Former Depew Athletic Director Dan McGrath shows off the new turf that was installed at Depew High School last year. McGrath has announced his retirement as Depew athletic director but will stay on to coach the football team this season. File Photo Dan McGrath has said before that they would probably have to drag him away in a bag if they wanted him to ever leave Depew High School. He won’t be leaving in a bag, but McGrath is ready to retire from Depew after 40 years at the school.

On Tuesday, Aug. 3, McGrath turned in his retirement notice to the Depew Board of Education. His retirement was accepted and approved by the board on Aug. 24.

McGrath will step down as Depew’s athletic director, but plans to remain on as head football coach. Depew High School Assistant Principal Lynn Girdlestone and physical education teacher Brian Wilson will step in to fill Mc- Grath’s duties for the time being.

A state incentive program offered by the Board of Education was a major factor in McGrath’s decision to retire. The State Legislature adopted the temporary retirement incentive plan earlier this year. The plan allows for public employees to either retire without penalty at 55 years of age with a minimum of 25 years of service, or be targeted to receive an additional month of pension credit for each year of service. Local public employers were given the option to elect to participate in the incentive. The Depew school district recently chose to participate in the plan.

McGrath had no plans to retire, but the incentive was too good to pass up.

“The offer is designed to get rid of old guys,” McGrath joked. “Pretty much that was the deciding thing. The school board hadn’t really approached the incentive and I didn’t think they would. In the middle of July they started to talk about it. It’s been a pretty quick decision from there.”

McGrath grew up in Central New York and attended Illion High School. He went west on the New York State Thruway to Brockport State for college and eventually came to Depew in 1970 to begin his teaching career. He learned the ins and outs of teaching at Depew from legendary coach Frank Constantino. He quickly sensed that Depew offered something special for him.

“I discovered on the first day I started teaching that Depew had something that was pretty special: great families and great kids,” McGrath said.

McGrath’s 40 years at Depew has allowed him to meet and teach many great kids. Over that time, he’s seen very little difference between the way kids were then and the way they are now. He still thinks they’re great.

“I keep hearing how kids have changed,” McGrath said. “I’ll tell you, kids really haven’t changed. They’ll play hard; they’ll do everything you ask them to do. I haven’t seen kids change at all. Not out here.”

McGrath began coaching Depew’s varsity football team 13 seasons ago in 1998. He will officially begin his 13th season this Friday when the Wildcats host East High School at 7:30 p.m. He’s made no plans for when he wants to stop coaching; he just wants to go at it one season at a time.

One of the biggest contributions McGrath made to Depew over the years was working to get the new turf installed at Depew’s football stadium, nestled nicely between Depew High School, Middle School and Cayuga Heights Elementary School. The new field, along with a blue track surrounding the playing surface opened before the start of last football season. It took some convincing, but McGrath was very happy the old grass field was gone and replaced by something easier to maintain.

“This was very big,” McGrath said of the accomplishment of getting the new field put in. “They wanted to put another grass field in here. We convinced them that would be a waste of money. You’d have rain at night and it used to be nothing usable. Now, they’re out here five minutes after it rains. It’s made quite an impact on kids and will have a large impact on kids for the future. There’s more activity; thousands of hours more now.”

The new field has successfully served its purpose thus far as being a top-notch facility available to all of Depew.

“The nice thing is that it’s open,” McGrath said. “We don’t lock it up. The community comes in and uses it and takes care of it. They don’t abuse it. That’s the nice thing about it.”

As for McGrath’s future plans, he wants to dedicate more time to his family, a group he can’t always see at any instant when working as an athletic director during the school year. McGrath’s children spent much of their youth with their father at the school he taught at. McGrath now hopes that by spending his time with his family now, he will be returning the favor.

“I plan on spending time with my family,” McGrath said. “My kids spent a lot of time here with me while I was working as they grew up. Now it’s time for me to spend time with them.”

e-mail: mmigliore@beenews.com