The lasting impression Tim Rulo will take away from his three seasons as head football coach at Helias has nothing to do with what happened on the field.
Prior to the season, a tragic accident killed Troy and Lisa Feltrop, parents of Helias senior Kyle Feltrop. The Helias and Central Missouri communities immediately rallied to support the family in its time of need.
"The strength of this community at the loss of Kyle's parents was inspiring," Rulo, who will not return as head coach, said. "I was so impressed with our team, our seniors, their parents, the entire community. That's what you want to see, they handled it so well.
"I know that's not on the field, but gosh, I was so impressed and I will never forget that. I will forget the scores, who we beat and who we didn't, but that was so amazing the way everyone pulled together for the Feltrop family."
Rulo was 17-18 in his three seasons at Helias, advancing two times to the district championship game.
"We are thankful for all coach Rulo has done for Helias," Helias president Father Stephen Jones said in a news release regarding relieving Rulo of his football coaching duties Friday morning.
Rulo said the decision was a bit of a surprise.
"Some people have said that they had heard rumors, but I was focused on what we were trying to accomplish this season," he said.
"I knew the season didn't go quite as well as everyone had hoped, but Lord willing, we would get another year. The process wasn't going as fast as we wanted, but we were making progress."
Rulo said he has no regrets about coming to Helias after spending six seasons as head coach at South Callaway.
"I loved my time and relationships from South Callaway, but I love my time here," Rulo said. "I feel like I have improved as a coach. It would have been easier to stay, but I'm not looking for easy. I want to challenge myself."
Helias had run a spread offense for several seasons prior to Rulo's arrival. Rulo switched to a more run-oriented flexbone offense with the Crusaders and that wasn't a popular decision among Helias supporters.
"Coaches are going to make decisions not only on the year they have in front of them, but what they see coming down the road and what they will need to do to be successful in the long-term," Rulo said. "From what we saw in 2015, we didn't have a lot of linemen returning and an athletic quarterback with some skill guys who could make some big plays.
"I thought it would be hard to have a quarterback stand back there and try to throw it without a lot of protection. We still don't have a lot of big guys up front now.
"All the research shows that if you have undersized linemen, it's best to run an offense with the quarterback under center. I know it wasn't what they had done before and if we had won, would anybody have said anything? Probably not. I know it was different and there were some people that thought it wasn't the right thing to do."
Rulo would do the same thing today.
"Sometimes you just have to trust the coach to make the best decisions for the football team," he said. "I truly hope that was not a factor in this decision, played any part."
At age 37, Rulo still has the desire to coach.
"We as coaches know the difficulties and challenges that come with this job," Rulo said. "We know things may not always work out, but that doesn't downplay the feeling that we want to coach.
"It's a platform to impact people. You have to do that by winning, you do that by running a good program, you do that by having integrity. If you believe in that stuff, you want to keep going. I always want to learn, I always want to get better and I believe I have a lot of great years of coaching ahead of me."
Rulo met Friday morning before school with the Helias players to tell them of the decision
"I told the kids you never know when it will be your last game," he said. "It hurts my heart so much I will not work with those guys ever again. That was the toughest thing today.
"I hope I made a difference in the lives of some kids, that's what I really hope."
Fr. Jones said the position will be posted by the school Monday. A committee led by a group of administrators will interview candidates and decide on the finalists. The finalists will then meet with Fr. Jones.
"As with all of our positions, we will be looking for someone who will be the best fit for our school and the Helias community," he said.
Rulo is the sixth head coach in the history of the Helias football program. The other five head coaches are Jack Schnieders (1956-1965), Ray Hentges (1966-1998), Mike Jeffries (1999-2005), Chris Hentges (2006-10) and Phil Pitts (2011-14).