McGuffey hires Linck as baseball coach
It only took George Linck one summer to realize how much he missed coaching baseball.
That was all the time he needed to know he was meant to be in a dugout.
Linck, 61, was hired by a unanimous vote Thursday night as the McGuffey High School varsity baseball coach.
“Quite honestly, I just really like coaching baseball,” Linck said after spending 29 years at Bentworth High School, including many as the athletic director.
“I started umpiring last summer and got the itch to coach again. When this opportunity came up, I found it interesting. I’m close to McGuffey and I know there is potential.”
Linck replaces Scott Henson, who had a 14-41 record and one playoff appearance in three seasons as the Highlanders coach. Henson reapplied and was one of the finalists for the position, which is renewed on a year-by-year basis at McGuffey.
“We had really good finalists,” said McGuffey athletic director Ed Dalton. “George’s emphasis on fundamentals and his experience, leaving no stone left unturned and starting from scratch, really came across good to our board members.”
It isn’t Linck’s first time around the diamond but is the first as a head coach without an interim label being attached. He spent nine seasons as an assistant under Dion Jansante at Benworth High School. He was an interim head coach for one season.
“Coaching under Dion was a tremendous learning experience,” Linck said. “I learned a lot from him and want to model our program after Bentworth by being team oriented, very disciplined and working on fundamentals.”
McGuffey was 3-16 in 2018 and its last winning season was in 2004.
“I think we have some talent coming and going down a level is going to help,” Dalton said about moving to Class 3A.
The Highlanders share a section with Beth-Center, Charleroi, Keystone Oaks, Southmoreland, Washington and Waynesburg.
“We are going to have a good offseason program starting this winter to be competitive once the season starts,” Linck said. “We will work from the bottom and build on the fundamentals.”