Pacak out at Monessen
Andy Pacak has spent the past month working with a young football team in the weight room as Monessen prepared to improve on a season that ended with a fifth-place finish in WPIAL Class A’s Eastern Conference.
The Greyhounds’ football coach had his building project unexpectedly cut short Tuesday night when the Monessen School Board voted 8-1 to open Pacak’s job as the high school varsity football coach.
Pacak’s 11-year tenure, which included a 75-40 overall record and five conference championships, is over.
“I was completely blindsided by it. It has really thrown me for a loop,” Pacak said. “Those people ran for those school board positions, so they had the right to do that, technically. The fairness aspect is different or how you go about doing something like that.”
Pacak received a text message over the weekend from Monessen athletic director Gina Naccarato, informing him that the board would consider opening the position at Tuesday’s meeting. The board met with Pacak during an executive session prior to the meeting, allowing him to make a statement.
Board president Donna Fantauzzi declined to comment on the decision. Though the position wil not officially open until July 1, the district began advertising the opening Wednesday.
“We’ll go through the interview process and we’re currently gathering potential questions for candidates,” Naccarato said. “We need to get it done as soon as possible so the kids can continue conditioning for the season and so they have some stability.”
Last month, the WPIAL stripped Monessen of all four of its victories in 2014 after Randall Marino, the high school’s principal, reported that the team used two ineligible players during the season. Administrators discovered after the season that two students were in their fifth year of high school.
According to Pacak, he was informed that the forfeits did not play a role in the board’s decision.
“I had absolutely no knowledge of those players’ grades status,” Pacak said. “I got notified by the principal and that was it.”
Under Pacak’s leadership, the Greyhounds missed the WPIAL playoffs just twice in 11 seasons, but they advanced past the quarterfinals just once. The program struggled in 2014 with its relocation to the Eastern Conference, which included perennial powerhouses Clairton and Jeannette. After losing a strong senior class from the previous season, Monessen allowed 24.9 points per game, losing to the Bears and Jayhawks by a combined score of 112-22.
A 1985 graduate of Monessen, Pacak served as an assistant coach under Jack Scarvel. The shock and disappointment was magnified by the fact that Pacak’s son, Andrew, was expected to join the football program in two years.
With the board’s decision to retain Pacak through June 30, he is unsure what his responsibilities include moving forward.
“I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean,” Pacak said. “I have to laugh because I really don’t know. I can understand if we were struggling, but I’m looking around going, ‘What’s up with this?'”