Coaches say it all the time.

Once they take over as head coach of a program, it’s like taking on a second family.

A by-product of that is keeping up with the original family.

Many high school coaches get to experience the privilege of coaching their own sons or daughters. If those players are good enough to go on to play in college, it’s not so easy for that coach to keep up.

Mars basketball coach Rob Carmody coached and watched sons Robby and Michael shine for the Planets throughout their high school years. They combined to score more than 3,300 points for him.

Both went on to Notre Dame, Robby for basketball, Michael for football. It would have been understandable had Coach Carmody stepped down to devote more time to his sons’ college careers.

But that would mean leaving that second family.

So Carmody continued to coach while taking plenty of car trips out to South Bend and other cities to watch his sons compete.

And he recently picked up his 400th career win in the process.

Kudos to him.

Butler basketball coach Matt Clement got to coach his first son, Mattix, to a 1,000-point career with the Golden Tornado. He then watched him play at Butler County Community College.

His second son, Madden, will present a different challenge. He’ll be playing baseball at Virginia Tech in the spring.

Clement will make some trips south. And he’s still coaching basketball.

These guys find time because they care about their own kids and coaching other kids.

One unique case is Slippery Rock University football coach Shawn Lutz. While he has not coached his own kids, he has sons playing football for Grove City High School and Duquesne University.

Logan, his oldest son, plays for Duquesne. Since SRU and Duquesne both play on Saturdays, Coach Lutz had never gotten to be there live to watch him play a college game.

He always went to Grove City High School games on Friday nights, exceptions being a required overnight road trip for his SRU squad.

Recently, Lutz guided The Rock to an upset playoff win over previously unbeaten Tiffin in Ohio. That was a noon kickoff.

From there, he jumped in the car and drove to Youngstown, where Duquesne was playing a playoff game at Youngstown State.

Lutz finally got to watch Logan play in a college game — and demonstrated how badly he wanted to do so.

These are just a few examples of what coaches go through to take care of both “families.”

They are dedicated people, proud of the success of their own children while staying committed to developing success in their teams.

Neither trait should be taken lightly.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle