Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Goetz retires


Just got off the phone with Ed Goetz, who spent the past six years as the Burgettstown High School head boys basketball coach, and Goetz told me he is retiring from coaching.

Goetz guided Burgettstown to the WPIAL Class AA playoffs in each of his six years at Burgettstown, which is quite an accomplishment when considering where the program was at when he was hired before the start of the 2002-03 season.

Before Burgettstown, Goetz spent six years at McGuffey, where he led the Highlanders to the 2001-02 section championship. It's the only section title for boys basketball at McGuffey.

Goetz also served as head coach for two years at Sto-Rox and he won the WPIAL Class AA title in his first year (1993).

Goetz won everywhere he coached, from the traditional powers to McGuffey. His teams always played hard, made their free throws and won.

And, in my opinion, he was one of the area's top coaches in any sport.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ed Goetz helped me as a new head coach and continued to be friend
even though we were rivals on the
court. It is very disappointing that he has to retire because of
his health. He is an old-school
guy that wins, but, not at the expense of others. He treats his
players like his own kids. I will
miss watching him work!

Mapod said...

Winning does make you a good coach. If you have the talent and little knowledge of the game, you could be a winner. But how you take the talent, get all 5 kids to work together and get them beleive in themself, well that a Good Coach. But the true sign of a Great coach is what these kids do after high school. How the coach helps these kids get an education, how he take on the father figure, and show he cares for the kids. That to me is a Great coach. Ed seem to be one of the Great Coaches in the area. Some of the winning coaches should look and follow his example. Yes, it is about winning, but winning off the court is more important than winning on. Just look at the area teams and see how many kids get to college. You be surprise to find it not the winning teams that goes to college, but the Coach that cares and helps them reach that goal. I hope Ed does come back and coaches again, if not the area lost a great one.