.

This past 2023-2024 season the Golden Grizzlies only placed fourth out of seven teams in their division with a record of 3-3 in their division and 4-3 overall.

“To get the opportunity to coach college age kids should be fun,” Youngblood said, “but making it fun and enjoyable will probably be the toughest thing.”

Fun is what these sports are all about and fun is the thing you want to get out of it.

However, being a principal and coach can be hard or even just being a teacher and coach. Practices for the team are late at night only three times a week: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Saturdays are their games and the team gets the chance to play great games at great colleges, Ohio State and Michigan State, for instance.

What comes with coaching and having school priorities is a need to be able to find balance.

“I try to make sure time is equally put into everything,” Carlin said, “so one thing isn’t getting more love than the other.”

It is a balancing act between school life and coaching life for Carlin.

With Youngblood being the principal it gets busy but being a coach on top of that will double his schedule.

“During season it’s pretty busy,” Carlin said. “I get up at like five in the morning and I probably don’t stop doing football things until 7 o’clock at night.”

Carlin’s days become even longer when football is in season.

It is gonna be a new journey for Youngblood, but Chieftains wish him the best as he adds this new position into the next chapter of his life.