STURGIS - Adolph Shepardson had the unique opportunity to both play and coach football for his high school alma mater.

In the past three years, he has put the Sturgis Scoopers firmly back on the road to gridiron respectability.

Now, the Scoopers will have to find a new head coach to take them to the next level after Shepardson announced his resignation effective at the end of the school year.

"The toughest part is telling the kids you're leaving," he said Wednesday. "You build up some pretty good relationships.

"It's my alma mater, so it made it just that much tougher," he said.

"I just want to thank everybody. They've been nothing but supportive, and the community's always been behind us."

Shepardson, 28, is engaged to be married. He and his fiance will move to North Carolina, where Shepardson said he plans to continue teaching and coaching.

"I don't want to see him go, but I support his decision. He has to do what's best for Adolph," said Sturgis High School Activities Director Mike Paris, who coached Shepardson during his high school years.

"There's a lot of good memories, watching him grow up, go off to college, then come back here as a coach," Paris said.

Shepardson graduated from Sturgis in 1997 and went on to play college ball at South Dakota State.

He also coached at McLaughlin and served as a graduate assistant at the University of South Dakota, where he earned his master's degree.

In 2005, Shepardson took over a foundering Scooper football program mired in a state-record losing streak that eventually reached 79 games.

Shepardson initiated top-to-bottom changes at Sturgis, intensifying weight-training programs and, emulating perennially successful programs such as Sioux Falls O'Gorman and West Central, started the youngest middle-school teams on the same offensive and defensive schemes to be used at the varsity level.

Shepardson even changed the middle-school mascot from Troopers to Scoopers to further the idea of team continuity.

"That was my goal, to get Sturgis Scooper football back to where it needed to be," he said.

The Scoopers were 0-10 his first year at the helm, but snapped a near-decade long losing skid with a 22-20 decision over Rapid City Stevens on Sept. 1, 2006.

Another win over Spearfish followed later that season. In 2007, the Scoopers improved to 4-6, including a playoff win over Sioux Falls Lincoln.

"The biggest highlight obviously other than breaking the streak was climbing back to where we were a respectable team, this year being within a touchdown of going to the state semifinals," he said

Shepardson said he leaves a program with a bright future

"Whoever comes in as the new coach is going to inherit some freshman and sophomore teams that are pretty talented. If the kids continue to work hard, and I know they will, they're going to have some pretty good football teams in the next couple years."

"I think the majority of the assistants from the 7-12 program are going to remain, and the new coach could come from within," he said. "Even with a new coach brought in, there's a very good foundation there, if they continue with that.

"I don't see the program returning to the streak days, if the new coach continues to work hard, and there's some pretty talented new kids coming up. I think the program's going to be just fine."

"When we hired him three years ago, he did exactly what we asked of him, He took a struggling program, and it's headed in the right direction. We still have a ways to go, but I think under his leadership, his coaching staff the athletes that we had, I think we're on the right track" Paris said.

"It's kind of a job unfinished, that's the down side of it," Paris said.

Paris said he knows change is coming to the program.

"Anytime you bring in someone new there's going to be a learning curve of some sort. I hope it won't derail us too long. I don't think it will." Paris said.

"Adolph's a great guy. He's a Sturgis Scooper through-and-through, and he always will be," Paris said. "He's leaving on his terms, and he accomplished an awful lot while he was here."

"I think Scooper football is going to get nothing but better, and I'm glad I had a start in that direction," Shepardson said.