Coaches’ wives carry the ball at home so husbands can do the job they love

Football takes much of their husbands’ time, but their wives are proud.

By DAVID SKOLNICK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

The wives of high school football coaches are a patient bunch.

Their husbands spend hours each day away from home before, during — especially during — and after the football season preparing, training, evaluating, coaching and conditioning their players.

It’s meals without husbands.

It’s handling household chores themselves.

But they’re proud of their spouses and appreciate the love and passion their husbands have for coaching.

“You need to enjoy it along with him and realize how important it is to him,” advises Maria Bayuk, wife of Jeff Bayuk, Campbell Memorial High School’s football coach, who’s coached football since 1980, including the Hubbard and Canfield programs.

They’ve been married since 1983.

“There is a lot of time and dedication to it,” she said. “I’m a teacher, so I can appreciate the time he puts into it. It’s been a positive experience.”

There are plenty of coaches’ wives who weren’t initially prepared for the hours of work put in by their husbands.

Live and learn

“I didn’t know what I was getting into,” said Kelli Yeagley, whose husband, Dan, has been head coach at South Range High School since the mid-’90s. The couple were married in 1985, a year after Dan got involved in coaching.

“Until you live with a coach, you don’t have any idea how much time it consumes,” she said.

She has long given up asking her husband when he’ll be home from football practice.

“I’ve become very independent,” she said with a laugh. “I’ve taken over the lawn mowing. It’s the house plus the outside work. I have to do it or it isn’t going to get done.”

Though coaching means her husband is away from home a lot, Yeagley said she’d never ask him to give it up.

“That’s his love,” she said of coaching. “I’m very proud of him. He’s done an excellent job. [The players] love him.”

Carla Spaite, whose husband, Bob, is entering his 14th season as head football coach at Columbiana High School, also said she’d like to spend more time with him. But there are plenty of other wives, whose husbands aren’t high school football coaches, who also want that.

“If you’re married to a farmer or someone who owns a business, they put in an extreme amount of hours at their jobs,” she said. “He works a lot of hours. It’s been his passion. There have been challenges over the years [such as juggling family schedules], but we’ve gotten used to them.”

When they were dating, Spaite said she knew her future husband was a huge football fan. One example she mentioned was a number of television sets playing at the same time at Bob’s home airing various college football bowl games.

“I kind of got a clue from that,” she said.

Bob has been involved in high school football coaching in some form or another since 1971, two years before getting married.

“She’s a saint,” he said of his wife. “All coaches’ wives have a special place in heaven. They have to put up with a bunch of kids [the coaches].”

Between teaching, coaching and serving as Columbiana High School’s athletic director, Spaite estimates he’s away from home 12 to 16 hours a day.

The football wives attend nearly all of their husband’s team’s games with some also attending practices.

Overheard comments

In recent years, Spaite’s wife watches the home games in a space near the press box with the other Columbiana coaches’ wives, “but we can still hear things from fans.” She sits in the stands during away games.

“The fans are pretty good,” she said. “But there are times. Some people are just very intense. Most of the time I try not to say anything because you have to take it with a grain of salt.”

“Even after 30-plus years, she doesn’t understand scrimmages,” Spaite said of his wife.

[Carla — a scrimmage is a practice game in which teams run plays in order to learn them better.]

Spaite’s wife said she’s not an expert on scrimmages, but she knows what’s going on a little bit.

“After 30 years, I’ve learned a lot,” she said.

Though football has taken a lot of her husband’s time, Spaite said overall, it’s been a good experience for her family.

“It’s been so rewarding, and I respect so much of what Bob has done,” she said.

skolnick@vindy.com