BUTLER TWP — Butler is hunting for a new head football coach — again.

By an 8-0 vote Monday night, the school board decided to open the position held by Clyde Conti for the past three seasons.

The Golden Tornado's next head coach will be their fourth in eight seasons.

“It was our collective decision that it's time to move in a different direction,” Butler athletic director Bill Mylan said.

Conti was 7-21 in his three years, including 1-8 this season. He guided Butler to the WPIAL playoffs with a 4-5 mark in 2013, the Tornado's first postseason appearance in 14 years.

“I figured the Monday after our last game they weren't going to bring me back,” Conti said. “I think that decision was made before anyone even talked to me about the season.

“That's fine. That's their right. I tried my best. My experiences at Butler were positive ones. I still care about those kids. All we can all do is move on.”

Assistant coach Jeff Wagner lauded Conti's efforts in getting the team to the playoffs last year.

“He did a really good job last year,” Wagner said. “This year, with the tough schedule we faced and all of those injuries ... It was rough.”

Butler lost 17 players to concussions over one three-week stretch this season. The Tornado lost seven running backs at different points of the year.

The team's final seven losses saw the mercy rule invoked. That involves a running clock after a team is trailing by as many as 35 points in the second half.

“Our lack of competitiveness on the scoreboard hurt all of us,” Conti said. “Still, I stand by those kids. I was proud to stand on the sidelines with them at that Central (Catholic) game. We faced long odds that night and everyone knew what was probably going to happen.

“Those kids played hard and gave the best effort they could give. You only fail when you give up. No one here ever quit. I had a young staff that was very loyal to me, too.”

Mylan said the decision to seek a new head coach “goes beyond wins and losses.”

He said the football position will be posted inside the school district and out. The interview process will begin “as soon as possible” and Butler hopes to have a new coach in place by February.

“To me, that's the latest deadline,” Mylan said. “We want to get the coach hired and allow him to get his off-season program established.

“I think it's essential, as long as the right things are being done for the kids within the program, that a new coach be given five or six years to establish what he wants to do toward getting this thing turned around.”

While it is not a prerequisite that the football coach be employed fulltime by the district, Mylan admitted the idea makes sense.

“When you look at the number of athletes here who didn't play football ... It would definitely help in the recruiting process,” he said.

Butler has lost 39 of 43 conference games over the last seven years. While Conti was coach, the program ended a 28-game conference losing streak. Last year's win at Shaler marked Butler's first section road win since a triumph at Seneca Valley in 2004.

Conti was named Northern Eight Coach of the Year in 2013.

Conti has been a head football coach for 41 years, has coached basketball 15 seasons and will be entering his 22nd year as a track and field coach in the spring as he guides Slippery Rock's junior high team.

He hopes to coach football again.

“I'd like to,” he said. “I have some opportunities if I want to do that now, but that doesn't define me.

“Butler will have success in football. We played a lot of young kids last year and I know what's coming. Our eighth and ninth-grade teams were strong. I wish them all well.”

Here is the record of Butler’s varsity football team under its last three head coaches:Clyde ContiYear W L2013 1 82012 4 62011 2 7Jim RankinYear W L2010 0 9Jeff McAnallenYear W L2009 0 92008 3 62007 0 9Totals 10 54