Bobby Marks has walked away from the game once before.

After 11 seasons, his friends at Adams County Christian School talked him into returning to the game.

Two seasons later, this is “the end,” according to Marks.

The ACCS coach, who went through the trials of prostate cancer, knee replacement surgery and the death of his wife since returning to the sidelines, made his retirement official Thursday.

“I’ve enjoyed my two years back,” Marks said. “Even though it was two hectic years. We had a lot of injuries both years. We didn’t make the playoffs (in 2005), but we had a good winning year. This past year we had to rebuild and I think we did as good as we could do. I enjoyed those two teams, and I hated I didn’t get to finish with this (senior) group coming up.”

Marks retired on the advice of his doctor, who said with another knee replacement coming up he wouldn’t recommend continuing.

“I had planned on coming back until recently,” he said. “My family doctor advised me that I need to hang it up. I got to thinking about it, talked to my children about it and I decided (retirement) was the best thing. I will be 74 when the season starts. Once I get this knee done hopefully I can spend a little more time on the golf course and hunting.”

Marks spent 16 years at ACCS from 1978-93, winning the 1982 MPSA Class AAA state championship. He retired following the 1993 season, and came back in 2005.

Marks also had coaching stops at Ferriday High School, Huntington (where he won the 1971 LISA state championship), the now-defunct Thomas Jefferson High School and Cathedral.

He also had the opportunity to coach at the college level at Northeast Louisiana University (now Louisiana-Monroe), but turned it down.

“The only time I was going to be off was on Sunday mornings. I wouldn’t have gotten a chance to see my kids play ball, be cheerleaders or anything like that. You only get to see your kids grow up one time.”

Marks said he learned plenty of things during his time back at ACCS, but one thing stands above the rest.

“All these old coaches sit around, and I used to sit around with them saying we couldn’t coach now. They all thought the kids were different now. They aren’t any different. They just have more things they can get into. I probably had less problems with these two groups than I did with any team I ever had.”