This week’s Q&A Struthers’ Curt Kuntz
Curt Kuntz had a successful debut as a head coach last week as his Struthers Wildcats defeated neighborhood rival Campbell, 27-20.
Kuntz has been an assistant coach since 1997 including stops at Kent State, Warren Harding, Howland and, most recently, Poland.
He has 19 lettermen returning from a 5-5 season in 2011 and is the third head coach at Struthers in as many seasons.
Q. What are some differences between being an assistant coach and a head coach?
A. The transition has been pretty smooth and that starts with getting a great staff around me. There are a million little things that you don’t have to worry about as an assistant like scheduling, dealing with the athletic director and trainer and all those things. Once practice or the game starts there isn’t much difference.
During the down time there are all those other things but with a great staff of assistants I can delegate some of the little things. It has gone pretty smooth so far.
Q. In your years as an assistant coach had you started thinking about who you might have on your staff if and when you became a head coach?
A. You always have a list of guys you think are a great person, number one, and have knowledge of the game, number two. Sometimes the way you put a staff together depends a lot on timing and luck. I happened to talk to coach (Gary) Hoelzel from Canfield after the Poland-Canfield game last year and we developed a relationship. He came over and brought a guy he worked with. Most of the other guys on the staff I have worked with at one time or another.
Q. What were some of the things that attracted you to the Struthers position?
A. When you think of Struthers you think about tough kids who care about football. It is a small community and you don’t really have many other places in the state or country where the kids’ parents and grandparents played for the same school. Friday night is pretty important to the whole community. There are a lot of people who say they want to win, but are not willing to make the commitment. Struthers is unique in that way and that made it appealing.
Q. Who are some of your coaching influences?
A. I started with coach John Nemec at Kent Roosevelt and coached at Kent State for 21/2 seasons under Dean Pees, who is now with the Ravens. I worked with a lot of guys at the college level who are scattered across college football and the NFL. I learned a lot of football there.
Then I worked with Thom McDaniels for five years at Warren Harding and he was about doing the little things correctly. If you take care of the stuff from Monday through Thursday, then the game comes easy.
I spent a couple of years with Dick Angle at Howland and it is unbelievable how he gets kids to buy into the program. He was able to market the program and get all the community involved. The last couple of years I was with Mark Brungard at Poland and there probably isn’t a better human being coaching football in the state. He is a great guy and is in it for the right reasons.
I have been fortunate to be in a lot of places with guys who have been successful, each doing things a little differently.
Q. What was it like going into your first season opener against your school’s closest rival, especially considering Struthers beat Campbell last year in Week 10?
A. That is one of those games that you don’t have to talk too much to get the kids excited. We were a little leery since Struthers won last year that the Campbell kids would want it more than us. We wanted to get the game to halftime and then count on our fitness and conditioning. In the third and fourth quarters it paid off for us.
Q. Talk about some of the things you were able to accomplish during the preseason.
A. We said from day one that we wanted to hang our hat on defense and that our best 11 players would play on that side of the ball. It took some time to figure out who would be the first 11 that would run to the ball and play physical. Then we tried to fit in the others where they would help the team most. We’re still trying to work in where we can get guys on the field, get some kids some meaningful snaps so that the starters can get a break.
I learned from coach McDaniels that you want to try to have 11/2 starters. A starter on defense will play some on offense but we’ll have someone else who will take the other 50 percent of snaps on offense. We don’t want anyone to be on the field every play. It takes some juggling and good communication among the staff, but we think it will pay off in the end.
Q. What are some of the goals your team has set?
A. Everyone wants to talk about our schedule. We believe it’s not about who we play but about us. If we take care of all we need to take care of, we’ll be OK. Our goals are to get better each day and don’t beat ourselves. At the end of the day the other goals will take care of themselves.
Q. What about your opponent this week, Lakeview?
A. I don’t know if there is a better job done coaching in the area than what they do at Lakeview every year. Coach (Tom) Pavlansky has his teams extremely well prepared in all three aspects of the game. In special teams they always have something special lined up that you have to take time on in practice working on. We will spend a lot of time working with special teams this week. Lakeview is coached extremely well, they have a lot of kids who play hard together and they will present an excellent challenge.
IInterview by Doug Chapin, Vindicator sports staff
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