Longtime Peoria-area high school football coach retires after 32 years

CHILLICOTHE — Tim Heinz has called it a career.

The Illinois Valley Central football coach has retired following 21 years at the Chillicothe high school.

Heinz leaves as IVC's all-time winningest coach with 99 victories, 10 appearances in the Class 4A playoffs and three conference championships. He began his head coaching career at Peoria Notre Dame, where he won 32 games and twice made he playoffs in six seasons from 1999-2004.

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"I had a great time," Heinz told the Journal Star on Monday. "I had really good players and great coaches I coached with. ... It was just time for me to get out after 32 years (of coaching). ... It's bittersweet. I'll miss coaching the kids.

"It's just time."

Tim Heinz led IVC to first playoff berth

Heinz, who will turn 54 in March, transformed the Grey Ghosts into a perennial playoff team in his two-plus decades at IVC, making six consecutive Week 10 visits during his first six years.

This included the program's first-ever postseason berth in 2005. He led that IVC squad to a 5-5 overall mark and 4-3 in the final year of Mid-Illini Conference play, losing to Bloomington Central Catholic in the first round.

"I had good people that helped me," Heinz said, "and we kind of got it together and did pretty well."

From there, IVC went 42-10 over the next five seasons that included two of the program's three playoff wins (2007, 2010). All that success came with the Ghosts playing in the now-defunct North Central Illinois Conference from 2006-2010.

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IVC then was a member of the Mid-State 6 (2011, 2012), West Central (2013) and Corn Belt (2014-2016) conferences before finding its current home in the Illini Prairie Conference prior to the 2017 season.

"Different conferences focus on different things," said Heinz, who will remain at IVC as a physical education and drivers ed teacher for the next six years. "(In the Illini Prairie), you better bring your 'A' game every week."

Heinz's 2019 team set the school record for wins in a season with 10, while winning the program's most recent playoff game before losing to eventual state runner-up Murphysboro in the second round.

Heinz leaves with 99 wins at IVC, which opened in 1969. Legendary coach George Taylor, who coached for two decades at precursor Chillicothe High School and the first few years of IVC, won 162 games in his 27-year tenure.

What's next for IVC?

So, is the whistle officially hung up?

"I don't ever know," Heinz said. "Right now, it is. ... I don't see myself being a head coach again, no."

In 2025, IVC went 2-7 overall and 1-7 in Illini Prairie, ending its campaign with a 30-27 win over Rantoul in Week 9. Senior lineman Ethan Dickinson was the lone Ghost to garner all-Illini Prairie honors, making second team on both the offensive and defensive lines.

The job opening is listed on the IVC website with no successors lined up, according to Heinz.

"I have no idea about (a replacement)," he said. "I told them I'd help them in any way I needed to. Obviously, I spent 21 years, you want (the program) to do good."

Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: IHSA football: IVC, Notre Dame coach Tim Heinz retires