When Todd Silfies gathered his Kane High School football team late last December, his players likely figured on a thank-you for another one-loss season and a pep talk about being ready for 2018.
That’s not what they got.
Instead, Silfies, unquestionably the most successful Big 30 football coach over the last six seasons, announced that he and four assistants were stepping down.
“It was just the right time,” Silfies said Sunday afternoon at Pitt-Bradford’s Kessel Athletic Center during media day for his Pennsylvania team in the 45th annual Big 30 Charities Classic. “Coach (Chad) Bartoszek (of Franklinville/Ellicottville and New York’s coach) kind of mentioned about having young kids and not wanting to miss a minute with them.
“We had our third child a day after the first playoff game (last fall) and my staff was going through the same exact thing with young kids. It was just the right time for a handful of us to get out.”
Besides the 34-year-old Silfies, assistants Tyler Smith, Jim Sirianni, Mike London and Royce Novosel-Johnson left the program.
Kane junior high coach Jim Hillman takes over with holdover assistant Chris Barber becoming the new offensive coordinator.
Hillman, who will bring up several of his junior high assistants, faces an extremely high bar.
Silfies, a Slippery Rock alumnus who took over from Jason Barner after the 2011 season, went a stunning 63-12 in his six campaigns as boss.
Over that span, a half-dozen of those losses came in the postseason, three in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association playoffs after winning the District 9 A or AA titles, two of those defeats in the quarterfinals. There’s also a current live streak of three straight Allegheny Mountain League championships.
The last three seasons, Kane is 36-3 and the year before that, the Wolves were 9-4, but a trio of those losses were one-pointers. That’s how close the Wolves are to being 58-5 since 2013.
“We’ve been blessed,” Silfies conceded. “It’s not an easy decision (stepping down) and one that was probably a couple of years in the making.”
But when his wife Dana added daughter Ada last December to sister Aubrey, 5, and son William, 6, Silfies’ mind was made up.
“It goes by awfully fast,” he said of their childhood years. “All of a sudden they’re playing Little League and in school. I just wanted to be available a little more than I was.
“My family is very supportive, though … they know dad is a football coach and I’m sure they’re hopeful that he will be again soon. I’d be excited to get back in the game in some capacity, sooner rather than later, but for now I’m going to take a little time off.
To be sure, the Kane social studies teacher has already assembled an early resume rivaling legendary Pennsylvania coaches Carl Defilippi at Smethport and Ridgway’s Mike Dominick.
What will Silfies miss?
“Because they’re enduring, the relationship with my players,” he said. “We’ve got guys from my first team who are now working for the FBI in (Washington) D.C. and guys doing all kinds of different things in all kinds of different places. Friday nights were great, but I’ll miss the day-in, day-out relationship with the players. The bond we formed getting ready for Friday night is what I’ll remember most.
Silfies added, “(Practice) is where you see growth happen … where you really see who your kids are … the way they’re willing to compete with each other to get ready for a game and the little things they do for each other to get ready for a game.
“We’ve had a lot of really good players who have gained a lot of notoriety over my career, but just as much I’ll miss those guys who started out as scout-team players and eventually became the guys whose name is in the newspaper.”
So what was the team’s reaction to his announcement that he and four assistants were leaving?
“The best thing about the teams I’ve been able to coach — and I’ll put the underclassmen in that category — they’re very intelligent young men and that’s why we’ve been able to have success. Their intelligence isn’t just football intelligence, they also have emotional and social intelligence as well, so I think they understood.”
The cupboard isn’t bare for Hillman even though 13 seniors are graduating as an equal number of letterwinners return, a number of them starters.
Meanwhile, for Silfies and his staff, stepping down opened the door coaching in the Big 30 Charities Classic.
“One hundred percent it’s what allowed me to coach in this game,” he said. “Teams start two-a-days two days after this game is played. We never felt comfortable, almost selfish, to do it before as a coach.There’s a lot that goes into getting ready for a season and a lot that goes into coaching this game to do it right.
“It just never really worked out for us before — that was our personal approach to it — and now we’re pretty excited to have the opportunity.”
(Chuck Pollock, a Times Herald sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)
