Roberts hired as McGuffey wrestling coach

The question facing McGuffey’s school board was how do you replace a hall of fame wrestling coach with the credentials of Mark Caffrey.
The answer was, you can’t.
But hiring the assistant coach who was tutored under Caffrey was a pretty good next step.
At Thursday’s school board meeting, 31-year-old Jared Roberts was the unanimous choice to become the next head coach.
“I’m really excited, anxious to get going,” said Roberts. “There are a lot of things I want to get moving. The first thing is to meet with the kids and go over some things, set up some summer workouts and come up with plans for next year. I’d also like to get the coaching staff taken care of.”
Roberts said Rich Burgdolt will return as one of the assistant coaches.
“He’s a big asset to us,” Roberts said.
Roberts, a special education teacher at McGuffey, spent the last seven seasons as Caffrey’s assistant.
Caffrey, who was inducted into the Pennsylvania Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame in 2005, compiled a 417-103 record over 28 years before retiring at season’s end. He ranks 23rd on the PIAA coaches list for victories. Prior to leaving, he was one of eight active coaches with 400 or more victories.
Caffrey coached wrestlers to seven PIAA individual titles, and led the Highlanders to three WPIAL Class AAA team tournament championships and two regional titles.
“I learned a ton from Mark,” Roberts said. “I was fortunate enough and blessed to coach with him for seven years. He’s a legend, a hall of fame coach. One of the big things I learned was strategy, moving kids around and only doing what’s best for the team to get the win. He has very good leadership skills I plan to carry over.”
Roberts is a 2007 graduate of Trinity High School. He began his college career at Pitt-Johnstown but transferred to Waynesburg University when Ron Headlee was named head coach the following year. He wrestled there for three years before graduating.
The bar is raised high for McGuffey but athletic director Ed Dalton believes Roberts is up to the job.
“He knows what it’s like for McGuffey wrestling,” said Dalton. “It’s not like, ‘Go out there and good luck. Hope we do OK.’ We have sons of a lot of our great wrestlers coming through the pipeline. I think he knows that, but I think that’s what makes it fun.
“In the three-county (Washington, Greene and Fayette) area, there are three or four jobs that have that kind of tradition. I think he will embrace it.”
Roberts’ hire was one of many coaching changes this week. Canon-McMillan hired former standout player Charles Murphy to replace the retiring Rick Bell and the equally talented Brittany Taylor to replace Shawn Urbano, who left after the girls basketball season. California High School brought in Ed Woods for football, replacing Darrin Dillow, who resigned. And Daryl Hixenbaugh resigned after six years as baseball coach at Belle Vernon.