Coaching search update

Conemaugh Valley, Ferndale and Penn Cambria are searching for football coaches, and at least one school may be close to making a hire.

Penn Cambria will likely stamp its coaching hire at the Feb. 19 meeting. Tony Tomaselli is in the running and could be the front runner. Tomaselli replaced Ernie Fetzer on an interim basis after Fetzer resigned with two games remaining in the regular season. Tomaselli was an assistant on Fetzer's staff, a former head coach at Penn Cambria and a teacher in the school district.

Bishop Guilfoyle coach Justin Wheeler's name has also come up. Wheeler teaches Penn Cambria and also is a former assistant there, so it's logical his name surfaced though his interest in the opening may not be strong as some hope. Wheeler headed a remarkable turnaround at BG this season.

Conemaugh Valley athletic director Paula McCleester told T-D sports writer Mike Mastovich that interviews there will begin Monday (Jan. 28).

No candidates for the position have been confirmed, though former CV coach Tom Marshall and Windber athletic director Ralph DeMarco have been mentioned by sources.

Friday Night Lights coach resigns

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) – Gary Gaines, the 63-year-old high school coach at the center of the “Friday Night Lights” book and film, has left the Odessa Permian sideline for the last time.
Gaines said he resigned from the West Texas football program he helped make famous. He said he doubts he’ll coach again but wasn’t sure what’s next for him.
“We’re going to give it to someone else and, hopefully, they can make more out of it than we did,” Gaines said. “We came here to make some deep playoff runs and we weren’t able to do that. That’s what (Permian fans) expect, and I expect as well.”
He leaves with a 69-28-1 record in eight years as Permian’s head coach, including a 23-21 mark in his last four years. In all, he coached Permian from 1986-89 and 2009-12, and was an assistant there for three years in the early 1980s.  
His second stint in Odessa included a lone playoff victory and no district championships.
Gaines led the program to a state 5A championship in 1989. The Panthers were undefeated that season, just a year after H.G. “Buzz” Bissinger spent a year in town researching his best-seller, which chronicled how high school football binds an oil patch community.
Todd Veseley, athletic director of the Ector school district, said it would be a “daunting” task to replace Gaines. He declined to say whether he asked Gaines to step down following the Panthers’ disappointing 5-6 season.
“Any time anyone the quality of coach Gaines leaves, it leaves a vacuum,” he said.
Gaines would not say directly whether he was asked to resign.
“It was just one of those things,” he said. “I understand when programs don’t improve sometimes the head coach has to bear that responsibility.”
Made into a movie in 2004, Bissinger’s book was a hit everywhere but Odessa. Locals felt Bissinger betrayed their hospitality by writing about the sociological woes surrounding the team and town, including allegations of racism and a win-at-all-costs mentality. An NBC television series with the same name was less about football than the community depicted.
After leading the Panthers to the state title more than 20 years ago, Gaines left Permian to become linebackers coach at Texas Tech. He left coaching in 2005 after five years at Abilene Christian to return to Odessa as the school district’s athletic director. Two years later, he moved north to take a similar post in Lubbock.
The once-vaunted Panthers have won six state titles but none since 1991.
Before Gaines’ return in 2009, the Permian program enjoyed something of a revival, making it to three regional finals the previous four seasons while compiling a 38-11 record under Darren Allman, a former Permian player and Gaines protege who left in 2009 to take the coaching job at Austin Westlake.

The co-coach system working for Shade

Co-head coaches occasionally pop up in sports like basketball or softball. In football, it's a rare thing.

Rockwood tried it a few years ago.

Shade decided to do the same for the 2012 season. Mike Pribish, who had been the Panthers' head coach the previous two years, was joined by Don Fyfe, who had served as Shade's football coach in the early 2000s.

It's safe to say, the situation has worked well.

Shade is 5-4 heading into the regular-season finale against Rockwood. The Panthers will be the home team in a game played at Somerset.

"They added the 10th week to the regular season, and we were at the WestPAC meeting before the season sitting beside Rockwood," Pribish explained. "Our teams had played for years and rather than scrambling to fill the game, we said, 'Let's play each other at the end of the season.' We thought it would be great to play on turf."

Whether Shade wins or not, the Panthers' season won't end there.

They'll be in the District 5-A playoffs for the first time since 1989.

So, yeah, the co-head coaching system has worked. Of course, it helps that Shade has talent like Brock Medva, Nash Walker and Brian Spangler.

"The way Don and I work together, the players see that and they've responded to it," Pribish said.

Fyfe works with the offense, and Pribish gets the defense.

"We start as soon as we exchange film. Don gets the offensive game plan. I get the defensive game plan," Pribish said. "On Monday, the players lift weights and we look at game film. By the end of Monday, we're in pretty good shape."

AP column: A win we should all celebrate

In this Oct. 24, 2012 photo, Summerville High School coach John McKissick coaches his team during practice in Summerville, S.C

By PAUL NEWBERRY
AP National Writer
So much football, so many great story lines, both college and pros. Georgia knocks Florida from the ranks of the unbeaten. Notre Dame keeps Irish eyes smiling. The Atlanta Falcons romp to their seventh straight win.
Yet, none of those compare to the biggest gridiron news of the weekend.
Not even close.
In South Carolina, a prep coach was carried off the field the other night with his 600th career victory.
SIX-HUNDRED!
The number is staggering, almost beyond belief. When John McKissick took over at Summerville High School, Harry Truman was wrapping up his term as president and Jim Crow was still the norm in the former Confederacy.
McKissick has coached through integration, the Vietnam War and 9/11, through flower power and disco and hip-hop, through boom boxes and Walkmans and iPhones.
To reach such an epic number, he had to average 10 wins a year for 60 years, which is impressive enough. But what’s even more astounding, he managed to remain relevant from one generation to the next, staying true to his values – a strong running game and stout defense are always a winning combination – even while the world around him was changing at breakneck speed.
We can count up his wins, but we can’t possibly come up with a tally on all the lives McKissick touched along the way.
“Time flies, doesn’t it?” he says.
He’s 86 now, far beyond the age when most of his contemporaries have taken to a rocking chair, if they’re still around at all.
Clearly, he’s not big on change himself. He’s been in the same job since 1952, been married to the same woman, Joan, for about the same amount of time. Surely there were chances to move up to a higher-profile gig or at least move on, but he was always happy where he was. He was content to mold young minds and bodies, to give them a better chance to succeed before they headed off to sell insurance or drive a bulldozer or even to play in the NFL.
“Congrats to coach on his 600th win,” tweeted a former player, Cincinnati Bengals star receiver A.J. Green, after Summerville’s latest victory. “One of the best ever!!!”
One of the best, indeed.
Beyond the Xs and Os, there are lessons we all should heed. It’s not always necessary to keep striving for bigger and better. Contentment is not a bad thing, as long as we’re always striving to be our best.
That’s how McKissick has lived, guiding the Green Wave to 10 state titles while missing out on the fame of coaching at some big-time university or in the NFL. Much like the character George Bailey in the classic holiday movie “It’s A Wonderful Life,” he might just be the richest coach on the planet even though his bank account can’t possibly match up to someone like Alabama’s Nick Saban (who, by the way, is 431 wins behind McKissick).
John T. Curtis Jr., coach of the John Curtis Christian School in Louisiana, has 513 wins. St. John’s (Minn.) coach John Gagliardi is the college leader with 487 victories while Don Shula holds the professional mark with 347 wins.
“I look forward to getting up every morning and coming into work,” the Summerville coach says. “If I didn’t do it, I don’t know what I’d do. I like golf, but I don’t play that much. I never was real good at it.”
Most of us strive for that day when we can quit whatever we’re doing, perhaps the thing we do best, and just do nothing. But McKissick never even talks about retirement, giving him a sense of purpose that is missing in the lives of so many senior citizens. Bear Bryant lasted barely a month after retiring as Alabama’s coach. Who knows how many years McKissick added to his life because he’s always had a place to go every morning?
Sure, there comes a time when we just can’t do the job we once did. Our bodies break down. Our minds struggle to keep up. Even McKissick has heard grumbling around his town of 44,000 from those who think it’s time for someone younger to take over, who aren’t thrilled that the Green Wave is going on 14 years since its last state title.
“Every now and then, you’ll have one who says, ‘Hey, coach, you’re getting too old.’ I’ll have one stop me and stay, ‘Y’all are awful, coach,”’ McKissick says. “My answer to them is always, ‘Did you buy a ticket to get in? ... If you bought a ticket, say whatever you want but don’t get personal. If you didn’t buy a ticket, go on and get out.”’
He starts to chuckle.
“That’s how I handle it.”
McKissick had a heart scare a few years ago, prompting him to get a pacemaker. He doesn’t jog around the practice fields very often, scooting around on a golf cart. Mindful of his limitations, he’s passed off many of his coaching duties to his assistants. He is grateful for their service, for caring as much about Summerville High as he does.
“When you have that, you don’t have any fussing,” he says. “We don’t fuss at each other, just talk, and they respect what I think and I respect what they do.”
Summerville got off to a rough start this season, winning just two of its first six games. But the Green Wave bounced back with a four-game winning streak, capped by a 37-21 win over rival Ashley Ridge that gave McKissick his latest milestone Friday night.
Not that he’s keeping count.
He prefers to keep looking toward the future, not living in the past.
“Well, you know, as a football coach, I count one at a time,” McKissick says. “It’s another win, and if it totals up to 600, that’s great. I feel good for the kids. I feel good for the boys. They tell everyone they were part of the 600th. I think they will be proud of that.”
Who knows? Maybe some youngster in Summerville is just picking up a football for the first time. Maybe, a decade or so from now, he’ll be the one who helps McKissick get win No. 700.
Don’t bet against it.

Fetzer resigns as Penn Cambria coach

Big things were expected from the Penn Cambria football team this season, but a four-game losing streak ended any hopes of winning a Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference champions and has the Panthers clinging to postseason hopes.

Ernie Fetzer went 48-36 at Penn Cambria.

Penn Cambria was the preseason favorite to win the LHAC, which Richland wrapped up last Friday. The Panthers are ranked ninth in the District 6 Class AA playoff standings. The top eight teams make the playoffs.

Now, Penn Cambria (4-4) was dealt another blow before Saturday's game at Westmont Hilltop when Ernie Fetzer resigned as football coach and athletic director on Wednesday, effective immediately.

Assistant coach Tony Tomaselli will serve as Penn Cambria interim coach for the remainder of the season. Penn Cambria Principal William Marshall and Assistant Principal Dane Harrold will fulfill athletic director duties until a replacement is hired.

The news may surprise many, but according to at least one Penn Cambria player on Twitter, Fetzer's resignation was anything but surprising.

Senior linebacker/receiver Mack Behe tweeted Wednesday, "yeah I saw it coming he talked to me and devin all week about how disappointed he was with the season."

Devin Lawhead, another senior standout, tweeted, "Ernie Fetzer has just quit the head coach of the Penn Cambria football team.. #nojoke"

Fetzer planned to retire as football coach and athletic director, which is a part-time position, at the end of the school year.

"We had been anticipating this but we hadn't announced he was planning to retire because he did not want it to be a distraction to the team," Penn Cambria Superintendent Mary Beth Whited said.

Whited said she and other school administrators met with Fetzer on Wednesday to talk him into completing the season.

"(Fetzer) is an outstanding individual of true character who did so many good things," Whited said. "What bothers me most about the timing is we don't want a cloud hanging over him."

Fetzer, who could not be reached for contact Wednesday night, went 48-36 in his eight years with Penn Cambria. The 64-year-old Fetzer compiled an 182-127-3 coaching record with previous stops including Westmont and Somerset.