Burgettstown enters wrestling season with new head coach
One of the longest, most respected coaching careers at Burgettstown High School is winding down.
Terry Havelka at one point was the football coach, athletic director and wrestling coach in the same school year. He gave up the football duties two years, retired as a teacher last June and a few weeks ago resigned as head coach of the wrestling team following 37 years in the system. Havelka’s assistant coach, Joey Vigliotti, will take over the wrestling program and Havelka will remain as volunteer assistant. Vigliotti’s brother, Louie, will be a paid assistant.
“It was an extremely hard decision for me,” said Havelka, who spent two terms as head coach and compiled more than 225 victories. “I’ve been considering it for a while. I kept going back and forth; that’s why this came so late. I’ve had Joey with me for the past four or five years and I was comfortable with him taking over. I had a good guy to take over and I just thought it was a good transition.”
Havelka replaced Jon Vallina as athletic director when Vallina retired in 2013 and is now transitioning Rob Bennett into the position. He is serving as a mentor and expects to hold that responsibility throughout this year and possibly next. But the wrestling program at his alma mater always had a special spot in his heart.
“After the season, you have to let the dust settle,” said Havelka. “We got to be a month or two from the season and it kept rolling closer. One day I thought it was a good decision, the next I thought it wasn’t a good decision. I had a good run and was blessed with some great assistant coaches, Brad Abbott, Joey, my brother Gary, who has been at the junior high running that program for 20-some years, and so many more. Jon Vallina was my AD and a lot of pieces went together to make it successful. You know, you do something for so long that it becomes part of your identity. I made great friends through the sport of wrestling and had really good kids and parents to work with. Tough decision? Absolutely.”
The Blue Devils lost most of their heavier weights from last year including Brad Hucik, the team’s only state qualifier with a 34-16 record. But there is talent in the lighter weights in junior P.J. Smith (28-12, 113 pounds), sophomore Austin Ryan (20-19, 120), and senior Austin Riffle (20-17, 132). Senior Darrell Bails (31-16, 145) is back in the middle weights.
Havelka couldn’t pick the best team he’s coached but said turning the program around in the 1990s was a big step in moving the program ahead.
“We’ve had several good teams,” said Havelka. “It was real exciting in the 1990s because we had started to go down to where the program was in bad shape because of numbers. We weren’t getting kids out. Any time you start to build and see the fruits of that labor, it’s a pretty exciting time. We went from forfeiting too many bouts to winning matches in a packed gym and winning section titles. All the teams in the (postseason) … I’m proud of what we’ve done.”