CHRIS KORBAR

When Chris Korbar became head football coach at Sheffield High School in 2018, the Wolverines were coming off an 0-10 season. Now, he’s been approved as the next head coach at Warren coming off an 0-10 season.

“Kids will get more and more excited as they familiarize themselves with me, my staff, and our morals, values, and beliefs,” said Korbar, who was head coach at Sheffield in 2018 and 2019 — finishing 2-17 overall — before the program consolidated with Warren due to COVID and numbers. “The culture is about to change, and I think our kids are going to see it.”

With Sheffield, there was a co-op agreement with Abraxas that went away due to COVID. Now, with the closing of Sheffield High School, many of those students will attend Warren Area High School.

“I bleed orange and black,” said Korbar. “I will forever be Wolverine loud and Wolverine proud… I take pride in being from there. Guess what, that’s all okay, because now we can’t afford to be coming at each other’s throats, we can’t afford to have bias over who’s longer in the tooth or whatever grudge is there. It’s time for our independent thinking to not turn into independent thoughts, behaviors, and attitudes that represent poor skills socially, economically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and creatively. We have to adapt, adjust, and overcome. I bet some people think it’s the kids that will be the problem — nope, it’s the adults that need the education on this. The kids learn from us, they hear the animosity from us, we create the dissension, and we have for generations. So, how do we become family, how do we make Wolverines into Dragons? We don’t. We ask them to join us. We ask Eagles to soar with us in the air. We revolutionize ourselves. We show kids how to be one, how to think, feel, and act as young adults, show we care, and when you do just that, family becomes a thing.”

An excited Korbar has hit the ground running with several people in mind applying for assistant coaching positions.

“Excitement is what gets me excited,” he said. “Teaching stuff, watching blood, sweat, and tears come to fruition. One Dragon, One Roar!

“Football is a game that has intrigued and influenced me ever since I discovered it,” said Korbar. “I have always loved the game of football, and probably always will. This game has been very good to me. I feel passionate about football because it is not only a great game where you learn a lot about who you are, but the game also teaches you a lot about life or the competencies you need to learn and apply to be successful in life. It is a game where you must learn to interact and cooperate with others in order to achieve success on and off the field. For the Sheffield/Abraxas co-op, and the persons that came through it, it gave them a unique opportunity to learn about cultural diversity that our area would otherwise almost never experience. I’ve spent time learning from those that molded me as a player and coach. I have learned to take pieces from a few names that come to mind — Bonavita, Fitch, Gould, Snell, Park, Werner, Dunn, Labesky, Norris, Miller, Cummings, Grubbs, Hoden, Gignac, Copley, and McNany. Why not put what they taught me into place? Show our student-athletes what resiliency and perseverance truly are; show how, even in our area where we are less than 20 minutes apart, our cultures are different but can shine under one unified front. Now is the perfect time with the grief and loss with closures of both schools… Let’s not forget, we’ve got Youngsville kids that already have relationships built into this as they now come to Warren or Eisenhower as well. Some of my Sheffield kids will be going to Eisenhower where Coach Penley reached out and brought kids in and made them feel welcome. This isn’t about us alone; it’s about all of us county-wide.

“I belong to Warren Worx, where we are trying as a whole to bring people and families back to this area,” he said. “You are going to start to see the ramp-up from marketing and the various projects that that group is putting in place here as that revitalization spreads across the county as a collective effort. So why not now? I have heard in the past a moniker that it always gets worse before it gets better. Now it’s time to get better, and I can’t think of a better way than impacting the youth and also the fans centered around the conglomerate of high school football.”

Despite high school football not starting officially until later this summer, it is a late start to be name head coach.

“Getting information was the toughest thing so far,” said Korbar. “Coach (Cody) Bupp was one organized dude, and I reached out to him. He has been tremendous in the last week along with the Grid Club and the Beaty junior high coaches. Coach (Brian) Retterer and Coach (Dwight) Damcott have been running the weight room for us and hooked me up with playbooks, names, etc. This way, I can fit nomenclature and all the good stuff into what I do that is similar, and that will stunt the learning curve. That tells me the old regime still cares and laid some groundwork. Whatever happened, happened, and now it’s time to right the ship. Now it’s time to set the cornerstone, get the next block in place, fill the hole with some cement, and bridge that gap.”

Warren football had over 50 underclassmen rostered a season ago and now potentially more student-athletes.

“Having that amount of kids, for me, will be a luxury and a hindrance,” said Korbar. “With 20 to 30, it’s pretty easy to build your depth chart and see the difference between the 1’s and 2’s. Now, I might have 4’s and 5’s that could be 1’s and 2’s, but they don’t have the grades, aren’t working out and pushing their teammates, etc. I now will have options but also need to make sure that the options know they are options. If they aren’t the 1′ and 2’s, they will be regulated to JV time, and getting the JV guys ample reps will be important also, not just JV games, but practice time. We will have me and my coordinators with the 1’s and 2’s while the other guys are getting reps, so we are not just standing around. JV sometimes breeds guys that start to loosen up and start impacting, so that depth chart can always change.

“The kids were realistic the first time I met them,” he said. “I threw out two wins, and they seemed to agree, but I gave them a goal sheet, and they came up with some good stuff. My goals are to heal some wounds, get kids in the right spots, put the best possible team on the field and restore ‘Positive Pride,’ not just pride, but Positive Pride. If you don’t think I know things are not going to be perfect, you’re wrong. I want kids to know they can come to me. I may not have every answer, but we will fix it together.”

Warren has a difficult home schedule with the likes of Corry, Cathedral Prep, Titusville, General McLane and Meadville.

“I don’t see the Dragons from the past two years,” said Korbar. “I see the future where it looks bright. Some might see the record 0-10, 0-20, and 0-whatever, but that doesn’t concern me. That all goes by the wayside now. I see kids, student-athletes with talent, with the ability to succeed not only in football, but in the classroom, and life in general. More often than not, we have lost generations from here or there, no matter where you are in the county. It’s time to reverse that trend — do we want kids to experience life and go off to college, trade school, or just explore what’s out there? Yeah, we do, but we also want to build a solid foundation where they know it’s okay to come home, too. Once you get that out of your systems, come back, give back, and help lead the next generation on to the same type of journey. We all have to build us back better. Let’s do it where camaraderie is showcased for all to see — in between those white lines, where clarity often has a way of shining through.”