Woodland Hills seeks to replace football coach Tim Bostard

By: Chris Harlan
Thursday, December 15, 2022 | 6:52 PM

After 22 years of coaching Woodland Hills football, first as an assistant and later head coach, Tim Bostard says he often joked that he’d be there until they kicked him out.

“I guess they did what I said,” said Bostard, who learned Thursday that the school district was opening his coaching job to applicants, a move he called “disappointing,” especially after reaching the WPIAL semifinals this year.

“I was told I could reapply,” he said, “but I haven’t made that decision yet.”

Bostard remains an assistant athletic director at the school.

He was only the second head coach in Woodland Hills football history, promoted to replace George Novak in 2017. His teams went 30-35 in six seasons and reached the playoffs five times.

“It’s a little disappointing,” Bostard said. “I didn’t see it coming. However you want to put it, I guess the school board and the upper administration wanted to go another way.”

The school district advertised the job online, seeking a candidate with “a minimum of five years of experience as a head varsity football coach, assistant head coach or offensive/defensive coordinator.”

The Wolverines, who started a number of freshmen and sophomores, were one of eight teams in WPIAL Class 5A to reach the playoffs this season. The team defeated Franklin Regional in the first round and finished 6-6 after a semifinal loss to Pine-Richland, the eventual state champion.

The football team had elected to stay in Class 5A despite enrollment numbers that qualified for 3A.

“The ones I feel worst for are the kids,” Bostard said. “We’d already started our lifting program and everything trying to get ready for next year. That kind of puts them in limbo, but I told them I’m still going to whatever I have to do for them because that’s what this is supposed to be all about.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Woodland Hills