Zmijanac resigns as Ringgold football coach
Plans for the offseason had been made and preparations for the 2019 season were in place for the Ringgold High School football team.
That is why Laura Grimm, Rams鈥� athletic director, and Chris Chunko, Ringgold鈥檚 defensive coordinator, were taken aback when Mike Zmijanac said he was resigning as the school鈥檚 football coach after one winless season.
Zmijanac, who built a legendary career as head football coach at Aliquippa, was hired by Ringgold last spring after a lengthy search was conducted to replace Nick Milchovich, who resigned after the 2017 season.
Zmijanac phoned Grimm Sunday evening to tell her of his resignation and the school received his formal letter Monday.
Zmijanac, who was ousted in February by the Aliquippa school board, said Wednesday he resigned at Ringgold for 鈥減ersonal reasons.鈥�
He went on to say he was treated 鈥渨armly鈥� by the people at Ringgold and 鈥渢hey were great to me and I liked the kids.鈥�
鈥淚 have some personal issues to work through now,鈥� Zmijanac added. 鈥淚f I didn鈥檛 do it now, it would have cropped up later.鈥�
Grimm faces the task, for a second consecutive year, to find a football coach to lead the Rams鈥� program. Last year鈥檚 search turned into an arduous struggle that culminated with Zmijanac applying for the position after his removal at Aliquippa.
Grimm said Wednesday she thought Ringgold found the right coach in Zmijanac.
鈥淕oing through the process last year helped us all learn a lot and to move forward positively,鈥� Grimm said. 鈥淚 had no idea this was coming.
鈥淲e really had a chance to fine-tune the (coaching search) process and came up with some great examples of specific questions we want to ask to prospective coaches. Those questions became spot on. I really felt like we got to a specific goal of what type of person we wanted to bring here based on our needs at Ringgold. I felt we found that in Mike. I still do. Unfortunately, we鈥檙e not going to be able to see that play out. I truly felt he would bring success back here.鈥�
Chunko said while he is shocked by the resignation, he cherished the season working under Zmijanac.
鈥淚 learned a lot about the game and certain other things working for him,鈥� Chunko said. 鈥淲e had planned for the offseason.鈥�
Chunko added that he is certain the resignation is for personal reasons.
鈥淗e had everything in place and planned out,鈥� Chunko said.
The Rams, who played in the WPIAL鈥檚 Class AAAA, lost all 10 of their games this season and scored a WPIAL-low 26 points. Ringgold yielded 511 points.
This past summer, Zmijanac, 74, indicated he was committing at least five years to Ringgold.
Zmijanac won six WPIAL championships and a PIAA title at Aliquippa. His Quips advanced to the WPIAL championship game in 10 consecutive seasons.
The Hall of Fame coach was replaced at Aliquippa by Mike Warfield, who led the Quips to the WPIAL Class AAA championship this season. Aliquippa plays Sharon in the state semifinals Saturday.
Zmijanac, a Mt. Lebanon resident, said it wouldn鈥檛 be appropriate to comment on Ringgold鈥檚 situation going forward, but he didn鈥檛 shut the door on a return to coaching.
鈥淚f the right situation came along, I鈥檒l see,鈥� Zmijanac said. 鈥淚 want to see what the next couple of months hold as far as some of the issues I鈥檓 presented with now. It depends.鈥�
Larry Mauro, a long-time member of the Ringgold school board, said conducting another search in such a short time does make it difficult.
鈥淥f course, it does,鈥� Mauro said. 鈥淎nd, it has to be done quickly as we have conditioning and weight lifting to begin.
鈥淚 do think this time we have a better understanding of what it will take to get the quality coach we are looking for to lead the program.鈥�
Grimm said the district has 鈥渜uality people鈥� in place to keep the program running and 鈥渕oving into the offseason.鈥�
鈥淎lthough Mike oversaw everything related to the program, he didn鈥檛 directly run the weight training and conditioning,鈥� Grimm said. 鈥淲e鈥檒l keep that running and the kids can be active moving forward.鈥�
Chunko said the foundation for future success at Ringgold was laid this season.
鈥淲e were starting five or six freshmen at one point,鈥� Chunko said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 believe Ringgold will be down for long. There鈥檚 a lot of talent coming back and coming up from the middle school team. There are some athletic kids coming up in this program.鈥�
Grimm said everyone involved in the search for a new coach agrees on the specifics being sought from a new coach.
鈥淚n addition to the strategy and the tactics related to football, we鈥檙e looking at personality, ego or lack thereof,鈥� Grimm said. 鈥淲e know it鈥檚 going to take a special kind of person to get this righted.
鈥淭hat person will have the entire district behind him. We want to build that foundation and then strive for realistic and achievable goals, not just based on wins and losses. We want to see progress from year-to-year.鈥�