BUTLER TWP — Butler did not have to look far to find its next head football coach.

Eric Christy, 37, a 1999 Butler graduate who has been on the Golden Tornado football staff for 10 years, was approved as head coach Monday night at the Butler Area School District board meeting.

The school board approved Christy by a 7-0 vote. Two board members were absent.

Christy served as interim head coach for the final two games of the 2017 season. He was offensive coordinator under Rob Densmore from 2014-17. He is married, has five children and lives in the Slippery Rock area.

“I sat down with my family and asked if this was something Dad should pursue, or did they need me to stay at home,” Christy said. “They said this was my dream and I should go after it.

“My entire family has been very supportive.”

Christy's children range in age from 6 to 16.

“I'm going from having five kids to hopefully 55 or 60. That's how I look at it,” Christy said.

Christy has been a social studies and history teacher at Butler High School since 2007. He becomes the seventh Golden Tornado head football coach in the past 17 years.

None of the last four head coaches have lasted as long as four full seasons.

“It's important that Eric have the administration's support, which he does,” Butler athletic director Bill Mylan said. “He also needs the support of the community.

“The confidence has to be there that we have the right guy and that we continue to support him. People can't turn on the coach if he doesn't win right away.

“This isn't going to be an over-night thing. It's going to have to be built up here. I see potential of Eric being our football coach for the next 10 or 20 years,” Mylan added.

Christy was one of three finalists interviewed for the position. Mylan estimated there were 12 to 14 applicants for the job with eight to 10 of those being from out of state.

There was no teaching position offered with the football coaching job.

“It's a big plus that Eric is teaching in the district. He can effectively recruit more kids to play,” Mylan said. “And he is very passionate about Butler football.”

Christy becomes Butler's first head football coach to be teaching in the district since Jeff McAnallen (2007-09).

Christy was quarterback of the 1998 Butler football team that reached the WPIAL playoffs. He threw for 1,434 yards that year and went on to serve as backup quarterback at Clarion University for three seasons.

He majored in secondary education and “wanted to be a teacher all my life.”

Christy's sister is a teacher in the York area. His brother, Eli, teaches at Slippery Rock and is defensive coordinator for the Rockets' varsity football team.

“My first goal is to get the right staff in place,” Christy said. “The second goal is to make the program attractive again and get more kids excited about wanting to play football.

“We have a lot of good people coming back on the staff now. And I'll spend the next month talking to people, making sure all the other coaches are on the same page with me. We are going to re-invest in the kids. That means establishing trust.

“We're going to invest in their lives, sit down with them, talk to them, get to know them,” he added.

Mylan is not surprised at such a philosophy.

“Eric cares about the kids in this school more as people than football players,” he said.

Since Christy's senior season, Butler has made the WPIAL playoffs only once (2012). The Golden Tornado have not had a winning season since 1997, haven't won five games in a season since 2003 and have not won a playoff game since 1992, a 17-12 victory over Penn Hills under coach Tim Nunes.

Regardless, Christy, with the help of Bill McElroy, has the team on Week 8 of a lifting program in the weight room.

“We've never quit running the off-season program,” Christy said. “We were hopeful things would work out this way and they did.”