JEFFERSON TWP — Two of the reasons Mike King got into coaching helped him stay in coaching.

The former Knoch High School football coach got off to a rocky start in terms of wins and losses, finishing 1-9, 3-6 and 1-9 his first three years.

“Ken Elliott and Larry Kunselman were two of my coaches when I played at Knoch,” King said. “I figured, if I want to keep doing this, we better turn this thing around. They joined my staff at that time and we started doing that.”

King wound up as head coach of the Knights for 14 years — through the 2016 season — leading them to the WPIAL playoffs nine times and the championship game at Heinz Field in 2011. That, combined with a stellar playing career, is landing the 1982 Knoch graduate in the Butler County Sports Hall of Fame.

King will be inducted during the BCSHOF's annual banquet at 6 p.m. April 13 at the Butler Days Inn.

“This is something you don't expect to happen,” he said. “I remember my mother going to one of those banquets and coming home Rich or Ron Saul's autograph, seeing Terry Hanratty ... There's a lot of history there.

“It's an honor to become a part of that.”

King grew up on football. His father, Bob King, coached high school ball at Kane, Freeport, Oil City and Knoch. Bob King never coached his son, “but I was around the game all the time,” King said.

He wound up playing offensive and defensive line for the Knights and was named MVP of the Greater Allegheny Conference his senior year.

“My freshman year, we won it all, beating Beaver Falls in the (WPIAL) championship,” King said. “Knoch football was a tough program, very competitive. There were 100 kids on the team, probably 75 sophomores and juniors when I was there.

“Only five sophomores even got on the field for varsity games. Playing time was hard to come by, but we couldn't wait for football practice to start every day. That's how excited everybody was about the sport.”

King grew up behind three brothers — Bob, Randy and Jeff — and remembered playing backyard football with them.

While King was a lineman, one of his brothers was a quarterback “and he used to take me out in the yard and throw footballs at me,” King said, laughing.

King wound up attending Lafayette College, where he was a defensive tackle and four-year starter while majoring in history. The Leopards' coach was Joe Sarra, who went on to become a defensive line coach at Penn State.

Duke, Appalachian State, Army and Navy were other schools looking at King before he chose Lafayette.

“We played in the Yankee Conference and that was good football, “ he recalled. “We had competitive teams.”

King set a single season school-record with 11 quarterback sacks in 1985. He still shares that record today.

Looking back on his coaching career, King is grateful for the quality of kids he had at Knoch.

“We had special kids there, we really did,” he said. “They bought into what we were doing as coaches and they were team players. We asked them to be unselfish, to sacrifice for the team and that's exactly what they did.”

While he has numerous memories as a head coach, King admitted his favorite was when the Knights defeated Franklin Regional, 9-7, on a last-second field goal in the 2011 semifinals, earning a trip to the WPIAL title game.

“My son was on that team and that squad overcame so much that year,” he said.

His favorite part of coaching wasn't on Friday nights. It was every other day of the week.

“When I played, I'd have butterflies before a game, but they would disappear once the game started,” King said. “As a coach, there wasn't one game I didn't fret over or worry about the entire time.

“My favorite part of coaching was on the practice field, working with a kid, trying to make him better and the team better. That's what it was all about for me.”

Tickets for the banquet are $40 in advance and are available at Moses Jewelers at the Clearview Mall, Butler Radio Network on Pillow St., Parker Appliance in Chicora, Snack n Pack in Butler and Saxonburg Drug. Tickets will be $45 at the door.