Players appeal to board to reinstate football coach
CONNELLSVILLE – Connellsville Falcons head football coach Dan Spanish has influenced young men for 29 years, and now some of those young players are hoping to influence or convince the school board that Spanish should keep his job as head coach. Seven Falcon football players appealed to the Connellsville Area School Board on Wednesday night, asking the directors to reinstate Spanish as coach.
Superintendent Gerald Browell said the board voted to open the head coaching job and 14 other sports positions and agreed to renew a number of other athletic positions.
In addition to the senior high head football position, the board opened the following athletic jobs: senior high first assistant football coach, four senior high football assistant coaches, senior high football scout, senior high girls head soccer coach, senior high girls assistant soccer coach, Junior High East head football coach, two Junior High East assistant football coaches, Junior High West head football coach and two Junior High West assistant football coaches.
Browell said the board felt that the new head coach, whomever that may be, probably would want to hire his own assistants.
The board also approved the following athletic contracts: senior high football equipment manager, Daniel King, at a salary of $2,515; senior high head cross-country coach, Joseph Siecinski, at $1,743; senior high assistant cross-country coach, Jonathan Hall, at $1,081; senior high girls tennis coach, Donald Campbell, at $1,961; senior high head volleyball coach, Rhonda Kelley, at $2,218; senior high assistant volleyball coach, Michael Brienza, at $1,255; senior high head golf coach, Kenneth House, at $1,676; senior high boys head soccer coach, Dennis Marzano, at $2,366; senior high soccer assistant boys coach, Jeffrey Rowan, at $1,342; Junior High East girls’ head basketball coach, Brian Shipley, at $1,732; Junior High East/West head soccer coach, David Tangretti, at $1,549; Junior High East/West assistant soccer coach, Heather Trout, at $1,124; and Junior High West girls head basketball coach, Gary Nolan, at $1,773.
Browell said the vacant supplemental positions for the 2003-2004 school year will be posted and advertised. Board President Kevin Lape said that although the positions are open, that doesn’t mean that some people who held the positions would not be rehired.
Board members Francis Mongell, Loretta Lint and Jeffery Harvey voted against opening the positions, while Lape and board members Charles Wilson, Kenneth “Chip” Nicholson, David Goldblum and Ann Watson voted in favor of the motion. Director Karen Blocker was not at the meeting.