La Crosse, Wis. (WXOW)- UW-La Crosse confirmed that Head Coach Mike Schmidt is leaving the football program. Schmidt accepted the Head Coaching job at Northern State University.

READ: Northern State University introduces Schmidt as next head football coach

The university held a press conference on Monday at 2:30 p.m. introducing Schmidt as the coach. Therefore, he was unable to tell his team his decision to leave in person. UW-La Crosse Director of Athletics Kim Blum read a letter to the team from Schmidt. The overall message behind the letter was that it was a difficult decision he made for his career and his family.

Now, Blum turns her attention to hiring the next Head Coach at UW-La Crosse. Blum says there are high expectations for the next coach.

"The candidates' ability to provide an experience for our student-athletes and we never apologize for wanting to win games," Blum said. "We want to continue what has been built over the past four years and have full expectation that we will be in the playoffs in the very near future."

As for the team, Schmit was a big reason they chose UW-La Crosse. They are surprised and disappointed, but understanding of his decision. They are remaining optimistic about the future of this program.

"We know this is his home," Junior Joey Bolda said. "He's always told us that. We know this was not an easy decision. Still hurt a little bit, but we understand he has a lot more factors playing into his life than we do. I'm definitely going to miss being able to relate with someone so closely."

"He was like the first one to let me, bring me in, let me be who I am," Sophomore Cameron Sorenson said. "That was awesome. Just giving me my opportunity and sticking with me this season."

"If you dwell on it, that's when teams suffer from it," Sophomore Joey Stutzman said. "So all you gotta do is let's bond together, let's stick together, let's win the conference championship, what we did last year, like yeah Schmidt was really good for this program, and he's a great coach, but that doesn't mean that we should be done just because he is leaving you know."