BURDETTE INTERESTED IN BIG REDS

Publication: CHARLESTON DAILY MAIL
Published: 01/14/2002
Page: 1B
Headline: BURDETTE INTERESTED IN BIG REDS
Byline: JASON MARTIN

DAILY MAIL SPORTSWRITER

Parkersburg High School officials aren't expected to hire one Burdette to replace another as their football coach.

But Nitro Coach Robert "Little" Burdette has applied for the position anyway.

"I love where I am and I have a great job that would be hard to leave, but when a job like that comes open, it never hurts to talk to people," he said. "I would have never made it to Nitro if I hadn't picked up the phone between jobs and started asking around."

Burdette is among 14 applicants for the vacant post at what is widely considered the state's pre-eminent high school football program. Parkersburg's recommendation is expected to be handed to the Wood County Board of Education at its Feb. 12 meeting.

Others applying include Big Red assistant Rick Phillips, Moorefield Coach Alan Fiddler, Spring Valley assistant and former Ceredo-Kenova Coach Carl Ward, Williamstown Coach Bernie Buttrey, Williamstown Athletic Director Frank Marcinko, and Calhoun County Coach Bucky Stewart.

Parkersburg's previous coach, Marshall Burdette, resigned after 10-plus seasons in early September as part of an agreement surrounding a sexual misconduct investigation. He was replaced in the interim by Craig Farnsworth, who led the Big Reds to their second state title in three years.

Farnsworth said he declined to accept the permanent position because it did not come with a full-time teaching position, even turning down an undisclosed monetary supplement from athletic boosters. He said he has been offered a job in Berkeley County.

Parkersburg's next coach, who will receive a salary of $4,000, will probably not have a teaching job in the building available to him. That makes a candidate like Little Burdette even more of a long shot.

"If I ended up coach there, it would be because I was moving into the community to be part of the community," he said. "Anything else would be virtually impossible and wouldn't be fair to Parkersburg's kids."

Burdette said that Parkersburg's multimillion-dollar football facilities, which include new turf at 10,000-seat Stadium Field, and an adjacent expansive new weight room and annex, make it a West Virginia high school coach's dream job.

"Other than West Virginia or Marshall, that's the elite job in the state with their facilities," he said. "I haven't been everywhere, but I've been there, and I don't know of any better. That's the kind of job that you coach all these years and work for."

Burdette, 40, has been head coach at Nitro for six seasons and has also been athletic director for the past year. In 1998, his Wildcats won the school's only Class AAA state championship over Morgantown, one week after defeating Parkersburg High in the semifinals on the road.

He considers Phillips, a former Hunt Award winner as the state's top lineman and an all-American tackle at WVU, as the leading candidate.

"Since he's the only assistant who applied, you'd think he'd be the front-runner," Burdette said. "It will probably take a guy who already has a job outside the school system, or is retired or is a substitute or something like that."

Candidates who fit all those qualifications include Phillips; Buttrey; Don Reeves, coach at Parkersburg's Jackson Junior High; Todd McCoy, a teacher at Parkersburg High who was not a member of the previous staff; Bernie Boice, athletic director at Belpre (Ohio) High; and Larry Tracewell, retired Buckhannon-Upshur coach.

Others who applied are Wheeling Park teacher Steve Deem, a former coach at Paden City and St. Marys; Rick Benjamin, an Elmira, N.Y. teacher; and Ed Redman, coach at Lansing Central High in Lansing, N.Y.