Zmijanac resigns as Ringgold football coach
Mike Zmijanac resigned after a 0-10 season.
Courtesy Herald-Standard
Mike Zmijanac resigned after one winless season as Ringgold's football coach. Prior to Ringgold, Zmijanac coached Aliquippa to six WPIAL titles and one state championship.
Plans for the offseason had been made and preparations for the 2019 season were in place for the Ringgold High School football team.
That is why Laura Grimm, Rams’ athletic director, and Chris Chunko, Ringgold’s defensive coordinator, were taken aback when Mike Zmijanac said he was resigning as the school’s football coach after one winless season.
Zmijanac, who built a legendary career as head football coach at Aliquippa, was hired by Ringgold last spring after a lengthy search was conducted to replace Nick Milchovich, who resigned after the 2017 season.
Zmijanac phoned Grimm Sunday evening to tell her of his resignation and the school received his formal letter Monday.
Zmijanac, who was ousted in February by the Aliquippa school board, said Wednesday he resigned at Ringgold for “personal reasons.”
He went on to say he was treated “warmly” by the people at Ringgold and “they were great to me and I liked the kids.”
“I have some personal issues to work through now,” Zmijanac added. “If I didn’t do it now, it would have cropped up later.”
Grimm faces the task, for a second consecutive year, to find a football coach to lead the Rams’ program. Last year’s search turned into an arduous struggle that culminated with Zmijanac applying for the position after his removal at Aliquippa.
Grimm said Wednesday she thought Ringgold found the right coach in Zmijanac.
“Going through the process last year helped us all learn a lot and to move forward positively,” Grimm said. “I had no idea this was coming.
“We really had a chance to fine-tune the (coaching search) process and came up with some great examples of specific questions we want to ask to prospective coaches. Those questions became spot on. I really felt like we got to a specific goal of what type of person we wanted to bring here based on our needs at Ringgold. I felt we found that in Mike. I still do. Unfortunately, we’re not going to be able to see that play out. I truly felt he would bring success back here.”
Chunko said while he is shocked by the resignation, he cherished the season working under Zmijanac.
“I learned a lot about the game and certain other things working for him,” Chunko said. “We had planned for the off-season.”
Chunko added that he is certain the resignation is for personal reasons.
“He had everything in place and planned out,” Chunko said.
The Rams, who played in the WPIAL’s Class AAAA, lost all 10 of their games this season and scored a WPIAL-low 26 points. Ringgold yielded 511 points.
This past summer, Zmijanac, 74, indicated he was committing at least five years to Ringgold.
At Aliquippa, Zmijanac won six WPIAL championships and a PIAA title. His Quips advanced to the WPIAL championship game 10 consecutive seasons.
The Hall of Fame coach was replaced at Aliquippa by Mike Warfield, who led the Quips to the WPIAL Class AAA championship this season. Aliquippa plays Sharon in the state semifinals Saturday.
Zmijanac, a Mt. Lebanon resident, said it wouldn’t be appropriate to comment on Ringgold’s situation going forward but he didn’t shut the door on a return to coaching.
“If the right situation came along, I’ll see,” Zmijanac said. “I want to see what the next couple of months hold as far as some of the issues I’m presented with now. It depends.”
Larry Mauro, a long-time member of the Ringgold school board, said conducting another search in such a short time does make it difficult.
“Of course, it does,” Mauro said. “And it has to be done quickly as we have conditioning and weight lifting to begin.
“I do think this time we have a better understanding of what it will take to get the quality coach we are looking for to lead the program.”
Grimm said the district has “quality people” in place to keep the program running and “moving into the off-season.”
“Although Mike oversaw everything related to the program, he didn’t directly run the weight training and conditioning,” Grimm said. “We’ll keep that running and the kids can be active moving forward.”
Chunko said the foundation for future success at Ringgold was laid this season.
“We were starting five or six freshmen at one point,” Chunko said. “I don’t believe Ringgold will be down for long. There’s a lot of talent coming back and coming up from the middle school team. There are some athletic kids coming up in this program.”
Grimm said everyone involved in the search for a new coach agrees on the specifics being sought from a new coach.
“In addition to the strategy and the tactics related to football, we’re looking at personality, ego or lack thereof,” Grimm said. “We know it’s going to take a special kind of person to get this righted.
“That person will have the entire district behind him. We want to build that foundation and then strive for realistic and achievable goals, not just based on wins and losses. We want to see progress from year-to-year.”