Pete Jonovich was the longest tenured  football coach in the  Mesa district  last year after finishing his 10th season and with Tom Joseph getting fired at Mesa Mountain View.

No longer. Jonovich was let go as coach at Skyline this week after 11 seasons. The coach with the most seniority in the district now is Kelley Moore at Mesa High (five years). All six Mesa schools have now changed coaches in the last five  years.

"They told me they wanted to go in a different direction," Jonovich said. "You get into coaching and you know that you can be replaced. I've been coaching 21 years. Coaches used to stay at schools a lot longer. Those days are over."

Jonovich coached 11 seasons at Skyline after coming to the Mesa district from Globe in 2001. He's one of two head football coaches in the school's history -- Queen Creek assistant Mark Swartz was the first.

"Usually if the administration wants to make a change, it happens soon after the season (November-December)," Jonovich said. "They didn't decide to make a change until now."

Jonovich compiled a 36-79 record at Skyline. Jonovich's most successful seasons were in 2007 and 2008 (7-4 and 8-4) when the school competed in 5A Division I and made the playoffs both seasonsI. Skyline has been the smallest of Mesa's six high schools pretty much since its inception in 1999.

"I've coached a lot of good kids here," Jonovich, who will continue teach at Skyline, said. "We've had a lot of them who have stuck around and stayed with the process."

Skyline advertised the  opening on Friday and athletic director Greg Schutlz said in the posting the job will be open to applicants through Feb. 17. Schultz could not be reached for comment Friday.

"I'm not sure what I'm going to do coaching-wise  right now," Jonovich said. It is kind of late to be looking for other head coaching jjob. Right now I'll just take a breath and sit back for a little bit."