He says it’s circumstantial, but Todd Silfies is enjoying the final chapter of his temporary exit as a high school football coach.
Silfies, 34, resigned from his position as Kane coach after last season.
He leaves with an extraordinary 63-12 record over his six years in charge.
Over that span, the Wolves won three District 9 titles (both A and AA) and made an equal number of trips to the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association playoffs. Kane also has a live streak of three straight Allegheny Mountain League titles.
Of those 12 defeats, six came in the postseason and three of the dozen losses were by a single point.
Silfies, and four of his assistants, made family decisions to step away from coaching, at least for awhile. He, Tyler Smith, Royce Novosel-Johnson, Chris Barber and Jim Sirianni have young children and decided, at least for now, to focus on them.
Their final game before stepping away will be tonight at Bradford’s Parkway Field, coaching the Pennsylvania team in the 45th annual Big 30 All-Star Charities Classic.
But Silfies has enjoyed a unique farewell tour before his sabbatical.
In early May, he was invited to be part of the Pennsylvania State Football Coaches Association East-West Game.
“It’s the best players in Pennsylvania who aren’t selected for the Big 33 (Pennsylvania vs. Maryland) who play in the East-West Game,” Silfies said. “I was an assistant for the West and coached special teams and the wide receivers.
“We had only two practices (on consecutive) Sundays at Woodland Hills High School … an offensive practice and a defensive practice, but kids can play on both sides of the ball.”
He added, “The game was in Altoona and we had a walk-through practice on Saturday, stayed overnight, and played the game on a Sunday. We won (28-25) and it was a good football game, but it poured.”
Yet that was only the first of his all-star assignments.
In late June, Silfies was the defensive coordinator for the AML team in the Frank Varischetti Game against the Keystone-Shortway Athletic Conference at Brockway.
“I’ve been part of the Varischetti Game since its founding in some capacity, as an assistant the first year (AML won 27-20), head coach last year (38-10 AML victory) and assistant this year (40-13 triumph under Otto-Eldred coach, Nick LaBella),” he said.
“That one is a week of practice … you get together on Sunday with a quick run-through, practice Monday through Thursday and play the game on Friday. Athletes in that game can also play on both sides of the ball so basically you have a four-hour window for practice sessions for three days and Thursday is a walk-through.”
But Silfies admitted, “Conditioning was absolutely perfect for an all-star game. We tried, especially with linemen — the big guys — to play them just on one side of the ball. These young guys are used to playing the whole game, so any amount of split time is an easy day for them.”
Now, after serving as defensive coordinator for his predecessor, Jason Barner, in the 2011 Big 30 Charities Classic, which Pennsylvania won, 28-3, Silfies is in charge.
“I’m trying to enjoy the experience as I would in any other capacity … it’s been really fun getting to know the young men on the team,” he said. “I’m not trying to make it into any more than it is. Yeah, it’s our last go-around (for awhile), but we’re just trying to enjoy it as we did every single week of our six years together.
“More than anything, you know these things about players … you’ve played against them or you’re reading the articles about the things they do and you kind of come in with a preconceived notion of what they can do. It’s just fun, with a handful of them especially, to see their versatility.”
Still, Silfies will have coached in three all-star games in a span of 59 days.
“It’s kind of an interesting finish, but it just worked out that way,” he admitted. “Being asked to coach the Big 30 Game and the East-West Game came after my decision (to step aside) was made. But it was kind of a fun way, for lack of a better term, to wean myself off of football.
“It’s been a lot of fun (coaching the Charities Classic). To see the player’s friendships grow and know what they’re forming in this 2 ½ weeks of practice is something that’s going to last a lifetime for them … it’s fun to sit back and watch them and enjoy.”
Nine of Kane’s 13 graduated senior players are in the game, and Selfies concluded, “You spend an awful lot of time with these young men (over their four years) and to just be around them for this couple more weeks was really a blessing.”
(Chuck Pollock, a Times Herald sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)
