Ringgold hires Zmijanac as football coach
Ringgold athletic director Laura Grimm was pleasantly surprised at the pool of candidates that applied for the vacant varsity head football coaching position the third time the school opened applications in late March.
When you have a coach that has won six WPIAL championships, a PIAA title and has made the WPIAL championship game a record 10 consecutive years show interest, Grimm should have been beaming with happiness.
The district unanimously approved former longtime Aliquippa football coach Mike Zmijanac as the new coach at Wednesday night’s board meeting. He signed a three-year contract with two option years.
“Admittedly, I was on the fence about putting it out for a third time,” Grimm said. “But everything happened for a reason. We just didn’t know what the reason was at the time. He is the type of guy that is a game-changer for our program.”
Zmijanac was fired as Aliquippa’s coach by a 7-2 vote in late February after 21 seasons. His record was 237-36.
“If you told me at the beginning of (the coaching search) that this is where we would end up, I wouldn’t have believed you,” Grimm said. “To be honest, I was shocked when the news first broke of what took place at (Aliquippa). I wondered to myself if we could get him.”
Zmijanac replaces former Ringgold coach Nick Milchovich, who retired after last season’s regular season finale. The Rams failed to qualify for the playoffs last season for the first time in Milchovich’s four years at the school.
“I liked their attitude and the support they give to all of their programs,” Zmijanac said about Ringgold. “They seem to be very supportive of all the kids and that’s what attracted me to the job. I wouldn’t have come down here and done all this if I wasn’t excited.”
Grimm said earlier this month that they were looking for a candidate that “demonstrated an appearance of building a program.” She also was looking for someone to have a meaningful impact on the middle school and youth levels within the district.
“Obviously, the football part speaks for itself,” Grimm said. “We were looking for very specific things. We structured our interviews a certain way. It were the things outside of football, how he deals with and what he teaches his players, that really impressed us. Now that this process is finally done, it was definitely worth the wait.”