Teacher, football coach to work in Burlington
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
For the past nine years, Eric Sulik has done a juggling act.
Between living with his wife and two sons in Burlington and working and coaching in East Troy, that hasn’t always been easy.
So when the opportunity came for Sulik to return to his roots at Karcher Middle School this fall, that was a chance he just couldn’t pass up.
And now it’s official.
Sulik, the varsity head football coach at East Troy the past nine seasons, is stepping down as a social studies teacher at East Troy Middle School to take a position as a seventh-grade English teacher at Karcher in the fall.
He will also join Burlington head coach Steve Tenhagen’s varsity football staff as an assistant coach on the defensive side of the ball.
The timing for the move was just right for his return to Karcher, Sulik said.
“It was one of those things where I could keep doing what I’m doing, but it was going to be increasingly more difficult to devote the time and energy to coaching football when my kids were playing other things in Burlington,” he said.
“Football was going to, at some point, go away. It just so happened there was an opportunity to teach in Burlington. Having (my family) working, living, teaching in Burlington wasn’t something I felt I could pass up.”
As his sons continued to become more involved in their own activities, Sulik felt the time crunch between being a father and the head of a varsity program.
And that pull between the two certainly wasn’t going to get any easier the older his children were.
Something had to give, Sulik said.
“I had gotten to the point where I felt like I could give it as much time to (being a head coach) because it was 25 minutes away,” he said.
“There have been some (family) things I’ve missed out on. … My youngest son will turn nine in July and if the next nine goes as fast as the last nine, my head is going to be spinning and I’ll be wondering where did the time go?”
Sulik was clear that the move had everything to do with his professional and family life and nothing to do with any unhappiness with his football position.
“It had zero to do with football,” he said. “It had zero to do with me not being happy there. (East Troy) has been like my second home. There are really good people over there. … I was very blessed to have the opportunity.”
