After 41 years, Glynda O'Brien may finally get to have her husband at home on Friday nights during the fall.

Mike O'Brien, who spent the last seven seasons coaching at Woodstock and more than four decades coaching in high schools throughout Georgia and his native Mississippi, announced his retirement Wednesday.

O'Brien said the decision was an emotional one.

"It was real hard, because we are around (the players) so much, and they mean so much to us," he said. "It's what we've been doing for 41 years."

O'Brien said he has talked to his wife about retiring for a couple of years, but she didn't even know he had made the decision until after he told the Woodstock administration Tuesday. O'Brien shared his decision with his staff that evening and told the players during a meeting Wednesday.

While he isn't sure how he will fill the void, the 62-year-old O'Brien said it was the right time to step down.

"We'll have to get over that," said O'Brien, who will continue to live in Cherokee County. "I'm not sure how we'll handle it, but we will. (Glynda) has definitely been supportive of my career. If she hadn't been, I wouldn't have been able to do it. She said it was up to me whenever I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. She was just very supportive the whole time.

"I just thought this was the right time to do it with the program where it is and all."

When O'Brien came to Woodstock in 2003, the Wolverines were coming off back-to-back 0-10 seasons and the program desperately needed new life.

O'Brien also was looking to start over. Despite producing a state championship and 70-20-1 record, he had recently been fired from Valdosta after an 8-3 season - typically considered a disappointment for the nation's winningest high school football program.

The move was a perfect fit for both. In his first season with the Wolverines, O'Brien got results with a 5-5 record. He went on to lead Woodstock to its first playoff appearance in 2005, a quarterfinal-round appearance in '08 and the program's first 10-win season in '09.

Despite a couple of down years, the three-time Cherokee Tribune Football Coach of the Year produced a 42-34 record at Woodstock. Before his tenure, the Wolverines were just 14-36.

Etowah coach Bill Stewart said O'Brien's departure will be felt throughout the county.

"The county is losing a first-class man," said Stewart, who just completed his fourth season at Towne Lake rival Etowah. "We're losing a great coach in our county. He has built a really great program and, in competing against them, he has always been a first-class individual."

"He came into a situation where the program was not doing well at all and turned it around. His track record is great, and you can only hope to have a career like his."

O'Brien's players also said there will be a void, but the winning tradition their coach began will continue.

"I think he meant pretty much everything to the football program," running back Tanner Skogen said. "He was the one that turned it around. He brought in all the coaches we have and developed all the players. He very much turned the program around from a losing program to being one of the top programs in the state."

Skogen, who will return to the field for his senior year next fall, said it will be different without O'Brien.

"It will be weird when we first start out," he said. "He'll be missed a lot, but I think we'll keep on winning. We have a lot of good rising seniors, and sophomores and juniors, that will step up and carry on the tradition."

While O'Brien wished he could have led Woodstock to a state championship, he doesn't think a title is too far away.

"I told (the players), I want them to keep going," he said. "I think, in the near future, they can play for the state championship."

And if they play for that title, O'Brien plans to be there.

"I'm not going far," he said.

Still, O'Brien is satisfied at the end of his career, knowing that he touched the lives of more than 1,000 young men for more than 40 years.

"It's been really fulfilling," he said. "To me, it's the kids, the people, the coaches I've coached with and their families that matter. There have been so many people that have just been wonderful. To see a kid when he starts out, and then where he gets to, you just hope that you helped some. And you never know what type of impact they will have on someone else's live because of what happened with you."