Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Ciesla Wolves new coach

John Ciesla, 30, will be the new head coach of the Prescott Curley Wolf football team.

Ciesla was hired by the Prescott School Board recently to replace Kirk Armitage.

Prescott Superintendent Ron Wright said Ciesla comes with good recommendations and is a motivator.

"He's a dandy," said board president Rick McGough. "He fired me up."

According to McGough, during his interview Ciesla had the board ready to don pads and hit the gridiron.

"I'm tickled to death with him," McGough said.

Ciesla has already been down to watch the Wolves in spring practice, and should be down all this week to work with the team and coaches.

He's been head coach of the Hector Wildcats for three years, leading the team to the playoffs each season.

In 1999, the Cats posted a 13-1 record and were in the semifinals.

His overall record with the Cats in three years is 26-10.

Ciesla ran the dead T offense at Hector and is expected to introduce it to the Wolves for the upcoming season. Defensively, he ran a 5-2.

McGough said Ciesla will be assessing the coaching staff and making coaching assignments to fit the staff's abilities.

"I'm impressed with him," McGough said. "He delivers a lot of energy. He didn't miss a question during the interview, and we're anxious to get him down here."

McGough said several coaching applicants had excellent interviews, but Ciesla "fired us up more than the others." He brought a tape of his work, including a pep talk when the Cats played the Barton Bears at Barton. The end result was the Bears being shut out at home, a tough task anytime.

Before he'd been offered the job, Ciesla and his wife came to Prescott to look the town over and start searching for housing.

The Ciesla's have two children who will be enrolling in Prescott schools for the coming year, one in kindergarten.

"His energy level is unbelievable," McGough said. "His references said what you see is what you get with him, and he has a good work ethic."

He'll be coming from the 4AA conference which includes: Charleston, Danville, Lavaca, Magazine, Hackett, Ola, Johnson County Westside and Hartford.

Ciesla is a graduate of Arkansas Tech University of Russellville, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Natural Science with emphasis on biology and general science. He's also completed 18 hours toward his Master's degree in Educational Leadership.

Along with coaching, he taught science at Hector and coached the baseball team.

As coach, he's worked as senior and junior high assistant, worked as a defensive back coach and offensive line coach.

He coached the 1997 junior Cats to the 4A conference championship with an 8-1 record, and was the high school team's offensive coordinator for the 97-98 season.

McGough said the board has not made any offers to anyone for the superintendent job since Sherry Holliman took the post and resigned for family reasons.

"We're still getting applications and resumes," he said. "We're also looking at the ones we've interviewed to see if we missed something and need to talk with them again.

"We'd rather take our time and get the right person than hurry."

He said the district could make use of an interim superintendent until one can be hired. "We have quality people in the system we could shuffle around in the interim.

"Basically, we're back to square one."