Fourty-three years proved to be enough for Larry Young.

It'd be more than enough time coaching for many.

Young, who coached track and field and cross country at Mars last season, made the decision to retire over the summer.

“I'm officially retired as a coach, again,” Young joked. “I wanted to spend more time with family and my grandkids and I wasn't able to do that with working nights and weekends as a coach.”

Young will be replaced by Butler graduate Joelle Patterson, who coached the Planets girls track and field squad last season. Young, 70, spent 43 years in coaching.

The 1961 Butler graduate made stops at North Allegheny, Gateway, Knoch, Mars, the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown and with the Golden Tornado.

Young preferred working at the high school level compared with college coaching.

“At the high school level, I had more of an opportunity to mold kids,” Young said. “At college, whether they were coached well or poorly, all had their own ideas on what philosophy to run with. It was harder to get them to buy in to one philosophy.”

With all fall sports practices under way, here are several items of note from over the summer:

The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League guaranteed there will be a new champion in Class A during the 2015-16 school year when it announced its realignment.Both Mars and Quaker Valley — which have combined to win every Penguins Cup in the classification since 2008 — will be bumped up to Class AA.The new relegation/promotion system promotes teams for success and drops programs that have been struggling.Other local programs will keep the status quo.Butler and Seneca Valley will remain in Class AAA, while Freeport will stick in Class A.The PIHL season opens Oct. 5.

Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic's football team will play three of its five scheduled home games at the Mars Athletic Complex this season.The Trojans, who finished last season 11-1, will host Northgate Sept. 4 and Riverside Oct. 2 at Stone Field in North Park.North Catholic's matchups with Our Lady of Sacred Heart (Sept. 18), Fort Cherry (Oct. 9) and Bishop Canevin (Oct. 30) will be played at Mars.<i>Josh Rizzo is a sports writer for the Butler Eagle.</i>