Football coach passes on job offer, sticks with TJ
The West Jefferson Hills School Board is expected to vote March 19 on an agreement with Bill Cherpak, the district's high school football coach who had been offered, but turned down, a high-paying position at the Montour School District after an outpouring of support from the community for him to stay.
The tentative three-year agreement between Cherpak and West Jefferson Hills would pay him a total of $20,000 annually, nearly a fourth of the $74,000 salary he had been offered at Montour.
Cherpak, who works as a funeral director at R.V. Anderson Funeral Home in Homestead, had accepted the Montour job Feb. 20. He would have been paid $74,000 to coach the football team and work as an administrator in the district. He turned down the offer Feb. 27, a day after a groundswell of residents urged the school board to do whatever it took to keep Cherpak.
Montour then hired Bruce Byrom, a Montour assistant coach and health teacher, as its head football coach. Like their Montour High School counterparts who signed a petition to hire Byrom, Thomas Jefferson High School players rallied behind keeping Cherpak.
The West Jefferson Hills offer will pay Cherpak $8,500 a year to serve as head coach of the varsity football team and $11,500 per year to coordinate the weight room facility at Thomas Jefferson High School.
"Coach Cherpak looked at his loyalty to the program here, his involvement with the program and the students and parents in the community," Superintendent John Lozosky said Wednesday. "He was reasonable in what he was asking of the district and the district was able to respond in a reasonable way. His priorities as coach were met and our priorities as a district were met. We're very pleased by that. I know the students are pleased as well."
Cherpak, who has been head coach at Thomas Jefferson for seven years and was an assistant for four years, said the outpouring of support in West Jefferson Hills was overwhelming and the reason he chose to stay despite Montour's offer.
"Everything's not about money," he said. "It's about the kids and about the people."
Cherpak said Montour had come to him with the offer.
"The fact of the matter is, I never wanted to leave in the beginning," he said. "I didn't go looking for a job. Things happened so fast with Montour and started to steamroll."
Cherpak said he will keep his job as a funeral director, which he planned to give up if he had gone to Montour. Cherpak said he is satisfied with the agreement he has with West Jefferson Hills.
"It all amounts to I got a raise. That's the way I look at it," he said.
