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Havelka resigns as Burgettstown football coach

3 min read
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He’s the hardest-working man in Western Pennsylvania athletics.

For the past three years, Terry Havelka has been serving as athletic director, varsity head football coach and varsity head wrestling coach at Burgettstown High School.

There were days this year when he arrived at school at 6:30 a.m. and did not get back home until 9 p.m.

Something had to give.

That something turned out to be football.

Havelka informed the Burgettstown School Board Monday that he is resigning as head football coach. He will retain his job as athletic director and wrestling coach.

“It wasn’t an easy decision,” said the 58-year-old Havelka. “It’s been a struggle since December and that’s why it’s March now and I finally felt like I had to come to some type of decision. One day, I was going to. One day, I wasn’t. The bottom line was that I felt I had to concentrate on a couple of those things rather than do all three.”

The football position will be posted within the district for a designated period, then be opened to outside candidates if needed.

Havelka took the football job three years ago and compiled a 3-24 record. That record is deceiving because the program was in difficult straits when he took over and the Blue Devils had an encouraging 3-6 record last fall that included wins over Charleroi and Derry. Burgettstown won its final two games and finished in fifth place in the Class AA Interstate Conference last season.

“I told our administration that when we took the program over, I felt we made some really big positive strides,” Havelka said. “It might not have shown on Friday nights in the first two seasons. It was about changing a culture and getting kids to believe they could compete in football on a Double-A level. Our numbers in the weight room have blossomed to (where) right now the weight room is overcrowded. And that’s a good thing. … My whole goal when I took the job was to put it on the right track, on solid ground, and I think we accomplished that.”

Havelka has a driving, can-do attitude, which is why he took on the three positions. He replaced Jon Vallina as athletic director when Vallina retired in 2013 and has been part of the wrestling program for more than two decades. But he felt there wasn’t enough time to give all three positions the attention required to do an outstanding job.

“It was definitely a lot of hours and a lot of time,” Havelka said. “The athletic director’s job itself takes a fair amount of time. If you stay fairly organized and you are not afraid to put in the time and work, you can do it.

“Part of the reason was our head coaching contracts run in three-year increments, and this is the third year of my contract. Once I signed for another three years, I felt – with my type of personality – that I would be committed for another three years and not back out on that. That was part of it. So I thought it was a good time to break (away).”

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