Nathan Hale High School's football program will take the field Friday against Kaukauna missing more than half of its coaching staff, after seven coaches walked away from the West Allis program in the span of two weeks following a confidential school district investigation. The upheaval began with administrative leaves issued on August 6 and has since spiraled into a wave of resignations that has left interim head coach Cody Schumitsch scrambling to prepare a shorthanded staff for one of the toughest openers on the schedule.
According to TMJ4 News, five coaches were initially placed on administrative leave on August 6 before all five ultimately resigned, according to sources cited in the report. At least one additional coach who was never placed on leave also resigned, the outlet reported, bringing the total number of departures from an 11-person staff to at least six by the time TMJ4 first published its account. By August 19, WISN 12 reported the number had climbed to seven coaches gone entirely from the program.
Sources close to the coaches told TMJ4 that the situation possibly stemmed from a group message thread involving members of the entire coaching staff, though the station's report notes the coaches placed on leave said they received no communication explaining why they had been sidelined. TMJ4 Sports asked the West Allis-West Milwaukee School District directly whether the group message was part of the investigation, but the district has not responded to that inquiry, per the same account.
Principal Sought to Reassure Parents
Principal Matthew Lesar sent an email to parents on August 6 and a follow-up on August 10 as the administrative leaves were being issued, according to the seed reporting. In that August 6 message, Lesar said there had been no concern regarding the safety or well-being of any student-athletes, a point WTMJ also confirmed was communicated directly to families as the confidential personnel investigation unfolded. As of August 10, the district investigation remained ongoing, and school officials have kept the specific findings confidential.
The human toll of the exodus became public when longtime assistant coach Ryan Teetz announced his resignation on Facebook on August 10, writing that he could no longer support the program despite his deep family history with the team, according to WTMJ. Teetz had coached for 10 seasons at Nathan Hale, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, George Cwiklowski, who served as the school's head football coach for 28 years and was inducted into the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2003. In his Facebook post, Teetz also compiled the program's historical record, noting that Nathan Hale has accumulated just four WIAA playoff appearances and three conference championships across its history, with a single undefeated season back in 1952.
A Program Already Fighting a Playoff Drought
The numbers Teetz shared underscore just how much is riding on stability at Nathan Hale, a public high school in West Allis with roughly 1,250 students that competes in WIAA Division 2 athletics under the West Allis-West Milwaukee School District, led by Superintendent Dr. Tarrynce Robinson. During a 28-year stretch in the Greater Metro Conference from 1997 to 2025, the Huskies qualified for the WIAA playoffs only three times, and the program's last playoff appearance came all the way back in 2008.
Stepping into that void is Schumitsch, the team's defensive coordinator who was named interim head coach for the 2026 season. Schumitsch is a 2015 Nathan Hale graduate and former all-conference player for the Huskies, and he takes over as the district prepares to launch a search for a permanent head coach. He now has the job of readying a depleted staff for a Week 1 test against a Kaukauna squad that qualified for the WIAA playoffs in seven consecutive seasons from 2019 through 2025, including three straight Division 2 state semifinal appearances from 2022 to 2024, according to Kaukauna Community News.
Nathan Hale will host Kaukauna in West Allis for the season opener on Friday, putting Schumitsch's interim staff immediately up against one of the region's most consistent postseason programs. The district has not detailed what specific conduct triggered the investigation or the leaves, and it remains unclear whether the group message thread described by sources will factor into any further personnel decisions. For now, families have been told only that student safety was never a concern, while the coaching staff that once numbered 11 heads into the season reduced by more than half.
