Longtime Geneva Rival Mike Gaspari Retires as Batavia Head Football Coach

Mike Gaspari, Batavia High School's athletic director and head football coach, will retire at the end of this school year, the school announced Thursday.

Gaspari has been the head football coach for 26 years and the school's athletic director for 20 years.

Garspari coached some of Batavia's best football teams, advancing all the way to the state Class 6A championship game in 2006. He turned around a football program that had been floundering for decades, leading the school to a 139-118 record and 14 playoff appearances in his 20 seasons as head coach.

Dennis Piron, Batavia's assistant head coach, defensive coordinator and a good friend of Gaspari, will take the head coaching job. Piron began serving on the coaching staff in 1990.

"Mike convinced me to start coaching with him and here we are still," Piron said.

Piron teaches math at the high school and is also the boys track head coach. 

Batavia High School Associate Principal Chip Hickman will take over as athletic director, in addition to his current duties. Hickman oversees the school's co-curricular activities and operations and has been an administrator at the school since 2004.

Geneva coach Rob Wicinski told the Kane County Chronicle in an excellent story by Kevin Druley that Gaspari was an icon in Batavia sports and credited him with the football teams success of the past two decades.

Dave Oberhelman also has an excellent story on the Piron-Gaspari transition on the Daily Herald website.

You can read up on the Geneva-Batavia football rivalry in some depth on genevafootball.com.