By ERIC KNOPSNYDER
For Ken Bussard, it’s about time.
The longtime Central Cambria coach knows it’s time to step away from football, mainly because he is under too many time constraints. So, in a rare move, Bussard announced this week that he will spend one more season on the sideline before resigning after 23 years as Central Cambria’s football coach.
“Everything has a beginning and an end. It seems like yesterday I was a rookie head coach, now I’m one of the grizzled veterans,” said Bussard, who has a 140-96-1 record at Central Cambria. “As far as time is concerned, my duties as a high school principal, I’m not able to do both jobs the justice that they deserve. That’s the primary reason.”
Central Cambria sent out a press release on Monday announcing that Bussard would resign at the end of the coming season but asked that the media not report it until today so that he could meet with his staff and players.
“I owed it to them to fill them in as to what was happening before it was released to the public,” Bussard said on Wednesday.
The decision to make the announcement five months before camp begins was also about his staff. Bussard will relinquish some of the duties to his assistants this season, giving them a chance to see all that being a head coach entails.
“I pretty much do everything as far as paperwork,” Bussard said. “I need to break them in this year. The board has granted me the opportunity to do this.”
Bussard knows what to expect as he steps away from the game that has been such a big part of his life because he has done it before. He was the Red Devils’ head coach from 1985-2003 before he was lured back in 2007.
Despite his previous time away from the game, Bussard knows it isn’t always easy to leave the sideline.
“Once you’ve done this and you’ve thrown your all into it, it gets into your blood,” he said.
“I’ll be up in my little corner in top of the stands, probably talking to myself, as we old coaches do. Those three years I was out enabled me to have the opportunity to see what life is like without football, and I found I could survive. I’m looking forward to the next step in my life.”
Part of the reason that Bussard returned to coaching is because his son, Blake, was playing varsity football, but with the younger Bussard heading into his senior year, it made sense for Coach Bussard to make this his final season.
The elder Bussard said he isn’t worried about his players being impacted by his lame-duck status.
“I don’t think it will have any negative impact on kids,” he said. “The key words is
kids. They can adjust to whatever. Football is a sport that is so demanding, if you dont have that burning passion to do it, you’re probably not going to do it. I don’t expect that to be a problem.”
Bussard doesn’t intend to hand-pick his successor, but he is willing to give the school board members as much help as they want.
“That will ultimately be their decision,” he said of the next hire. “Because of the position I’m in as principal and former head coach, I don’t know how much of an impact my recommendation will have. If they ask for my recommendation or to sit in on the interview process, I will fulfill those duties. I’m sure they’ll ask for my input in some capacity.”
