POLAND FOOTBALL Hulea makes career move

He has decided to go back to school to work on a Master's degree.
POLAND -- Nine years ago, Paul Hulea answered his alma mater's calling when he left Crestview High to become Poland High's football coach.
Now, after compiling a 68-32 record at Poland and leading the Bulldogs to a state championship in 1999, Hulea will answer a different kind of calling. Citing a desire to pursue a principalship and earn a Masters in Secondary Education, Hulea announced last week he will step down as Poland's head coach.
The 43-year-old leaves behind a 115-46 career mark, compiled in nine years at Poland and six years at Crestview.
"He's a great human being, he cares a lot about the kids, he puts in an unbelievable amount of time," said Ken Grisdale, Poland's boys' basketball coach and Hulea's longtime colleague. "Poland's losing something really special, and a lot of times you don't realize that until it's done."
Hulea will still teach history at Poland while most likely taking classes from Ashland University. With all that going on, he said he didn't believe he had time to coach football.
Too demanding
"Teaching full time, being the head football coach, going to graduate school -- you can't do all three well," Hulea said. "Something had to give, and being the head football coach was the one."
Hulea called his future "the start of another chapter," but took time to reflect on his coaching career. The day the Bulldogs won the state championship was "a great memory," Hulea said, but one of his fondest memories came on Oct. 29 of this year, in his team's final game of the season.
After Poland defeated Struthers 35-13 on the road, senior running back Jim Shurilla presented Hulea the game ball and asked him to give it to his dad, who had been in the hospital all week. "I just thought it was the right thing to do," Shurilla said.
It was the first time Hulea had ever been given the game ball as a coach.
"I really couldn't count how many games I've coached in -- you know, as an assistant, as a head coach -- and that was the only time I was ever emotional on the sidelines," Hulea said.
The act was just a small token of the team's appreciation for all he had done, said senior linebacker Luke Blangero.
"He's one of the most generous people I've ever met in my life," Blangero said. "He spent so much time doing stuff for other people rather than for himself, and I think he's a great guy.
"He really taught me a lot about how to become a better player, but more importantly, how to become a better person."
Record no factor
The team finished this year with a 3-7 record -- Hulea likes to joke that he's only had two losing seasons in his head coaching career, his first and last at Poland -- but the coach refused to see the season as a disappointment.
"I think our kids were successful," Hulea said. "They practiced hard -- if you would've came out to our practices in the last week of the season, you would've thought we were 9-0."
Hulea said this season's result had no bearing on his decision to step down. He wanted to concentrate on getting his Masters because, in many ways, he was born to be a teacher.
Hulea's brother is a principal at Waterloo, his wife is a teacher at Columbiana, his sister-in-law and brother-in-law are both school teachers, and his mother was a school secretary.
"So basically, we can have our own little school if we wanted to," Hulea quipped.
No surprise
Poland's longtime athletic director, Myron Stallsmith -- who has been at the school for more than 40 years -- said he suspected Hulea would be leaving to pursue administrative work.
"I think he's serious about getting his administrative degree," Stallsmith said. "If he gets that and gets a job, then I think we've probably seen his last days as head football coach in high school."
Others, however, think he will be back.
"It's sad that we're losing him as a coach, but I don't think he'll be gone for long," Grisdale said. "I really believe he won't be able to sit still very long."
Hulea only laughs at the possibility of a quick return to the sidelines.
"I don't know if I'll miss it," he said. "I've been asked that question so many times in the last week or so, and you hate to cop out on answers, but I really don't know."
In the immediate future, Hulea said he will help out the team in an unofficial capacity.
"Being with young people and thinking you've got some kind of influence over them, in a positive way, is a great thing," Hulea said.
"In some way I want to be a part of the team."