KARNS CITY — After 12 seasons and a current run of four successive District 9 championships, Dave Kerschbaumer is resigning as head girls basketball coach at Karns City High School.

Kerschbaumer, 54, cited his full-time employment as the reason for his departure. He is head of transportation for Iron Mountain and has been with that company for 30 years.

“My job is going to require much more traveling now,” Kerschbaumer said. “I'll be going to Johnstown, Columbus, Cleveland ... too much time away.

“It wouldn't be fair to the girls if I was only there part of the time. For me to coach, I have to be all in.”

Kerschbaumer has been with the KC girls basketball program for 19 years. He has also been an assistant football coach with the Gremlins.

He served as an assistant under Larry Deal and Chris Bellis before taking over as head coach.

“I actually coached football here first,” said Kerschbaumer, a former quarterback at East Brady High School. “Larry asked me to come over and help out as a volunteer assistant and I just stayed with the program.

“Larry and Chris were great mentors to me. They're both teachers and they showed me how to work with kids.”

Kerschbaumer informed KC athletic director Brian Markle of his decision to resign last week. The resignation will be formally accepted at next Monday night's school board meeting.

“We'll post the position then and hopefully get a number of applicants over the following two weeks,” Markle said. “It will be tough shoes to fill. Dave was solid there for a long time, an icon in that position.

“He is a top-notch person and a top-notch coach.”

Kerschbaumer was 91-15 over the past four seasons. The Gremlins won 13 straight games last year before their season ended in the PIAA playoffs.

The veteran coach does not know his overall won-loss record.

“It was never about wins and losses for me,” he said. “The thing I'm most proud of here was getting the kids to consistently buy into a team atmosphere.

“We've had a lot of great kids, a lot of great families come through here ... good, hard-working kids. Their parents pushed them to be better, too.”

Kerschbaumer's wife, Robyn, was involved with the program as well. She always did “special little things” for the girls, Kerschbaumer said.

“A tradition here was right before the playoffs every year, my wife would have the team over the house, cook them a lasagna dinner, and they would sit together and watch the game of their choice from the regular season,” he said. “I did the serving and stayed out of the way. That was their night.

“For the past 19 years, Karns City was a second home to me. I felt like I had 16 daughters every year, not just my one at home.”

When Kerschbaumer told the players of his plans to resign after a recent summer practice, “a lot of tears were flowing and they were mostly mine.

“I'm going to miss this.”

Markle is hopeful Karns City will have a replacement for Kerschbaumer “in two months, if that long.”

“Assistant coaches have to be hired and we're hoping our current assistants stay with the program insome capacity,” Markle said.

Mike Hegedus and Steve Andreassi were assistants under Kerschbaumer last year and could be candidates to replace him. Both have daughters — Emily Hegedus and Livia Andreassi — who will be seniors this year.

Olivia Mourer and Haley Scherer will be seniors on the team as well.

“We also had 12 freshmen last year who really came on,” Kerschbaumer said. “With those seniors leading the team, the program can still do great things.

“Being part of it was something I loved to do.”