Green decides to roll back football duties with Forks

As suspected...

By Kevin Stevens • Press & Sun-Bulletin • June 18, 2008

The orchestrator of Chenango Forks' unprecedented stretch of football success will step aside -- just by a bit -- following 12 seasons as head coach in which the program produced an .860 winning percentage.

Kelsey Green will hand the baton to Dave Hogan, Chenango Forks' director of athletics and 12-season member of the varsity football staff.

Green, 56, who will retire upon completion of the present school year after 31 years as a teacher, will remain on staff as an assistant.

"We plan on having the same four guys on staff," Green said, speaking also of assistants Dave Chickanosky and John Petley. "Philosophically, I don't think a whole lot will change-- offensively, defensively, the way we handle the kids, I don't see things changing. ... I think a lot of things will be very similar, just the way Dave thinks they should be done."

Chenango Forks has played to an 84-6 record from 2001 to the present, a span during which the Blue Devils captured seven consecutive Section 4 Class B championships and proceeded to the state championship game all but one of those seasons. The 2003 and '04 teams were unbeaten state champions.

All 12 Green-coached Forks teams posted winning records, 10 of them losing no more than two games.

His 12-season record as head coach was 117-19.

"The four of us, that's the record for our whole staff," said Green, echoing the 'we before me' mentality that has been a backbone of the program's success. "We all want to keep things rolling in the same direction, that's for sure."

In his final game as head coach, the Blue Devils surrendered a halftime lead over Rye on their way to a 19-12 setback-- the lone 2007 loss but one of those that became increasingly difficult for the ultra-competitive Green to swallow. He spoke of "self-imposed pressures and expectations.

"It just got to the point where I was becoming consumed by this. It was an awesome experience, but nothing comes without a cost. It got to the point sometimes where, 'Whoa, I'm not sure this is really healthy for me.'

"It got so, the thrill of victory, as they call it, was not even close to the agony of defeat. I don't know how it affects other people, but I know how it affected me."

Hogan, 42 and a member of Windsor High's Class of '84, becomes the second head coach from his family in the Section 4 Football Conference. Brother Tim is head coach at Windsor, which is scheduled to visit Forks for the teams' 2008 regular-season finale.

"When the three of them (Green, Chickanosky and Petley) said they'd stick around, that was when I didn't have to worry about whether I'd take it over," Dave Hogan said.

As for the coaches' individual roles, he added, "We're in the early stages of deciding that. But I can tell you, we won't change a whole lot of things. It's what we know, what all of us are comfortable with."

Forks' players expect a smooth transition given the continued presence of familiar faces calling the shots, said Tim Zdimal, a junior ticketed for duty in the offensive and defensive backfields next season.

"It was kind of a shock," he said of learning of the switch, "but it's not really going to change a lot. Mr. Green will still be around the program, just not as head coach. It'll take some time to get used to, but I don't think it'll change anything."

As for Hogan's message to the players, he added, "Just that we'd run the same offense and the same defense, it's just that he'll be head coach instead of Mr. Green."

Green, whose program compiled a Section 4-record 38-game win streak that concluded with the 2005 state final, was asked what he'll cherish most about his head-coaching tenure.

"That's easy: The kids you coached-- and that's one thing I'm not ready to give up. That's why I'm not getting out-out."