Former players, coaches make appeal for Spanish
CONNELLSVILLE – School board directors continue to receive input from former students and coaches from around the country in connection with their decision to open the position of high school head football coach, a post held for 29 years by Dan Spanish. On Wednesday, former football team member Robert Malia and college football coach John Durham urged the panel to halt its search for a replacement and instead reinstate Spanish.
“I have known Dan Spanish as an outstanding football coach,” said Durham, who is affiliated with the California University of Pennsylvania football program. “He is outstanding with the ‘x’s and o’s’, superb with teaching technique, and an excellent motivator of young men.
“He has touched your young men; he has embellished and enhanced their lives; he has made their lives better.”
Malia said he would not have made it to the post-secondary level without the encouragement and assistance of Spanish.
“I couldn’t have done it without him,” said Malia, who played football for Middle Tennessee State University and Indiana University of Pennsylvania. “Close the application process and place Dan Spanish back into the head-coaching position.”
Although the panel is not slated to take action on naming a coach until March, board member Karen Blocker, who chairs the Athletic Committee, said Malia’s and Durham’s comments in support of Spanish have been echoed by numerous past and present football team members, along with various high school and college coaches in letters received by her and other board members.
The board voted last month to accept applications for the head football coaching position, which, according to Blocker, is a procedure the panel has undertaken for most coaching positions. The board additionally is accepting applications for various assistant coaching positions for the high school football team along with the senior high girls head and assistant soccer coach and head and assistant coaching staff at both junior high schools.
James Lembo, district athletic director, said the post has had a number of inquiries from potential candidates for the senior high head football coaching position, but he could not confirm how many applicants had submitted completed forms.
Applications for all the positions are being accepted until the end of February.
“At that time, I’ll put together a spread sheet of the candidates (for each position),” he said.
Blocker said the athletic committee, which includes board members Charles Wilson, Chip Nicholson, Jeffrey Harvey and Lembo, will interview the candidates and then make a recommendation to the board.
“The board, however, will have the final decision,” said Blocker. “They will have a list of all the candidates and will have the opportunity to accept the committee’s recommendation or chose another candidate.”
In other athletic matters, the board named Michael Brienza and Tara Hall as Junior High West girls volleyball coaches and approved Jason Schroyer as a volunteer coach for the Junior High East track program.