Something had to give.
Bart Szarko couldn’t commit himself totally to football while at the same time giving his family the time and attention it deserved.
In the end, Szarko’s family – his wife and two young children - won out.
The only football coach Central Bucks South has ever known resigned on Wednesday morning, citing personal reasons.
“I have two young kids – my daughter is nine and my son, five,” he said. “I just felt I have been missing out on some things there.
“It’s such a total time commitment to be a head coach. It’s an all-the-time thing. It’s not an in-season thing, it’s not a part-time thing, and that really impacts the family year-round. Especially the last two years – it’s become a little more difficult to make sure that I can make the commitment to football that I needed to. You can’t do that halfway either, so something had to give.
“I didn’t want to shortchange the players, the coaches or CB South at all. I knew what the requirements were, and I just couldn’t do it anymore, and I wanted to be sure they had enough time to find someone to keep the program going.”
This past fall, South was 3-4 in league play and 3-7 overall. South’s most memorable season came in 2007 when the Titans were 11-1 and undefeated in league play en route to a National Conference crown.
Ask Szarko what he will remember most about his tenure at South, and two things came to mind immediately.
“Certainly the 2007 season was really magical,” he said. “It was fun, and it was about the whole school. It was really neat to see the support that we got that year.
“The other thing I’ll never forget is the first year when we didn’t have a school, and the kids were coming by buses from East and West after school was over. We had trailers set up in the parking lot and port-a-potties. That’s just something – as many as time as I tell that story to whoever wants to listen, they’re amazed.
“That was unique. It was difficult to go through, but it’s something we still talk about today. We could write a book about that and all the crazy, wacky things that happened.”
Szarko leaves with fond memories of his players and coaches.
“I enjoyed the players, and I was fortunate –there was very little staff turnover until Brian Hensel got the job at West this past year, so that was nice,” he said. “I even said to our staff the other day – hopefully, we can be together again someday. It was a good group of guys, and friendships formed that will be lasting.”
Szarko acknowledged that he would not rule out the possibility of returning to the sidelines next season as an assistant.
“I still love coaching football,” he said. “There’s no burnout or anything like that going on. I want to see what happens over the next couple of months – who gets the job at South and even CB East. There are a lot of guys I know and am friends with, and if a great situation comes about and I can help somebody out, I’ll do it.
“If not, I’ll just be golfing, which isn’t a bad thing either. I’ve been coaching for 21 years now. It’s one of those thing - when August rolls around, it’s football season.”
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