Football heat acclimatization begins. New coaches at Knoch, Moniteau and SV are excited to get going
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Butler's Chase Boden runs through a tackling drill during football practice Monday, Aug. 4, 2025, at Butler High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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The Butler Golden Tornado held their first mandatory practice Monday, Aug. 4, 2025, at Butler High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Nicco Baggetta runs through an agility drill during football practice Monday, Aug. 4, 2025, at Butler High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Kevin Shriver runs with the ball during football practice Monday, Aug. 4, 2025, at Butler High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Tyson Pino works on footwork during football practice Monday, Aug. 4, 2025, at Butler High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Stone Spack tackles a teammate during football practice Monday, Aug. 4, 2025, at Butler High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Beau Burchett (47) talks to teammates during football practice Monday, Aug. 4, 2025, at Butler High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Mark Klemz participates in agility drills during football practice Monday, Aug. 4, 2025, at Butler High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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Butler head coach Eric Christy instructs players of a drill during football practice Monday, Aug. 4, 2025, at Butler High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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Butler assistant coach Chip McGuire talks offensive schemes during a team meeting ahead of football practice Monday, Aug. 4, 2025, at Butler High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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The Butler Golden Tornado officially started the 2025 season with their first mandatory practice held on Monday, Aug. 4, 2025, at Butler High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Nicco Baggetta hands the ball off to Mark Klem during football practice Monday, Aug. 4, 2025, at Butler High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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Butler head coach Eric Christy talks to his football team at the end of practice Monday, Aug. 4, 2025, at Butler High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
How long does it takes a high school football coach in his first year with a team to feel truly comfortable depends on who you ask.
Athletes, surroundings, administration are all new and the answer is different in each situation.
For Knoch’s T.J. Wiley, it did not take long. Hired in April as the Knights’ next leader on the gridiron, he took a break from his team’s first day of heat acclimatization Monday to talk about his new-found comfort level.
“Kurt Reiser is the high school principal here and he was the offensive line coach my senior season at Thiel (2001),” said Wiley, who was also hired as a special education teacher at Knoch. “I have a lot of respect for Kurt, and to now be working with someone I believe in so much, it’s a great feeling.
“This district reminds me of Titusville, where I went to school and played football. Tough, blue-collar. ... It’s that kind of community, and it feels like home to me.”
Wiley joins Seneca Valley’s Don Barclay and Moniteau’s Clay Kohlmeyer as Butler County’s first-year coaches this season.
Wiley also raved about Knoch’s new fitness center, which is nearing completion.
“That’s where our players will be doing their weight training, but it will be available to any student who wants to use it,” he said. “It’s going to be one of the biggest weight rooms around. I didn’t even know about it when I first interviewed for the football job, so it was like a bonus when I found out about it.”
Wiley’s resume includes head coaching stints at Penn-Trafford, Northgate and Bishop Canevin and assistant jobs at Shaler and Titusville, where he was a star quarterback in the 1990s, playing for his father, John, who is now Knoch’s offensive coordinator.
“Ninety-nine percent of our players have been here throughout the summer,” T.J. Wiley said. “They know how to work, but they are also smart players. I added a two-minute drill the morning of a 7-on-7 drill at Grove City this summer. By that evening, the players had learned it and we were running it with no problem.”
Through his years of playing and coaching, Wiley has come to one conclusion he now preaches to Knoch’s players.
“Winning is the end result of being successful,” he said. “If we succeed Saturday through Thursday with our preparation, winning on Friday will take care of itself.”
Barclay, who starred on the offensive and defensive lines for Seneca Valley before playing at West Virginia University and in the NFL for the Packers and Lions, remembers the good and bad from summer camp in high school.
“I can honestly say I didn’t look forward to the bruises and the blisters, but I loved being part of the team,” he said. “I liked seeing how we came together over those few weeks. What happens then does not decide anything, but it does give you a pretty good idea of what the team has and what it’s made of.”
Barclay has already seen the type of dedication from many of his players that will aid the Raiders as they prepare to compete in the rugged Quad County Conference, which includes North Allegheny and Central Catholic, who have faced each other in the past three WPIAL Class 6A championship games.
“From February until May, our guys were showing up at 5:45 a.m. to get a lifting session done before school started,” Barclay said. “It’s a mental challenge for them, to keep up with that type of schedule.”
Since last reaching the District 9 playoffs in 2018, Moniteau football has fallen on hard times. Last year’s 0-10 record was the program’s first winless campaign in 33 seasons.
In hopes of guiding the Warriors back to prominence on the gridiron, Moniteau hired Kohlmeyer, a former star quarterback at the school. His coaching staff includes former Moniteau players Steve Saul, Garth Kohlmeyer and Josh Loos, all of whom played for Moniteau teams that met with success.
“We were part of the group that helped rebuild the program (in the early 2000s),” Clay Kohlmeyer said. “Our coaches were hard on us, but they had a reason for it. They knew we were capable of more and they believed in us.
“The first step for us is to be competitive against teams for an entire game, and I believe we have the players to do that.”
