Football coaches are sometimes infamous for the amount of time they spend away from loved ones, but Suzanne Hobbie, wife of San Marino High School head football Coach Mike Hobbie, went into their marriage with eyes wide open.
“I always knew he was going to be a football coach and that was just fine with me,” said Suzanne. “It’s part of the job.”
The sport has been in Suzanne’s heart since the days of her youth, which were spent in Mayfield, Kentucky, a town with a powerhouse high school football team that stretches back decades.
“Even when I was a little girl I loved football and I even played football with the boys,” she said. “Later, in high school, I was a cheerleader and I would go to the football banquets and I thought it would be neat to marry a football coach. I have grown up loving football.”
Like the Hobbie’s marriage, it is a love affair that continues to this day. The couple met and later married while students at Murray State University, where Mike was the quarterback and Suzanne (her husband calls her “Susie” in his trademark Georgia drawl) was the Homecoming Queen. Their shared love of sports quickly became evident.
“Mike coached a Pony baseball league for 14-year-olds while we were still in college,” said Suzanne. “Together, Mike and I started a soccer league for young girls while we were in college. Mike and I each coached a team and officiated when we were not coaching.”
Suzanne & Mike also started a Pop Warner football league in Sarasota, Florida, where Hobbie Field was named in their honor.
Suzanne ran track at Mayfield High School, where she was a sprinter and long jumper and also played summer league softball, but there were few opportunities for girls at that time.
Later, Suzanne coached track at Ft. Pierce Central High School in Florida, where she mentored the state’s second-fastest hurdler and third fastest sprinter.
Two years ago, when San Marino High School needed a track coach, Suzanne took the job for a season, spending most of her time with the sprinters.
Though the two share many interests and are at most times joined at the proverbial hip (just try to keep the Hobbie’s away from a summer blues festival) Mike’s passion requires a seasonal withdrawal from constant communication, to put it frankly.
“During the football season, Mike probably spends about 18 hours on the weekends planning for the upcoming game,” she told The Tribune. “That does not count the hours he spends when he gets home from football practice. On several occasions, depending on the next opponent, I have seen him spend both days of the weekend working on his game plan, from the time he wakes up until the time he goes to bed.”
Mike Hobbie enjoyed a five-year stint on the coaching staff at the University of South Florida, beginning when the school took its football team to Division I. The experience was bittersweet for Suzanne.
“For a wife, it was a lot of fun,” she said. “We traveled to all the away games and got to visit some bigtime football colleges. We even had our own skybox at Raymond James Stadium to watch the home games. It was wonderful, and I still stay in touch with some of the other coaches’ wives. But Mike was so busy, I only had dinner with him one night a week, on Thursdays. And by the end, all the long hours were starting to take a toll on him.”
In her husband’s more than 40 years on the sideline, Suzanne has missed only a couple of games when she was under the weather. And the sport has grown within the family. Their son, Matt Hobbie, was a star quarterback at Sarasota High School – where he played for his father – and accepted a football scholarship at the University of Kentucky. Matt left UK after two years when he signed a contract to play professional baseball for the Cleveland Indians. Matt has been a member of his father’s staff all seven years at SMHS, serving as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
These days, Mike coaches and Suzanne watches grandson Beau Hobbie, a junior at San Marino High School, who earlier this season set a new single-game rushing record when he dashed and danced for 262 yards against Bell Gardens.
Suzanne teaches Biology and AP Biology at San Marino High School, where she has lunch with her husband daily, surrounded by the “ambiance” of his coach’s office. She claims to know little about the sport that has featured so prominently in her life, but that’s mostly her tremendous humility speaking. Or not speaking, to be more accurate.
“I know all the positions and what each player does,” she said. “If you start getting into the X’s and O’s, well, that’s a little challenging.”
Like many in the grandstand, Suzanne is “nervous” when watching the Titans, usually right next to daughter Valerie, who also makes it to just about every game.
“Oh, yeah,” she said with a laugh. “I’m nervous for Mike, I’m nervous for Beau. I don’t like to talk during the game. It’s hard and it was really hard when Matt was in high school and Mike was coaching him. That was nerve-wracking.”
But Suzanne still loves the entire experience.
“I love it,” she said. “I am very supportive of him and his teams and I enjoy knowing the kids and going to the games. It’s fun. There is nothing better than a Friday night football game.”
Then after a pause.
“And a Saturday afternoon football game.”
And then another hearty laugh, because Sunday is probably next…
