After two seasons, Cody Bupp has resigned as Warren Area High School’s head football coach. File photo by Mark Evans

After two seasons, Cody Bupp has resigned as Warren Area High School’s head football coach.

Bupp guided an extremely young team for high school football standards — with 52 underclassmen on a 54-man roster — to a 0-10 mark this past season.

Still, with those players coming of age, “I hope to have left it in a much better place than I got it,” said Bupp, who finishes 0-20 as head coach. He has been a part of the program since 2020 (15-13 from the 2020-21 to 2022-23 seasons as an assistant coach).

“It was a tough decision, lots of emotion today meeting with players and even in weight lifting last night,” said Bupp on Tuesday. “Ever since I graduated in 2014, I’ve been a coach. I spent time on staff at Penn State and then moved home and helped coach softball with my dad before being hired by Coach (Mark) Morelli in the spring of 2020 at Beaty and moved to high school in 2021. I spent the last two years as head coach (and have) been coaching track since 2019 as well with football. I will finish out the season with track and see where it goes from there.

“I have some opportunities to stay in the game and grow to the next level,” said Bupp of his future in coaching. “Coaching is a passion and I definitely will be staying involved with developing student-athletes.”

In a letter of resignation to WAHS Athletic Director Jeff White, Bupp said, “it’s best for someone else to have a fresh start to work with the school consolidation and new AD. You can only adapt to circumstances so much before you compromise your standards and beliefs on how you want to build the program.

“I am proud of the accomplishments of our players and staff,” said Bupp. “Proud of the efforts and accomplishments each made to better themselves especially off the field. In two years, we had more academic recognition at all state levels. Many in the community have complimented the efforts and how it was nice seeing the football program back involved in community activities.

We pushed each student-athlete to expand their boundaries and be involved in other sports and activities. I truly think you will see the ripple effects of this in the coming seasons. When you fail at 15, 16, 17, 18 years old, and take the lessons you learned in overcoming those failures — that is the beauty of the great game of football. I will miss working with each of the players I’ve gotten to know, but I can’t wait to watch them become great men and leaders in their communities.

“When I took over the football program, it was left in a $38 thousand booster debt, no weight room program in place at any levels, and only nine upperclassmen coming in the two-year cycle, all while moving up to 4A with minimal co-op participation,” said Bupp. “In less than two years, the debt was eliminated thanks to the hard work of those in the community, parents and players in their fundraising efforts. Now going forward, players and coaches will be able to purchase the necessary items to upgrade equipment, uniforms, etc. This past season, the program grew to over 100 players from junior high to high school, as we had the highest participation in the Warren/Youngsville co-op since it happened in 2017. … I would like to thank the Youngsville Sports Boosters for helping facilitate transportation this past season for fall co-op athletes. There have been huge improvements in the weight room and agility programs that were implemented for future players to be successful.

“I am blessed to have a great support-system around me,” Bupp added. “I thank my fiance, Bethanne, for allowing me to chase a passion and set a 12-month calendar to revolve not only around running a football program, but doubling up and coaching track in the spring, too. I would like to thank my employer for giving me the flexibility to be a head coach and be involved in my community. Thank you to my staff for sticking it out and dedicating all of their time. Times have changed; it’s not teachers that are coaching your kids’ scholastic sports anymore. It’s wonderful community members donating 12 months of the year to better the student-athletes. Our society is in trouble when it comes to stepping up and leading our youth sports. I encourage people to step up to the plate, to answer the call, or otherwise our kids are going to lose out on opportunities that gave us fond memories and molded us into the people of society we are today.

“Thank you to the Warren High School administrators Mr. Josh Vincent and Mr. Jeff White, as well as Mr. Michael Cradduck and Mr. Clay Hayes at Youngsville High School for entrusting me to lead their student-athletes,” Bupp continued. “This fall, it will be hard not leading the team out on Friday night. Coaching is in my blood; it’s a passion that has only grown since I started coaching in 2015 at Penn State. With opportunities ahead, I plan to continue to be involved with the game and developing student-athletes.”