Springdale hires Chad Walsh as football coach hoping he can change team’s fortunes

By: Jerin Steele
Friday, March 22, 2024 | 9:01 PM

Chad Walsh has experience turning around struggling football programs.

He did so at Valley a dozen years ago, and now he will look to do the same at Springdale.

Walsh officially was hired as coach of the Dynamos on Tuesday at the Allegheny Valley School Board meeting.

“I live in the A-K Valley and have been around here forever,” Walsh said. “Springdale has tradition. The community supports the sports teams very well. It seemed like a really good fit for me and for the guys I want to get on the coaching staff.”

Walsh takes over for Ryan Tempalski, who resigned in December after two seasons. He hasn’t met the team yet but is ready to hit the ground running.

“I’m hoping to bring everybody together as a team, try to get things going again and pick up a few more wins,” Walsh said. “We just want to continue to take another step each week and just get better.”

The Dynamos went 1-19 the last two years and haven’t been to the playoffs since 2020.

When Walsh took over Valley in 2012, the Vikings had a 22-game losing streak. He guided them to a 6-4 record and a playoff appearance for the first time in four seasons. For his efforts, he was named the 2012 Valley News Dispatch Football Coach of the Year.

He will try to achieve similar results with the Dynamos.

“At Valley, we started by bringing a team environment,” Walsh said. “We wanted everyone to know they are important, because it takes all 11 guys out there every play. We brought in our system, and everyone bought into it. They started picking up things, and we heard the right questions being asked during practice.

“We do a lot of film study. With Hudl now, there’s an abundance of film on opponents, so we got them hooked on that and they started to understand the strengths and weaknesses of opponents. Once we pieced together a few wins and they liked the feeling of winning, and it just kind of rolled from there.”

Along with the Valley stint, Walsh has been an assistant at Highlands, Leechburg, Kiski Area and Fox Chapel.

He also has been a longtime track and field coach and recently made the jump to college. Walsh is in his first season coaching track and field at Carlow. Before Carlow, he spent 26 years coaching track and field at Highlands.

An added element to the Springdale program is that the Dynamos might be road warriors in 2024.

The Dynamos for sure will not be playing at Veterans Memorial Field. There’s a leaning wall on the visitor’s side of the stadium that is in need of repair, so Allegheny Valley School Board voted to explore securing a new venue to play at this coming season.

There is hope the Dynamos could return to Veterans Memorial Field in the future.

Walsh doesn’t let the uncertainty of where Springdale will play bother him and will give the same message to his players.

“We can only control what we do out there on the field,” Walsh said. “What happens with the stadium we have no control over, so we just have to do what we do and not worry about it.”

Jerin Steele is a freelance writer

Tags: Springdale