C-K Principal Plans to Build Foundation as New Head Football Coach

Charles “Chuck” Kassick doesn’t envision his ascendance to Claysburg-Kimmel High School head varsity football coach as a short-term venture.

“Claysburg has treated me very well, the staff, the administrative team, the students, the parents, the community members. I’ve had a very good time since I’ve been there,” Kassick said. “If you invest in me, I’ve got to invest in you.”

With that in mind, the 43-year-old Kassick, hired as the district’s high school principal less than two years ago, isn’t planning to just put competitive smaller-school teams on the field. His aims are more grandiose.

“When I was at Portage, I was very fortunate. Gary (Gouse) did a very good job from top to bottom of building that program,” said Kassick, who was an assistant coach with the Mustangs for 15 years in which they almost always were a high seed in the District 6 Class 1A playoffs. “He didn’t have a team. He had a program.

“We’ve got to be more aggressive on both sides of the football, but, before that even happens, we’ve got to establish more fundamentals. We’ve got to get more of the youth kids involved, get them learning what we want to do at the higher grade levels while they’re still in elementary school. If we don’t build that foundation, you just keep teaching over and over and over (when they get to varsity), and we’ll never get ahead.”

To that end, Kassick intends to meet with the coaches at all of the younger levels of Claysburg football and get them all on the same page in laying a consistent groundwork that he can expand upon once they get to the varsity.

Kassick’s predecessors have all faced the same challenges as most Class 1A and 2A football coaches face: small roster numbers and the sometimes small players that accompany them making it difficult to produce consistent winning teams on the field. Bilchak’s first two Bulldog teams were 7-5 and 9-4 after Dan Foor went 7-5 in 2017, and his 2021 team qualified for the district playoffs with a 4-6 mark, but the C-K school board decided to open the position after a 1-9 season, Claysburg’s third straight sub-.500 showing.

Claysburg-Kimmel’s only produced four winning football seasons in the last 20 years after being one of the better Class 1A teams in District 6 under Jeff Lingenfelter in the first half of the 1990s.

Kassick was chosen from among eight applicants — four internal and four external. Kassick was voted unanimously to succeed Matt Bilchak as the Bulldogs’ coach at last Wednesday’s board meeting.

“His greatest strengths were being an excellent communicator and his ability to motivate others. We feel Coach Kassick and his coaching assistants can keep the program going in the right direction, especially regarding the number of student-athletes participating each season,” C-K athletic director Brian Helsel said. “We were excited that he decided to apply.”

Kassick, a Ferndale High School and University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown product who lives in Sidman with his wife of seven years, Teddi, and their two daughters, Blayke, 5, and Brooklyn, 2, wants to put his ideas into practice and see if he can keep the Bulldogs on the winning side of the ledger, year-in and year-out.

In addition to his time at Portage, Kassick spent two years coaching at his high school alma mater and assisted at Northern Cambria when he was principal there. For the last two years, he’s been coaching the offensive line and defensive ends as part of Bilchak’s staff.

He’s also coached the semi-pro Flood City Thunder out of Johnstown the past two offseasons.

The Bulldog team he inherits returns about half its offensive starters — including the entire line — as well as three starters on defense.

While some school districts try to avoid having administrators coach sports, Kassick said one of the primary reasons he applied for the coaching opening was that he thought it would make him a better principal. Claysburg hired him in April of 2021.

“It’s helped me build a rapport with those kids. Once the job was opened, I thought this might be an opportunity to keep doing that,” Kassick said. “It goes back to building relationships. It’s hard to build relationships when you don’t see kids every day.”

Kassick’s relationship with Bilchak actually delayed his pursuit of the coaching position. Kassick said he held off until the day before the deadline to apply so as not to step on Bilchak’s toes.

“If he decided to reapply, I was not going to apply with him. It’s not the thing to do,” Kassick said.

Bilchak will not be part of the staff Kassick’s already been assembling for his first season at the helm.

“I have a couple of guys I’ve talked to and a couple of guys we’re waiting to see,” Kassick said. “There’ll be a few familiar faces.”