Bob Fehrenbach, the longtime head football coach at General Douglas MacArthur High School in Levittown, New York, resigned this week after leading his team through only a single practice this season.
The move ends a 28 year run on the sidelines and comes as a shock to players, coaches and the wider Long Island football community.
Fehrenbach, 59, told his team at the end of Monday’s practice, the first official session of the fall, that he could no longer commit to the job the way it deserved. He explained that his decision to retire from teaching physical education in 2025 had quietly changed his relationship with the program.
Without being in the building each day, seeing players in class and in the hallways, he said the bond he once felt had faded, even though he had hoped preseason camps and workouts with younger students would bring back his usual excitement heading into the year.
A Decorated Career Comes To A Sudden Close
Over 28 seasons, Fehrenbach built one of the more respected résumés in Nassau County football. He finishes with a career record of 151 wins, 97 losses and two ties.
His teams won the Nassau Conference II regular season title in both 2002 and 2019, and he guided MacArthur to the Long Island Class II championship game twice, first in 2002 and again in 2015. Colleagues around the county have described him as one of the most well liked and respected coaches in the region, someone who earned admiration from rivals as much as from his own players.
He chose to deliver the news himself, in person, rather than let word spread secondhand. Fehrenbach said the timing was far from ideal, with preparations for the season already underway since February, but he felt his players and staff deserved to hear the decision directly from him rather than through rumor.
Assistants Step In As Program Searches For Direction
With no immediate successor named, three of Fehrenbach’s longtime assistant coaches, Steve Fazzolari, Tommy Bobal and Ryan Cunningham, ran Tuesday’s practice together to keep the season moving.
The timing is especially tricky for MacArthur, which went 2 and 6 last season but was returning several key players and hoped for a bounce back year.
Adding to the uncertainty, the Levittown district has been without a director of athletics since John Coscia stepped down in June.
Fehrenbach said he plans to spend more time with his wife, Nancy, and his two daughters, and noted he recently became a grandfather. He admitted the decision was difficult, but said staying on without his full heart in it would not have been fair to the players or coaching staff who depend on him.
