Butler coach Florie retires
BUTLER TWP — Dave Florie has seen a lot in his years as a high school baseball coach.
But, in retrospect, he was missing the most important things.
With that, Florie decided to step down as the Butler High baseball coach, a position he held for the past five years.
"What I do at the end of each year is to evaluate what we've done each season, all the programs we run," said Florie, 69, who lives in Zelienople.
"Then I go through the calendar and go over the seven months what we've done. I saw I missed a couple of birthday parties and dance recitals of the grandchildren. Those were hard to miss and my wife (Martha) also had a minor operation.
"I evaluated myself and didn't like what I saw," he added.
Florie always has stressed family first, to his players and coaches — just not himself.
"(Coaching) was not my top priority anymore. I just want to do things with my wife," he added.
Florie, who guided Butler to a 57-43 record, re-energized the Tornado program when he came aboard in 2006.
He coached the Tornado to a 10-9 record in his first season and followed that with a 9-9 record in 2007. Both squads narrowly missed qualifying for the WPIAL playoffs.
In 2008, the team finished 13-7, won its first playoff game in 12 years and reached the WPIAL quarterfinals.
In 2009, Butler went 13-10 and reached the WPIAL semifinals, where it lost a 12-8 decision to North Allegheny.
This spring, Butler again qualified for the postseason and ended up with a 12-8 record.
Before taking the reins of the Tornado, Florie coached at Seneca Valley for 16 years and compiled a 220-112 record with one WPIAL title in 1994 and a state championship in 1995.
"I brought a philosophy that I used in my many, many years of coaching: pitching, defense and timely hitting," said Florie. "And I was able to put together a good coaching staff."
They included George Bradley, Chris Rock, Mike Woodward and Chris Monaco who were involved in all five of Florie's seasons at Butler, as well as other coaches who helped along the way.
"I was very, very fortunate to put those guys together. They were very responsible for what we did," Florie said.
"(Former athletic director) Curt Phillips helped us and increased our staff. We had a big number of coaches and that's huge, and we had great players," he added.
Now Florie's calendar will be wide open for any personal events that pop up.
"I've been married 41 years and I've been coaching for more than that," said Florie. "I was coaching when I met her and she's been behind me all that time.
"I can't thank her enough. She's been my No. 1 supporter and she's my No. 1 angel. She said whatever I decide was all right, but I want to spend more time with my wife and grandchildren."
