In his three seasons as head football coach at Northview — after four as an assistant under previous Wildcats coach Doug Downing — Greg Silm had struggled to find success with his team on the field.

But, going 6-24 overall and 3-14 in Northern Lakes League play had nothing to do with his announcement Monday that he would stepping away from his football family at the school.

Instead, Silm, 35, said it was his actual family at home that led to his resignation.

He and wife Krissy, a nurse at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, have two young children, and navigating their daily lives had become a strain on their family unit, especially with Greg pouring long hours into his roles as a math teacher at Northview and running the Wildcats' football program.

“It's been on my mind for a while,” Silm said. “I love football, and I love Northview and the Wildcat program. Ever since I got here with Doug [Downing], it's been a great experience.

“I wish we would have won a few more games here, but we've had great kids, awesome coaches, and awesome support at the school. In the last few weeks especially, my family has been on my mind. Every decision we've made has been based off me and my career.”

Silm decided it was time to change that dynamic.

“Looking at our family goals for the future, where we want to be in the next years, my family kind of made that decision for me,” he said. “It was not an easy decision, but it was one I felt I had to make for the goals that we have for our future.”

Greg and Krissy have a son who will turn 4 in the fall and a daughter who is nearly 2.

“They're getting more active and busier,” Silm said. “My son loves to be at practice and just loves being around.

“I'm not writing off anything about getting back into [coaching] down the road as they get older, but I just felt like spending more time with them, and being around them more was something that I wanted to do.

“Our situation is a little bit different. My wife and I are not from northwest Ohio. We're from northern Michigan, so we don't necessarily have 'the village,' as they say, around here. It just made sense. It was not an easy decision, but it was what I felt was right for the family.”

Silm hails from St. John's, Mich., north of Lansing. He graduated from Hillsdale College, where he played football for the Chargers. Krissy is from Traverse City, Mich. Greg's first coaching job in the area was at Maumee.

Northview athletic director Chris Irwin acknowledged he will miss having Silm lead the football program but understands his dilemma.

“He came to me after school last Thursday and we had a conversation,” Irwin said. “He was trying to sort out putting family first. He's got a lot of balls in the air, and it was not ideal. He felt bad about the timing of it with it being in March already, but I assured him, 'You've got to do what's best for you, and your family.'

“Greg and I have become pretty close, even from back when he was an assistant coach. I said, 'I'm here for you — personally, professionally.' He has to keep his priorities at the forefront.”

Finding a replacement is the current task.

“We will post the position,” Irwin said. “It's not ideal that it's in March, but better in March than come June or July. We met with the team on Monday after school. Greg talked to the team and let them know he was going to step down.

“So, the process starts with finding our next head football coach. We post it to the district this week, and then out to the public next as we hit spring break. The hope is that, by the end of April, hopefully we'll have a new head coach in place.”

Asked if the timing, and Northview's recent football struggles, might deter some potential applicants, Irwin reflected optimism and credited Silm's work.

“I'm extremely grateful for Greg for the last three years — not just as a football coach, but just as a mentor to our student-athletes,” Irwin said. “The scoreboard this past year didn't lean in our favor. But, for what he did off the field with these kids as well, I'm grateful for that. And, I'll miss his leadership.”

Irwin pointed to some changes within Sylvania Schools that may provide help.

“The last couple years we've changed our feeder pattern from our three [Sylvania] junior highs after discussions with our upper administration,” Irwin said. “Our junior high teams have experienced some success, and our numbers have gone up.

“We had 37-38 kids on our eighth-grade team last year, which is a good number for us. Before that, if we had 25 freshmen coming in for football, that was a good number for us. Now, if we have 35-40 coming in as freshmen, that will help us going into the future with our success on the field.

“Unfortunately for Greg, he's not going to see that benefit of increasing those numbers. Our freshman group this year was pretty competitive. Some of them got thrown into Friday night games due to injuries and the [low] numbers in our program.”

What won't change, at least in the near future, will be Northview's membership in the NLL's highly  competitive Buckeye Division for all sports. The Wildcats have competed well in most other sports playing Buckeye foes Anthony Wayne, Findlay, Perrysburg, and Whitmer, but the football dynamic has been difficult.

In Silm's first season as head coach in 2022, Northview was part of the NLL's former eight-team alignment, finishing 4-6 overall and 2-5 in league play.

But, when the league expanded to an 11-team, two-division format — adding Findlay, Fremont Ross, and Whitmer — the teams were divided based solely on combined boys/girls enrollment figures.

Northview and Springfield were placed on the bigger-school Buckeye Division for football along with northwest Ohio powers AW, Findlay, Perrysburg, and Whitmer.

Since that alignment began in 2023, the Wildcats have gone 2-18 overall (1-9 Buckeye), including 0-10 this past fall. In those last 10 games, Northview was shut out eight times and outscored 466-20.

“During the season it was rough,” Silm said. “We had a rough year. We knew going in there were chances that we might struggle at times. It was a rough year, and it took a toll, but after the season was over I sat down and thought about it. The future is bright.

“We've got some young kids in the program and some more good young kids coming [from junior high]. One of the hardest parts of this decision was knowing that there's some talent coming and some good things coming.”

Irwin knows what Northview is up against, but he retains optimism.

“We're in a tough spot playing in the Buckeye Division,” Irwin acknowledged, “but I think we've at least set our feeder pattern to maybe create or promote more success on the scoreboard. Hopefully that will help.”

As far as attracting a top-level head football coach, the AD said there are other factors that make his school an solid destination.

“Northview is a great community, our athletic programs are competitive, and we're a really good high school academically,” Irwin said. “So, hopefully, there's some attraction to coaches out there. We're a little late in the game [for the hiring process], but I look forward to the opportunity to hire the next coach and to be successful on the field as well as off.”

First Published March 18, 2025, 8:59 p.m.