But when the 2024 season kicks off next fall, for the first time in 48 years, high school football’s one constant will no longer be on the sidelines.

Austin, a 2010 Michigan High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee, the architect and then savior of several high school football programs around the state, including Engadine in the eastern U.P., and most recently the man behind Newberry’s resurgence, has announced he is officially retiring after decades serving several schools across the state and changing countless lives along the way.

It was his impact on and off the field, and on those around him, that made Austin the latest James Trethewey Distinguished Service Award winner as chosen by the U.P. Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association to an individual who has worked to benefit opportunities for Upper Peninsula high school athletes.

The award is presented in honor of Trethewey, who was a founding member of the UPSSA, longtime editor of The Mining Journal, and the first executive director of the U.P. Sports Hall of Fame.

Longtime high school football coach Joe Austin stands in front of his plaque on display at the University of Michigan stadium in October 2010 when he was inducted into the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame. (Photo courtesy MHSFCA)

So how did a self-described “scrub athlete” from upstate New York who had no idea what he wanted to do after his playing days end up building a hall of fame resume that began and ended right here in the U.P.?

It was a random trip across the Northern Michigan University campus in Marquette, with his life coming to a crossroads, when Austin made a detour that would change his life and those closest to him forever.

“I had just graduated from Northern Michigan and was working at the Marquette power plant. I decided to swing into the Career Services Office and asked if there were any coaching positions available anywhere,” Austin recounted.

“The lady looked it up and said something about Engadine, who nobody had ever heard of, was looking for someone to help out. I went home and called them, and the rest was history.”

Once Austin looked up where Engadine was and found his way to the small rural school, he met with longtime legendary eastern U.P. administrator Frank Salzeider, who hired him on the spot to kick start a journey that would span across six decades.

Austin admits he never considered coaching as a possible vocation when he was a star high school quarterback who was recruited by the Naval Academy. He says he “had no business being there” and was just a kid who was OK as a high school football player and thrived because “gym class was my favorite and the only subject I really excelled in.”

After not making it at Navy, where he stayed for eight months trying to figure out his next move, he made another fateful call that would lead him closer to his legacy.

“I called up NMU (whose football team was coming off an 0-10 season) and they offered me a chance to play,” Austin said. “Little did I know that it wouldn’t pan out the way I hoped. But (NMU) ended up OK, I’d say!”

As Austin sat out during his transfer year, a young man who would one day become a U.P. legend stepped in and led the Wildcats to a historic turnaround and a national championship. That player he became the backup for was Iron Mountain native Steve Mariucci, who went on to a major college, then NFL coaching career.

Austin also made the jump into the coaching ranks, where he eventually won enough games to be inducted into the MHSFCA Hall of Fame. After spending eight seasons at Engadine, where he built the program into a championship team and was on the sideline for classics including the famous game that inspired what is now known as the Weather Bowl with EUP Conference rival Brimley, Austin took over at downstate Charlotte, where again he turned around a team that had lost more than 20 straight games, then followed that up with another incredible turnaround at far southern Lower Peninsula town of Niles.

That latter program was on the verge of shutting down after winning only three games in five seasons, and at the peak of his success, Austin found himself replaced by another famous college football quarterback.

Michigan high school legend and former Notre Dame starter Terry Andrysiak, who went head to head with the Michigan Wolverines’ Jim Harbaugh and threw passes to Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown, was brought in to take over.

Austin, who was also the track coach and athletic director at Niles, was fired. While he again overcame adversity, moving on and continuing to impact lives, Andrysiak was gone after one season.

Austin spent short stints at nearby South Bend, Indiana, St. Joseph where he was interestingly hired as an art teacher, and at Lakeshore, where he was the freshmen coach before settling in at Niles’ next-door neighbor, Buchanan. He led the program there for a decade before retiring for the first time.

The ups and downs of Austin’s journey helped shape the man and the coach that he became. It’s a simple message that he has passed along to hundreds of players and is still a part of his daily focus on and off the field to this day.

“There is so much you can learn about life from playing this game,” the Trethewey award winner said. “Getting out there and getting knocked on your butt forces you to fight and get back up.

“I’ve been knocked down plenty, and I always tried to bounce back up. I’ve been blessed to be a part of this game for so long. It’s given me incredible memories and experiences, and I have seen first-hand how it has changed kids and their lives.

“I look at some of the players I’ve had, and some of them came in as freshmen and they were lost. But football helped them find themselves, it gave them the drive and purpose and so many have been able to become great young men and adults.

“Kids need this. I don’t know how much of an impact I’ve truly made, but I’ve always tried to do it for them and do it the right way. I’m going to miss being a part of that journey. I’ve learned and grown as much as anyone along the way.”

The other secret to Austin’s incredible career? The woman he refers to as the “rock” at every turn.

In his second year at Engadine, the district hired a new first-grade teacher who immediately caught his eye. They were soon married and Pat Austin became what he describes as a “hall of fame-level wife.”

“It’s not easy being a coach’s wife,” Joe Austin said. “She sacrificed so much so many times while I bounced around and chased lives. She’s given up birthdays, holidays, vacations, and she was always right there every Friday night.

“She’s the first person I look for and she always seems to know exactly how I feel. There have been a lot of frustrations, a lot of heartbreaks, and she’s gone through all of them with us. No way I would’ve made it without her.”

After the couple returned to Engadine, a guest appearance at a football practice led to a return to the sidelines. Two years later, as an assistant coach, Austin was named Eagles’ head coach for the second time.

He spent four more seasons leading Engadine to heights only matched by his original tenure at the school. He stepped down after battling health issues and decided it was finally time to stop and spend time with his family.

But retirement No. 2 lasted only six weeks. As the 2018 season was only days away, longtime rival Newberry was without a head football coach. The school made the call to Austin on a Friday and he was back in the game the following Monday. In his six seasons with “The Tribe,” Austin led Newberry’s transition to eight-player football, coached the program to five straight playoff appearances and was the 2022 UPSSA 8-Player Coach of the Year.

His teams haven’t just been successful on the field, but also shining off of it.

Players in the Newberry program can often be found spending their spare time volunteering in the community. Last summer, when Tahquamenon Area Schools needed to clear classrooms and offices for a construction project and the football team came calling.

The Tahquamenon-area senior citizens organization has a store downtown, with many of the proceeds being donated to the community. The NHS football program assisted them with loading and unloading trailers and trucks, moving products, cleaning and repainting parking lots, and assisting the group with events.

This fall, as the Indians were scheduled to practice in preparation of a must-win matchup, nobody could be found at the football field. Players instead went and helped a local resident who needed help moving her furniture.

And when the football facility was finally improved for a much-needed facelift, it was the players and parents who came to peel and repaint the walls, clean up trash and brush, and help fix damaged items.

Austin’s teams at Newberry have also been just as strong in the classroom, where they take leadership skills from the field and pass them on to their fellow students, assisting teachers with younger students or those with special needs.

They help tutor, and staff will often turn to them to mentor troubled classmates. Players often focus their projects in elective classes on items that can be raffled off for fundraisers or donated to community organizations.

When their 2023 season ended with a first-round playoff loss in a heartbreaker against Norway, the team came together the following week on their first free Friday night in months to clear tables and help serve local veterans at an annual banquet in their honor. It’s all part of what they call “Indian Pride.”

It’s that pride that Joe Austin says he will miss the most.

“I don’t know if all of it has truly sunk it yet,” he said. “I’ve spent years getting tangled up and fired up with these kids, not just about football, but life. It’s the challenge, how you handle and react to adversity.

Life changes in an instant and on Friday nights, you get to take that test together.”

After almost five decades, Joe Austin has certainly passed that test time and time again, and his teams, his players and the communities he has served have been better off because of it. His record may say that he is a hall of fame coach, but his legacy should be so much bigger than that.