he will coach the 2019 season , then bow out.
I personally think this job is a sleeping giant for the right coach
I personally think this job is a sleeping giant for the right coach
Gentile out at UD
- Thread starter SPEED&JUMP DR.
- Start date
Used to say the same about Reading High, York (Wm. Penn) and Lancaster (McCaskey) High, especially Reading that they had better teams walking the halls than on the field.
I have said this several times before. There aren't many schools out there that have to deal with the off the field issues that the coaches at Upper Darby do. Rich and his staff are good men, good coaches, and do a ton for their players both on and more importantly off the field. People outside the program and really the coaching fraternity don't realize what an undertaking it is to coach there. I always laugh when the anonymous internet posters take pot shots when they have no clue about the interworkings of a program or what it takes to coach. These people have no clue.
Good or bad, for a man to devote 37 years to one school and one program, you would figure that he would be allowed to go out on his own terms. Its sad that isn't the case, and it sounds like politics may be involved.
I also read in the article they also fired Eric Ruffenach (their OC the past several years) for this upcoming season, which is a huge mistake. That guy lives and breathes the program, and always promoted UD football and has brought awareness to UD Football. He is also a very good offensive mind who got the most out of his players. When he took over the offense, they became so much harder to defend than they were prior to him being there. He will land on his feet somewhere and do well, but again, sad the way it went down.
Good or bad, for a man to devote 37 years to one school and one program, you would figure that he would be allowed to go out on his own terms. Its sad that isn't the case, and it sounds like politics may be involved.
I also read in the article they also fired Eric Ruffenach (their OC the past several years) for this upcoming season, which is a huge mistake. That guy lives and breathes the program, and always promoted UD football and has brought awareness to UD Football. He is also a very good offensive mind who got the most out of his players. When he took over the offense, they became so much harder to defend than they were prior to him being there. He will land on his feet somewhere and do well, but again, sad the way it went down.
Very important post. Not living near Upper Darby but having business there many years ago and going through a few years back I was stunned at the changes.
Thirty-Forty years ago if you wanted to get out of the city for a nice place to live and send your kids to a good school, Upper Darby fit those requirements for many. You look now and see that most of the families are low income. It appears to have gone through the same transformation as Bristol Township. Lots of challenges that other suburban schools can’t imagine.
Lots of issues in these type of schools with little to no fathers or father figures at home with many businesses that have moved out. It’s not good with little money and community support.
I would like to see these so-called great coaches go to programs such as Upper Darby and see how they do- without recruiting. I applaud coaches like these gentlemen at Upper Darby that sacrifice, dedicate and risk reputations to coach in such challenging environments. In my eyes these are the great coaches!
Thirty-Forty years ago if you wanted to get out of the city for a nice place to live and send your kids to a good school, Upper Darby fit those requirements for many. You look now and see that most of the families are low income. It appears to have gone through the same transformation as Bristol Township. Lots of challenges that other suburban schools can’t imagine.
Lots of issues in these type of schools with little to no fathers or father figures at home with many businesses that have moved out. It’s not good with little money and community support.
I would like to see these so-called great coaches go to programs such as Upper Darby and see how they do- without recruiting. I applaud coaches like these gentlemen at Upper Darby that sacrifice, dedicate and risk reputations to coach in such challenging environments. In my eyes these are the great coaches!
Couldn’t agree more !!! This a flat out JOKE - all of the sudden a school district that couldn’t care less about there athletic programs now has a “vision” of where they want the program to be heading ???
A program that has been built up over the last 6 years by the OC and his friends (assistant coaches) and there families .. not to mention a head coach that has been there for 37 years !!
Rich Gentile is a good coach and a even better person and a Class act all around !!!
Sure he has had his ups and downs as any HS coach has and will but when his program became stagnant he recognized it and brought Eric Ruffenach on board along with a handful of other new assistants and the program has been a 1000 times better and will continue to grow with next years seniors to be, maybe being the best class they have had in 10 years or so ...
So forget about wins and losses for a second and look at the inner workings of this thing and take a look at what these guys do for these kids..
A ton of these kids look to these coaches for wayyyyyy more than the teaching of football , they look at these coaches as fathers , big brothers and mentors because that is exactly how these coaches treat there players at UD - they take them in as family !!!
And to the people who want to come on here and say “a school that big should be a state power year in and year out” with that !!
These guys go above and beyond in every category they can to put these kids on the rt track to be successful in life and the kids realize that !!
These coaches and there families take these kids in and mentor them as good and probably better than any staff around and that obviously has gone unnoticed in this “stellar” school district / lol
The situation at Upper Darby is a complete circus right now and the only people who look like respectable class individuals are the guys who are getting showed the door and there players who are handling this with class and dignity
If anyone in that school district wants to really figure out how to improve things and help those kids , you might want to sit down with coach Gentile and coach Ruffenach and get a few pointers on how it’s done !!!!
A program that has been built up over the last 6 years by the OC and his friends (assistant coaches) and there families .. not to mention a head coach that has been there for 37 years !!
Rich Gentile is a good coach and a even better person and a Class act all around !!!
Sure he has had his ups and downs as any HS coach has and will but when his program became stagnant he recognized it and brought Eric Ruffenach on board along with a handful of other new assistants and the program has been a 1000 times better and will continue to grow with next years seniors to be, maybe being the best class they have had in 10 years or so ...
So forget about wins and losses for a second and look at the inner workings of this thing and take a look at what these guys do for these kids..
A ton of these kids look to these coaches for wayyyyyy more than the teaching of football , they look at these coaches as fathers , big brothers and mentors because that is exactly how these coaches treat there players at UD - they take them in as family !!!
And to the people who want to come on here and say “a school that big should be a state power year in and year out” with that !!
These guys go above and beyond in every category they can to put these kids on the rt track to be successful in life and the kids realize that !!
These coaches and there families take these kids in and mentor them as good and probably better than any staff around and that obviously has gone unnoticed in this “stellar” school district / lol
The situation at Upper Darby is a complete circus right now and the only people who look like respectable class individuals are the guys who are getting showed the door and there players who are handling this with class and dignity
If anyone in that school district wants to really figure out how to improve things and help those kids , you might want to sit down with coach Gentile and coach Ruffenach and get a few pointers on how it’s done !!!!
Yes!....and this is exactly what Coach George Chaump did at Harrisburg putting them on he map again and what Coach Ortega did at York High and is doing at Coatesville. Good men all.
This is a school district that is starving for money ( like most schools ) and the teachers are currently working without a contract. The coaching staff was apparently going to some unorthodox extremes to try and get more money for their program. While there is no doubt that they are all good men and devoted to the kids and the school , taking pictures of the torn up field , the crappy locker room and inadequate weight room and posting them on line was probably not the way to go , or at least poor timing , considering all the other financial problems the school district has.
I’ll take a minute to throw my two cents in here. The coaches mentioned here are good people coaching in a district that isn’t lacking for challenges. They have been loyal and done a ton of good for lots of young men. It certainly wasn’t for the money and their intentions are character is to be commended.
However no one among is naive enough to not comprehend athletics has a results component. Even the greatest humanitarian in the world won’t be coaching forever without results. Results are subjective. But admins are hired to evaluate in totality.
All that said no one can objectively look at this and be totally shocked that if your head coach has 37 years with the program and 25 as the head coach and you have never won the league that an admin may want a new direction. Richie has had some real successful teams there. Done nice job there. However at 60 and doing it so long how long is too long. Not like you are winning titles each year. Time for new voice there seems about correct.
I’m not of the opinion that because you have done it for so long you get to stay forever like you are a history teacher. In fact I’d probably argue that in today’s 12 month world if you busting it with an all out program effort that a shelf life of any more than 15 years is crazy difficult.
HS sports changing rapidly. One sport athletes. College level commitments from both players and coaches. It’s an insane amount of time. Quite frankly a young man’s game or you need crazy committed assistants. Some of these programs running themselves like it’s 1995. Five total coaches, low budget, low resources, lower commitment overall. It’s works fine when you play teams who you just out talent but immediately rears its head when it’s close. Think GV vs UD.
Look the facilities at UD are not good. Tons of challenges with difficult situations with student body. The admins could clearly do better job helping this program but there is an overhanging tax problem in UD district. But really is it worse than situation at Academy Park? How about Penn Wood? Chester? Interboro? Would think there are some similarities.
Going to take a dedicated person who can coach like crazy and not be afraid of challenges. Facilities aren’t going to be Taj Mahal and going to be frustrating things you aren’t going to deal with at Garnet Valley or Neshaminy. But you have players and if you can win in first few years it can be very sustainable if you develop winning culture. They won’t be lacking for a lot of qualified applicants for this one.
However no one among is naive enough to not comprehend athletics has a results component. Even the greatest humanitarian in the world won’t be coaching forever without results. Results are subjective. But admins are hired to evaluate in totality.
All that said no one can objectively look at this and be totally shocked that if your head coach has 37 years with the program and 25 as the head coach and you have never won the league that an admin may want a new direction. Richie has had some real successful teams there. Done nice job there. However at 60 and doing it so long how long is too long. Not like you are winning titles each year. Time for new voice there seems about correct.
I’m not of the opinion that because you have done it for so long you get to stay forever like you are a history teacher. In fact I’d probably argue that in today’s 12 month world if you busting it with an all out program effort that a shelf life of any more than 15 years is crazy difficult.
HS sports changing rapidly. One sport athletes. College level commitments from both players and coaches. It’s an insane amount of time. Quite frankly a young man’s game or you need crazy committed assistants. Some of these programs running themselves like it’s 1995. Five total coaches, low budget, low resources, lower commitment overall. It’s works fine when you play teams who you just out talent but immediately rears its head when it’s close. Think GV vs UD.
Look the facilities at UD are not good. Tons of challenges with difficult situations with student body. The admins could clearly do better job helping this program but there is an overhanging tax problem in UD district. But really is it worse than situation at Academy Park? How about Penn Wood? Chester? Interboro? Would think there are some similarities.
Going to take a dedicated person who can coach like crazy and not be afraid of challenges. Facilities aren’t going to be Taj Mahal and going to be frustrating things you aren’t going to deal with at Garnet Valley or Neshaminy. But you have players and if you can win in first few years it can be very sustainable if you develop winning culture. They won’t be lacking for a lot of qualified applicants for this one.
Like many of you said, the coaches at UD deal with many more obstacles than coaches in many other districts. All of the resources that they have built and put in place have been due to the direct efforts of the coaching staff, some alumni and the parents. I feel that the way the situation has been handled is a joke and a slap in the face of the coaching staff, Coach Gentile and Coach Ruffenach in particular. People who strictly look at wins and losses on the program have ZERO clue of to what these coaches do on a day-to-day basis. If the district has this "vision" and wants to move the program in a different direction, I am curious as to what this "vision" is. Does this "vision" include support and improvement on facilities from admin which has been lacking. And if it is such a dire need to move the program in a different direction where they are forcing out Coach Gentile, then why wait a year??? The social media posts pointed what many people already know about the facilities. Anyone who has ever been to Memorial Field can see that there is no pride or efforts to maintain it. The shape of the facilities are something that have been brought to the attention of admin for years with nothing being done. The current staff has led teams to playoffs 3 of the last 6 years and have sent numerous student athletes to college. What direction do they want to move???
Delcofootball1,
With hearing and knowing the efforts of the current staff and lack of support from administration, I would agree that an outsider would struggle greatly unless the “new vision” of the district is to all of a sudden pump money into the facilities and actually support the football program
With hearing and knowing the efforts of the current staff and lack of support from administration, I would agree that an outsider would struggle greatly unless the “new vision” of the district is to all of a sudden pump money into the facilities and actually support the football program
Just playing devils advocate, with the way this current staff was treated after all their efforts to upgrade the program, why would an insider want the job ?
If there is a job in the school that would greatly increase chances of even larger applicant pool. Won’t be lacking for applicants. Insiders, outsiders, assistants, head coaches etc. Right off top of my head i can think of four current head coaches who I think would at least be intrigued to listen to what vision is. At least that many quality assistants. Will be someone with local ties who understand situation.
Ruffenach was the ideal guy. Dam shame that didn’t work out because he deserved a shot there.
Ruffenach was the ideal guy. Dam shame that didn’t work out because he deserved a shot there.
I’m speculating based upon some private conversations and some inferences based upon no real knowledge so I’d rather not put names out there. Plus add for all involved there is a whole season to play. The timing of all this could be peculiar.
Why would Tom Ryan leave Radnor? Has a cush PE job, I'm sure Radnor teachers make more than UD teachers and coaches. Are people throwing names at the wall or is this substantiated? Would be a bizarre move to him.
He would leave to coach , not necessarily to teach. He caught lightning in a bottle this year as far as talent is concerned, as in once in 10 years kind of talent. Not something that generally is sustainable at a school like Radnor. Maybe he wants a shot at the big schools with big school talent.