Mars school board approves Zachary Benedek as head football coach despite concerns about process
Zachary Benedek is young for a high school football head coach.
The 25-year-old will take over the Mars Planets after the Mars Area School Board, at the recommendation of athletic director Zach Matusak, approved his hire Tuesday night by a 7-2 decision.
Mostly, players, parents and community members showed support for the hire of the Clarion University graduate. But the hiring process — particularly what they felt was a lack of transparency and willingness to accept feedback — caused some displeasure. The board will discuss a potential policy change at a future meeting.
“I think the biggest thing is everything in there came from everyone’s passionate,” Benedek said after the meeting. “It’s not anything against me or anything against anybody. It is a big job and there are stressors with being a head coach.”
Benedek, a 2019 Elizabeth Forward graduate, played quarterback at Saint Francis University and Clarion University.
His coaching experience includes time as a graduate assistant at Clarion University after his playing career ended and as an assistant at Mt. Lebanon High School. He said he “started to feel” last year he wanted to run his own program and is excited to become a part of the community.
Instead of focusing on a handful of comments at the board meeting, Benedek said he was excited to meet some of the players that night and to meet the rest of them in the coming days while assembling his staff.
Benedek did not indicate his scheme philosophies but stressed the important of having players get better every day. He does think his age can be an advantage relating to high school athletes.
“I think the biggest thing is connecting with the kids,” he said. I will bring an energy and enthusiasm every single day. … I just went through the process. I had struggles with recruiting out of high school and I wanna help them the best I can.”
Benedek will lean on his experience going from an undersized high school quarterback to making a Division I roster, transferring and dealing with injuries to help teach Planets players how to learn resilience and life lessons.
