Former Wayland High School head football coach Jerry Diorio has a new gig, assistant principal and assistant football coach at Benton Harbor High School.

Diorio, who coached at Wayland two different times during the last decade, will be chief assistant to former St. Joseph High Western Michigan University head coach Elliot Uzelac. They will be joined by former St. Joseph players Matt Mattox and Devonte Jones and staffer Lyle Hayden.

Uzelak, 74, is foregoing drawing a salary and is turning a lot of the responsibilities over to Diorio and the other assistants.

Diorio, 53, was head coach here for nine seasons, but took two off in 2009 and 2010, and returned to coach four more seasons, from 2011 through 2014. He resigned last November and was succeeded by Mike Doupe.

His resignation follows a difficult four years in which his teams went 0-9 twice, 1-8 another time and 6-5 a year ago. At one time in 2013, the Wildcats were struggling through an 18-game losing streak.

Making matters even worse was a poor turnout of players. Only 20 suited up for the last several varsity games this season and there was no freshman team in the past two years, nor a junior varsity in 2012.

Diorio started coaching in Wayland in the fall of 2004 and went 2-7 in both of his first two seasons. His 2006 squad turned things around and went 7-4, qualifying for the playoffs. The next two teams went 8-2 and 6-4, also making it to the post-season. His 2013 team went 6-5 overall and was his fourth Wildcat group to make the playoffs.

His cumulative record for the nine seasons was 33-71. Diorio, a native of Ohio, played guard for legendary coach Bo Schembechler in 1981, 1982 and 1983. In his last season he started all 12 games and was named second team all-Big Ten. He also was named to the all-Bit Ten Academic Team.

After trying out with the Denver Broncos, he played for three years in the Italian Football League and then played guard for the Detroit Lions in 1987.

Diorio was named Regional Coach of the Year in 2007 by the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association.^[9]

After five seasons as Wayland’s head coach, he stepped down before the 2009 season to become as assistant at Byron Center High School along with former Caledonia head coach Tom Burrill and former Byron Center head coach Casper Giarmo.

He returned to the sidelines at Wayland at the start of the 2011 campaign and his record over his last four seasons was 7-31.

The Tigers will open their season at Gull Lake this week.

PHOTO: Jerry Diorio (left) and Elliot Uzelac