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Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon holds coaches clinic

<p>SALEM TWP. &#8212; The Berwick School Board ran a two-minute drill Wednesday night, hiring Frank Sheptock as varsity football coach at a special meeting lasting less than three minutes.</p><p>The board voted 7-2 to hire Sheptock, who has been Berwick&#8217;s athletic director for two years and was the head coach at Wilkes University for 18 years. Board members Donald Butz and Brian Seeley voted against the hire without commenting. Neither was available after the meeting.</p><p>Sheptock replaces George Curry, who handed in a letter of resignation in the summer effective at the end of the season. Curry won 455 games, most of any high school football coach in Pennsylvania history. He coached Berwick from 1971-2005 and came back in 2012 on an interim basis when coach Gary Campbell resigned that summer.</p><p>Berwick has played in the District 2 Class 3A championship all four years during Curry&#8217;s return. His six PIAA state championships are tied with Southern Columbia&#8217;s Jim Roth for the most by a coach.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s amazing the success and impact not only he has had on the football program but the community and alumni,&#8221; Sheptock said. &#8220;Obviously, he&#8217;s done some tremendous, tremendous things here. Great person, great man, great family man.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been neat being able to sit down in the field house with him the last couple years and talk with him and share some ideas. We&#8217;d draw different things on the board. It&#8217;s been a neat thing.&#8221;</p><p>Berwick superintendent Wayne Brookhart said there were nine applicants for the position. The intent was to interview all nine, but only four decided to proceed past the application stage. He declined to name the other three candidates interviewed.</p><p>Brookhart also confirmed Berwick sent a letter to the PIAA on Monday requesting the football program be reclassified as Class 4A for the 2016 and 2017 seasons. Under the PIAA&#8217;s new six classifications, Berwick would have remained at 3A while all of its traditional opponents moved up in classification.</p><p>The switch to 4A means Sheptock will be once again matching up with an old coaching rival, Dallas&#8217; Rich Mannello. Mannello coached at King&#8217;s College from 1991-2009, overlapping Sheptock&#8217;s time at Wilkes. The Wyoming Valley Conference hasn&#8217;t created a football schedule yet for the next two years, but since Berwick and Dallas will both be 4A there&#8217;s little doubt they will play each other.</p><p>&#8220;He and I actually chatted about that,&#8221; Sheptock said. &#8220;Rich and I have stayed very close. I consider him a close, personal friend and we look forward to getting that rivalry going again.&#8221;</p><p>Sheptock plans to meet with the team, possibly on Thursday, and get the program rolling toward next season. He brings a wealth of head coaching experience to Berwick but none at the high school level.</p><p>&#8220;You&#8217;re dealing with some younger players,&#8221; Sheptock said, &#8220;but the passion and the expectation to win, that part stays the same. That&#8217;s part of the attraction of a great program like Berwick.&#8221;</p><p>After six years as an assistant at Wilkes University, Sheptock took over the Colonels program in 1996. He stayed there for 18 years, compiling a 107-81 record. His teams made two appearances in the NCAA Division III playoffs, qualified for the ECAC playoffs seven times and won the Middle Atlantic title in 2006.</p><p>Sheptock resigned at Wilkes after a 4-6 season in 2013 and was hired as Berwick&#8217;s athletic director. Speculation started immediately that he would eventually succeed Curry, who returned to Berwick in 2012 in an interim basis when Gary Campbell Jr. resigned in the summer of that year.</p><p>&#8220;Obviously, when you stay at one place for a long time people are going to draw a conclusion,&#8221; Sheptock said. &#8220;But I came here because I wanted to get experience as an administrator and continue to grow my professional life and my experiences. I was able to do that here and some other experiences with Bloomsburg University this year.</p><p>&#8220;I think that I&#8217;ve become a better coach because, number one, you understand the administration side. Now you actually lived that and what they go through. You go out and visit other places and talk to other coaches. I feel I&#8217;m very much ready for this opportunity and am a better coach than I was several years ago.&#8221;</p><p>Sheptock was a three-time All-American linebacker at Bloomsburg University, where he graduated from in 1986. He was inducted into the university&#8217;s hall of fame in 1997.</p><p>The hiring marked the second time in two years Sheptock has been tabbed to run a high school football program. He was chosen the new coach and athletic director at Mount Carmel, his alma mater, in December 2014. He started there in January 2015, but after a few days on the job he resigned and returned to his athletic director position at Berwick.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Frank Sheptock is congratulated after being hired as Berwick&#8217;s new football coach Wednesday night.  </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_SHEPTOCK-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Frank Sheptock is congratulated after being hired as Berwick&#8217;s new football coach Wednesday night.  </caption0><photoCredit0>John Erzar | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Former Wilkes coach will replace Curry at football helm</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By John Erzar</p><p>jerzar@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Three schools seek end to co-op agreements</strong></p><p>The PIAA Board of Directors will meet Thursday in Hershey, and three items on the agenda concern District 2 schools dropping cooperative agreements in football in order to move down in classification for the 2016 and 2017 seasons.</p><p>Northwest is requesting the end of its co-operative agreement with Benton in football. If approved, Northwest will be a Class A football school the next two seasons instead of a Class 2A program.</p><p>Carbondale is seeking to end its agreement with Forest City, and Montrose wants the same with its agreement with Elk Lake. If granted, Carbondale and Montrose will drop from 3A to 2A for 2016 and 2017.</p><p>When two schools have a co-operative agreement in the sport, the school with the larger enrollment counts all its male or female students toward PIAA enrollment numbers. Then 50 percent of the male or female students from the smaller school are added to get the official PIAA enrollment figure.</p><p>Northwest, Carbondale and Montrose are also asking to dissolve co-operative agreements in other sports with the aforementioned schools.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach John Erzar at 570-991-6394 or on Twitter @TLJohnErzar</p></shirttailMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><videoMeta><p><table class="mceItemTable" style="border:none;width:98%;"><tbody><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoID:</td><td id="videoid" style="width:50em;font-size:90%;">WmvcjHauQsM </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoType:</td><td id="videotype" style="font-size:90%;">YOUTUBE</p><p></td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">URL:</td><td id="url" style="font-size:90%;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmvcjHauQsM </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Embed String:</td><td id="videoembedstring" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Caption:</td><td id="videocaption" style="font-size:90%;"> Frank Sheptock talks with media after being named Berwick head football coach.</p><p></td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Credit:</td><td id="videocredit" style="font-size:90%;"> John Erzar | Times Leader</p><p></td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Position:</td><td id="videoposition" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="margin-top:10px;font-size:70%;color:#555;">(use the &#8220;for files&#8230;&#8221; link above to associate attached files with this source)</p></videoMeta></div>

Berwick hires Frank Sheptock as new head football coach