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Mentors helped Sikora secure coaching goal
Girard vs Campbell
Gallery
By Greg Gulas
BOARDMAN
It took 25 years before he had a football program that he could call his own.
Waiting that long for his first head coaching assignment, however, proved to be well worth the wait.
Speaking to the Curbstone Coaches during Monday’s weekly luncheon meeting at the Blue Wolf Banquet Center, Campbell Memorial High’s Mickey Sikora said the area coaches he learned under are all a part of his coaching personality.
“I never really applied for many head coaching vacancies because I had a lot of fun at the school where I was on staff,” he said.
“It’s a tough game and you need to be happy and quite frankly, I was always happy teaching the game while molding our kids into solid citizens as an assistant coach.”
A 1983 graduate of Struthers High, Sikora played for Pete Pirone and later became a member of his staff.
He was also on Gary Zetts’ staff at Struthers, and also assisted Ron Demesko at South and Jeff Bayuk at Hubbard and Campbell.
“I had the opportunity to learn the game under some very knowledgeable and highly successful coaches,” Sikora said.
When he followed Bayuk from Hubbard to Campbell Memorial, he realized it would take a lot of hard work to turn around a once proud program that had fallen on hard times.
“That first year we had just 15 players in the weight room and 11 remained with us to see the transformation,” Sikora said.
Those players helped the Red Devils to a 10-2 season and the second round of the playoffs, and their best record since 1999.
They were the nucleus that also helped Campbell to their first conference title since 1991.
“It all started for us last December when I was officially hired,” Sikora said. “As a staff we felt like we had a solid nucleus and quite frankly, were expecting to be a good team.
“Our senior leadership did not disappoint. A big key was that we were able to bounce back from any negative situations that we faced.”
Returning to the fold next season will be triple threat running back Ja’les Hughes, who set the school’s single game and season rushing record this year and will be eyeing the Red Devils’ all-time rushing mark next fall.
“Winning is contagious, however, the challenge that we as a staff now face is that we must transition this junior class into next year’s senior leaders,” Sikora said.
“We have a solid nucleus returning so everyone will need to step up if we expect to have another successful season,” he said.
There will be no Curbstone Coaches meeting on Nov. 29.