ST. MARYS — There’s a new coach with some old bloodlines for the St. Marys football program.
Monday, the St. Marys Area School District Board of Directors approved Tony Defilippi as the program’s next head coach.
Defilippi takes over for Joe Schlimm, who went 51-52 in 10 years as head coach of the Dutch.
If Defilippi’s name sounds familiar, it should.
He was head coach of St. Marys from 1999 to 2003, compiling a record of 12-38.
His last head coaching position came at Cameron County High School from 2005 to 2008 where he had a record of 32-14, including a District 9 Class A championship in 2008. Over his final two seasons with the Red Raiders, Defilippi’s teams went a combined 23-4, and also made an appearance in the D-9 Class A title game in 2007.
“I have some big shoes to fill,” Defilippi said. “Joe Schlimm is a great man and a great coach. Joe has brought a winning culture to St. Marys and we want to continue to succeed. Also, we want to continue to produce good young men through the core values of the program.”
Defilippi, who was a standout player for the Dutch under his father, Ed Defilippi, and later for Juniata College, served as an assistant to Schlimm in 2004 and then again from 2009 through last season.
He’s hoping to keep most of the coaching staff from the 2013 squad intact.
“It’s a process,” he said. “You have to get a good staff together — that’s part of the process. We have guys that were currently on the staff that are good coaches. Hopefully our coaches are willing to go along with that process and remain.”
While Defilippi emphasized that getting a staff together is his first order of business, he hopes to meet with the current group of Dutchmen within the next week to get the ball rolling.
“Hopefully, I’ll meet with the kids at some point soon and get started next week with the offseason program,” he said.
And as for some of his immediate goals?
“Consistency,” he emphasized. “You have to be consistent all the time in what you’re doing and what you’re preaching. Also, integrity and honesty. What we do is an extension of what goes on in the classroom. Joe did those things well, and that will be our mission.”
Defilippi, a high school social studies teacher at St. Marys, inherits a program that has qualified for the District 9 playoffs in each of the last three seasons, the last two of which came in Class AA.
In 2013, the Dutch finished 6-5 and lost to eventual Class AA champion Karns City in the district semifinals.
