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Coach was friend to all
SALINEVILLE — Winners are recognized by the games they win and the people they help.
Dan Saling was a winner both ways.
The Southern Local School District football coach last season saw his team race to a 7-3 record, its best in 30 years.
Dan was a behavior coach at Southern, where his wife, Nancy, is a first-grade teacher.
Superintendent Jeff Herring said the Salings were a school- oriented family.
On June 5, Saling, 46, and his wife saw their twin daughters, Julia and Jennifer, graduate.
“They were two of four valedictorians,” said Kim Boston, whose family is close to the Salings.
A third Saling daughter, Natalie, is a student in the district.
On June 6, the twins had a graduation party at their home.
Saling, however, died unexpectedly a few hours later at East Liverpool City Hospital.
People who knew him described him as someone who was always helping others.
Aaron Boston, the son of Kim Boston and an assistant football coach at the district, said Saling was “pretty good friends with everyone.”
If there was a job that nobody wanted to do, Saling would do it.
“He was a father to a lot of the kids,” Aaron Boston said.
The Saling and Boston families spent a lot of time together. Dan had run a swine farm, and the families raised show pigs for 4-H events and shows in Columbus and at the Ohio State Fair.
As a behavior coach, Saling worked with troubled students to keep them on track.
But Aaron Boston said, “He was one of those people you could talk to about anything.”
Kim Boston said, “He was very easy to talk to. He was a good listener. He was very mindful of people’s problems.”
Jim Brown of Wellsville had worked as an assistant football coach with Saling. “He was one of the nicest guys,” Brown said.
More than once Saling went into town and came back with a student who was blowing off classes and made sure he stayed in school, Brown said.
Saling taught the players to prepare mentally before games, on the day of games and during games.
Local students who went on to play football in college said that was part of the preparation used by college teams.
When it came to coaching, Brown said, he was a player’s coach, not a coach’s coach.
Brown said that Saling, like his father, was a large man, but his doctor wanted him to lose weight and stop using snuff.
Saling lost 100 pounds, moved closer to the school, and continued to help people.
wilkinson@vindy.com