If Plymouth High School’s administration gets its way Adam Handley will not be coaching the Rockies football team in 2026 despite engineering one of Michiana’s biggest turnarounds.

Players were stunned as they heard the news from Handley Monday that he was informed his contract will not be renewed for next season based on the program’s performance over his four seasons as head coach.

According to a sources, Handley was asked to resign but he refused. It appears the next steps will be for Plymouth’s principal and athletic director to potentially bring the matter to the school board for a decision. The next school board meeting is not until December 2nd.

In 2024, Handley led Plymouth to six wins. That was a remarkable accomplishment for a program that had just snapped a 21-game losing streak the year before.

In fact, Plymouth won just two total games in the two seasons before Handley arrived, going 2-6 in 2020 and 0-10 in 2021. Plymouth also went 0-10 in Handley’s first season as he looked the build the program back up by growing the number of players in his program. The Rockies went 2-8 in year two and then the big improvements came in year three.

Plymouth went 6-5 last year, their 1st winning season since 2019. That included a signature overtime win on the road at Warsaw in week 6 in the Sports Michiana Game of the Week. To illustrate the turnaround, Plymouth lost to Warsaw 70-0 in 2022 and then beat them just two seasons later. Adding to the impressiveness of the win for Plymouth was that Warsaw did not lose again until the 5A State Championship game.

After a strong senior class graduated, Plymouth went 4-7 this year. The season ended with a 21-17 loss to Class 4A #4 Mishawaka in a down to the wire finish in the sectional semifinals.

Prior to Plymouth, Handley was the head coach at Wabash for four seasons where he also built that program up to a winning season by year three. Wabash dipped to 2-7 in year four under Handley. That’s when he was hired by Plymouth.

Plymouth Athletic Director Josh Troyer has not yet responded to an email seeking comment.