Chuck Sponsky turned adversity in his life into a life-long passion for a school, a sport, and an opportunity to honor those who had influenced him in his life along with so many others

Chuck Sponsky

More than 30 yeara ago, I engaged in a conversation with Chuck Sponsky that illustrated for me the love that he had for the game of football and the love that he had experienced because of the influence of football coaches in his early years of life. 

At the time, I had nominated a football coach from my hometown to the Pennsylvania Scholastic Football Coaches Hall of Fame (PSFCA). I knew two coaches from our area who were on that committee, Jerry Page of Laurel Valley, originally from the Son-man area of Portage, and Chuck, who had been the football coach at Bishop Carroll High School in Ebensburg for 11 years. The Hall of Fame was in its early stages, and Jerry and Chuck helped guide me in sending in the recommendation.

My conversation with Chuck ultimately went back to his years as a young man — and to his high school football coach, Mario (Huck) Cicero. Chuck grew up in Bakerton, a small village in West Carroll Township in Cambria County, and he attended John Carroll High School, which eventually became part of the Cambria Heights jointure with Patton and Hastings in the mid-1960s.

Chuck said that Coach Huck Cicero had a tremendous impact on his life, though he admitted that he was tough on him at times. Chuck graduated from John Carroll High School in 1957, and he earned a scholarship to the University of Richmond. Chuck told me that Coach Cicero was instrumental in directing college coaches to consider him as a player. 

Thus, it is not surprising that Chuck, who passed away at the age of 80 on Sept. 6 in Florida, loved football and loved coaches — and that he became a coach. 

Coaching career

After transferring to Lock Haven and earning all-conference honors there, Chuck earned a degree in Physical Education and was hired as a teacher by the Triangle Area School District and worked as an assistant coach there before being hired as head coach at Forest Hills in 1966.

For the next eight years, Chuck served as head coach of the Rangers, compiling a record of 34-34-2. However, this is where the adversity started. 

The Forest Hills school board decided to open the position of head football coach and then hired a young man in his early 20s for the position, Don Bailey, who had served one year as an assistant to Chuck. 

Response to adversity defines a person

Losing a job like that can devastate a person, but it did not for Chuck Sponsky, though he was certainly hurt by the move. Nevertheless, his refocused his life in a different direction and spent the better part of the next three decades serving Bishop Carroll High School as a coach and then as the athletic director. He truly loved Bishop Carroll, where he coached his son, Craig, who eventually became a very successful coach and A.D. there too. 

Chuck served as coach at BC until his son graduated and went on to play at Towson (Md.), and he acted as A.D. for 26 years. To turn from adversity to a different life situation that he grew to love shows the class and dignity with which he carried himself.

PSFCA

In addition, he continued to work with the coaches association, honoring the men who as football coaches spent so much of their time directing the lives of young man and making them better athletes and hopefully, better human beings. 

He spent countless hours working to improve the PSFCA.

When a person responds to the tough times in life in a positive way, as Sponsky did, that shows that the lessons that he learned from his parents and his coaches gave him direction for life. That is what he attempted to instill into the young men whom he coached for more than five decades. 

He was also one of the early founders of the Southern Alleghenies Football Coaches Association, and he coached in the Ken Lantzy game that the coaches sponsor each year. 

Passing from Covid-19

His contracting of the coronavirus was a shock to the family, according to an interview Craig gave to Mike Mastovich of the Tribune-Democrat in Johnstown, 

“Around July 17, he started having really bad stomach pains. We had never heard that was a symptom,” Craig Sponsky said of his father’s illness.

“Day 2, he was really lethargic. I texted the primary care physician. She said, ‘Get him to the hospital now.’ He tested positive right away, July 19.”

His father appeared to take steps forward, Craig Sponsky said, but eventually regressed.

He said his father had no pre-existing conditions and took extra precautions during the COVID-19 pandemic such as wearing a face mask and social distancing.

“I want to have peace with it,” Craig Sponsky said. “He wasn’t in any pain at the end.”

Mike Mastovich, “ ‘A passion for football’: Former Huskies coach, AD, 

dies of coronavirus at 80,” The Tribune-Democrat, Sept. 8, 2020

Classy act regarding his FH successor

As chair of the PSFCA Hall of Fame committee, Chuck demonstrated that what happened to him back in the 1970s did not leave him with bitterness toward his successor at Forest Hills. 

In 2010, Don Bailey was inducted into the PSFCA Hall of Fame, and Sponsky explained that he coached and then coached with Bailey and knew about his ability,

“I go back farther than anybody with him,” said Bishop Carroll’s Chuck Sponsky, chairman of the PSFCA Hall of Fame. “I coached him for three years at Forest Hills. He coached for me for one year as an assistant at Forest Hills.

“I knew from my first contact with him that he was a person that had a lot of football ability. He certainly has developed through the years into being one of the elite coaches in the area.”

Mike Mastovich, “Bailey’s spot in football hall is deserved,” Tribune-Democrat, May 23, 2010

Bailey said after learning of Chuck’s passing that he learned a great deal from his high school coach,

“I had a lot of respect for him as a coach. He was my coach,” Bailey said on Wednesday. “He had a very sound football mind. A lot of the coaching abilities I had, I learned from him. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Craig, Chuck’s wife (Carole) and the family.” 

Mike Mastovich, Tribune-Democrat, September 8, 2020

Conclusion

It may have been a long way from Bakerton to Palm Beach, but the truth is that Chuck Sponsky never really left Western Pa. He carried all of that knowledge and passion with him for the rest of his life, and while he never forget the adversity of growing up in a small community and attending a small school and losing a job that he loved, challenges that he faced in his younger years, he realized that the lessons that all of us must learn in life is to make a positive impact on others.

Chuck learned that lesson well, and he will be remembered at a funeral mass on Saturday at Holy Name Catholic Church in Ebensburg, where he belonged prior to moving to Florida about eight years ago.