Paul Cronin leaving Cardinal Newman High School for head coaching job at Windsor High School

In a tumultuous offseason for Redwood Empire football, the biggest domino officially fell Thursday. Paul Cronin, who coached Cardinal Newman for 14 seasons and made the program the strongest in the area for the bulk of that time, told his players he was leaving the school to coach at Windsor High.

It wasn’t an easy conversation.

“You always pick a kid, right?” Cronin said. “You think, ‘I don’t want to leave this guy, or this guy.’ By the end of the list, you can’t leave. My wife knows how it goes. I really couldn’t even speak. You see all those faces and think, God, I love these kids. I knew Beau Barrington from the time he was 6 years old. Man, I really want to see this kid as a senior. And there are a lot of others.”

In 14 seasons at the helm, Cronin led the Cardinals to seven North Bay League championships or co-championships and five North Coast Section titles, including the most recent Division 4 banner. Twice Cronin’s teams made it to a CIF state championship game, losing to Oaks Christian in 2006 and ?St. Bonaventure in 2008.

The coach became synonymous with the team’s success as he paced the sidelines with a controlled intensity, calling in each play for his up-tempo offense.

“As a whole, I’m very blessed I got the chance to be around Cardinal Newman High School, Cardinal Newman football, the Cardinal Newman community,” Cronin said. “I’ll have great memories. I grew up there. When I got there I was 29; now I’m leaving at 43. That’s where my kids grew up. The first game I ever coached there, my daughter was born two days before. They announced it on the loudspeaker.”

Memories like those made it hard for Cronin to sever ties with the school.

And he did have chances. Cronin said he had more than one offer from schools in Southern California.

“We went to look and said, ‘You know what? This is not where we want to live,’?” Cronin said. “And Newman is so special, you don’t want to go somewhere else.”

But now he is doing just that. Asked why, Cronin said it was an opportunity to put his family on more stable financial footing.

Though he didn’t elaborate, here’s a clue to what he might have meant.

In most of Cronin’s years at Cardinal Newman, the Catholic high school paid full tuition for the children of all faculty members. Three years ago, the administration announced it would pay only half of those tuition fees. Considering annual tuition is nearly $15,000 per year at Cardinal Newman, it was a substantial difference.

The Cronins have three children, all of whom currently attend St. Rose Catholic School, which is adjacent to Newman.

Anyway, Windsor is familiar territory. The Cronins live there. Paul’s first job out of college was teaching at Brooks Elementary School. He calls Steve Kramer, a teacher at Windsor High, “probably my first friend in life,” and has long associations with people like Travis Taylor, the current Jaguars boys basketball coach, and Donald Fletcher, the campus police officer.

Cronin’s change of address is the latest domino to fall in Sonoma County football.

The Windsor job came open when Tom Kirkpatrick retired after concluding that the school was moving toward hiring a full-time teacher/coach. In addition, Ed Conroy retired after 28 seasons at Rancho Cotate, Daniel Bourdon stepped down at Analy to spend more time with his family, and Casa Grande relieved Trent Herzog of his duties on Tuesday.

Kirkpatrick sounded thrilled to learn of his successor.

“I’m really happy for the school to get somebody who’s an outstanding coach,” he said. “And someone who will be there. This revolving door hasn’t been good for anybody. The kids are gonna benefit, and do well.”

Cardinal Newman principal Graham Rutherford, who played football at the school and, like Cronin, is a disciple of revered coach Ed Lloyd, said Cronin broached the possibility of leaving when staff returned from Christmas vacation.

“We went over things we felt we could help him do to stay, because we wanted him to,” Rutherford said.

Cronin clearly struggled with his decision since then, perhaps even changing his mind a couple times. In the end, he put family first - a rarity in the life of a football coach.

“This is probably the first decision in 13 years I’ve made not thinking of Cardinal Newman football,” Cronin said. “It’s like, ‘Should we go on vacation? No, there’s too much stuff going on. We’ve got this camp coming up.’ Everything is based on that. Doing this, it’s like this doesn’t feel right. You’re used to saying football is first, the others are second, and that’s not healthy.”

Rutherford acknowledged his gratitude to Cronin for his success on the field and his development of young athletes.

“We very much would rather have him here. Our relationship with him is very good,” Rutherford said. “But that’s where he is at this point. As I said, I don’t live in his house. If he tells me that’s what’s best, OK, that’s how he sees it. Again, I’m very appreciative of all the great work he’s done here.”

Cronin said next week will be his last at Cardinal Newman. Rutherford said the school will likely advertise the job opening, although he wants to talk to current assistant coaches to gauge in-house candidates.

“We’re not like college coaches, where we need to get out and start recruiting,” Rutherford said. “We want to take time to get the right person. One hallmark of our school - we’ve had very few coaches and all were successful.”

One key question is how many Newman assistants Cronin will bring with him to Windsor.

“I don’t believe a lot will go,” Rutherford said. “I think a lot have a loyalty to the school that’s first. Some came with Paul to Newman. But I know there are some that are staying. I think we’ll see some split decisions on that.”

Cronin, on the other hand, sounded confident that most of his staff will move alongside him. It’s one more development worth watching during this offseason of change.

You can reach staff writer Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Skinny_Post.