Bellevue Wolverines head football coach Mark Landes made one of the toughest decisions of his entire life in early March.

Landes, who graduated from Bellevue High School in 1988, announced last week he would be resigning his head coaching position with the Wolverines. The Bellevue Football Twitter feed @BellevueFB officially thanked Landes for leading the program in a tweet on March 12. Landes, who has worked full-time in the Aviation industry for the past 20 years, said the expansion of responsibilities at his full-time job was the reason he turned in his letter of resignation.

“My job was changing and unfortunately it wouldn’t allow me the time necessary to remain head coach. It was unfortunately a little bit out of my control. It was a really tough decision because I absolutely loved coaching and spending time with these players,” Landes said in a phone interview on March 12.

In his two seasons at the helm, Landes finished with an overall record of 16-3. The Wolverines, who finished with an 11-2 overall record during the 2017 season, lost to the O’Dea Fighting Irish 34-33 in double overtime in the Class 3A state semifinals on Nov. 25, 2017 at Pop Keeney Stadium in Bothell. Landes said he met with as many players as possible before announcing to the general public that would be leaving the program.

“I had a meeting with the team and as many kids as possible but with spring sports starting I didn’t get to meet with everybody. I tried to talk to as many kids as I could. It is hard to get everybody [together] at the same time and was a tough situation,” Landes said.

Landes, who was an assistant coach on the Wolverines staff for several years before taking over the program in 2016, will always have fond memories of his time as a Wolverine.

“I will remember all of the great times and the way [the players] battled through the adversity they were going through and how they supported each other,” Landes said.