BUTLER TWP — To many, Art Bernardi was a coaching legend.

To Bernardi, the timing was right.

“I don't think I could coach today,” Bernardi, 89, said. “It's so different now.”

Bernardi was Butler High School's head football coach from 1961 through 1985. He won 179 games and took eight Golden Tornado teams as far as the WPIAL semifinals.

He endured only two losing seasons. His first Butler football team had 43 players. Two years later, he had more than 100.

“We asked kids whether they preferred to play offense or defense,” Bernardi recalled. “Whichever side of the ball they preferred, that's where we started them out.

“Eventually, we had everybody playing in the best spot for the team. A lot of kids were playing and a lot of kids were happy.”

And those kids were coached — not always in a quiet manner.

“I did my share of yelling,” Bernardi said, laughing. “Coaches got their point across and the kids listened ... and parents had a trust in me and the other coaches in what we were doing, a trust you don't often see today.

“Back then, if a father complained about how his son was being used, I'd tell him to have his son turn his uniform in. We were coaches. We didn't need those headaches. We didn't need to be burdened with those outside problems.”

However, such problems didn't occur often.

Bernardi said he could recall “maybe two incidents with parents in 25 years.”

And today, “coaches have to do all they can to keep the kids they have,” Bernardi said.

Mark Farabee was an assistant coach on Bernardi's staff. He went on to become a head coach at Butler in football and track. He is a basketball official today.

“You yell at a kid now and he quits,” Farabee said. “That's part of the parental upbringing. Coaches don't have the support from parents they used to have.”

Gary Milanovich, another former Bernardi assistant, admitted to being rather loud at times.

“I was a yeller,” he said. “That was pretty commonplace back then. It never affected the numbers of kids playing. We had 120 kids on the freshman team alone.

“Now you might get 60 kids in the entire high school (football) program if you're lucky. Kids have plenty of options today and there's a lot of negativity surrounding football with injuries and concussions.”

Farabee pointed out that the only high school sports available in the fall were football and cross country in the 1960s.

“I remember Art bringing me to a Quarterback Club meeting when I was coaching junior high,” Farabee said. “There were maybe 20 guys there and some would walk up to me, say 'My name is so and so and my son will be playing for you this year. Make a man out of him.'

“Those days are long gone.”

So are the days of having only two sports to choose from — or playing one sport in the fall, another in the winter, another in the spring.

Three-sport high school athletes are a rare breed today.

“Coaches started to lose the confidence of parents when those sports camps and clinics for kids started popping up,” Bernardi said. “Parents and young athletes began taking in different opinions and methods of coaching and learning.“High school coaches and their ways began being questioned for the first time.”When he coached, Bernardi said “mothers were very receptive and thankful for how we were working with the kids. We weren't tyrants. We were human. We appreciated those kids. We had feelings. We cared about them.“There were relationships between teachers and coaches, and coaches of other sports. Everyone respected each other and parents had all the confidence in our judgments.”Bernardi said that coaches would recommend some of their athletes to coaches of other sports in the school.“If I had a football player who I thought might make a good point guard in basketball, I'd let the (basketball) coach know,” Bernardi said. “A lot of the football coaches also worked with track, so we'd encourage kids to do both.“Now you see kids stick with one sport all year. Coaches compete for kids now rather than share them and encourage different activities.”The kids had ample respect for the coaches as well.Larry Goettler played football at Butler from 1973-76. At a birthday celebration for Bernardi last year, he said: “Time spent with Art Bernardi was life-altering. Any number of guys who played for him will attribute that.”Former Tornado gridder U.S. Rep Mike Kelly said life in the 1960s “was all about respect and family. Every community seemed to have a coach who was larger than life. We had a staff of coaches like that.“We respected those guys so much ... We were afraid to lose.”Mike Giunta was a running back at Butler from 1963-65.“I remember being injured one day at practice and was sitting on my helmet, watching from the sidelines,” he said. “Coach Bernardi came over and made me get up. He said no one sits around during practice.“He ran a tight ship.”Such scenes would be rare today as angry parents and school boards oftentimes force coaching changes.The most recent such move was Mike Zmijanic, who was removed as head football coach at Aliquippa after a lengthy, legendary career.“It's sad, what happened there,” Bernardi said. “It's so hard to understand why that stuff is happening today.“Coaching is so much more difficult now. Everybody has the attitude now that it's always someone else's fault. There is no accountability anymore. Coaches get blamed for every situation.”During Bernardi's era, coaches used the Quarterback Club, Mothers Club and booster organizations as a means to communicate to the community.He said everyone was unified and on the same page when it came to athletic programs and the coaches in charge of them.The facilities were more antiquated, the crowds more supportive.“The feeling then was, 'Don't criticize me from the stands. Face me man to man,'” Bernardi said. “And people rarely did.“We didn't have one weight at the school when I took over. We eventually got a weight room. The facilities these young athletes have today are incredible.”When parents did want to talk to Bernardi, he made them work around a schedule that prohibited them from seeing him from 7 to 9:30 p.m.“That was my time with my family,” he said. “I accepted no phone calls, no visitation. Could a coach get away with that today? I doubt it.”When a coach looks to unify a team in terms of doing things his way today, “he's battling a lot of things,” Farabee said.“Kids have so many resources out there, social networking ... they tend to do their own thing,” he said.While attitudes, options and community involvement may have changed through the years, some parts of coaching may never go away.“The coaches out there now who are winning consistently ... I bet there's some yelling going on at practice at some point,” Milanovich said. “It's all a part of the passion. That part has never changed.”