Strunk to join Plant City, kinda, over the weekend

Newly hired Plant City football coach Jason Strunk is planning to introduce himself to players and coaches Friday and stay throughout the weekend, but his existing assistants will conduct spring practice, Strunk told the Times.

Strunk (right), a college assistant at D-III Muhlenberg, was hired last week for his first head coaching job, but it turned out he will have to finish out the school year in Pennsylvania, where he is a special education teacher in the Lehigh Valley.

Still, Strunk, a lifelong Pennsylvanian, is looking forward to meeting his new players this weekend.

"I'm really excited," he said. "I'm going to tell them that a new era is about to begin. I want to let them know what I'm all about. I think they are going to see a lot of energy from me. They're going to be excited to play because they're going to see that I'm excited to coach."

For five interesting things about Strunk, keep reading.

1. He plans to bring a 3-4 defense at Plant City.

A career defensive coach (he coached at Northampton High School before Muhlenberg), he has always run the 3-4, and he plans to continue that at Plant City. "We're going to blitz a lot," he said. "We're going to get after it." He said he will run a multiple formation offense that he will cater to personnel. "We'll have empty backfield, two tight ends, everything."

2. He has no connections to Plant City.

Strunk can actually thank Google for finding out about the Plant City job. He was looking for a head coaching job. He said he had turned down a few in Pennsylvania and was on an interview in Texas when he went online and found out about the Raiders' opening. He did research on the area, and decided to apply. "As far as high school football goes, Florida is one of the top three or four states in the country."

3. He was drawn instantly to the Tampa Bay area.

Strunk spent his entire life in Northeastern Pennsylavania, so when he came down to interview for the job it was different. But he found himself liking the area, with close proximity to the beach. He is also an avid baseball fan, which makes spring training appealing. "I also got tired of shoveling snow. And for it to be 75 in December, you can't complain."

4. Last season was the most important year of his coaching career.

Strunk came to Muhlenberg from Northampton before last season thinking he was ready for a head coaching job, but after learning from Muhlenberg head coach Mike Donnelly, a 30-year coaching veteran. "It was the best decision I made for my coaching career at the time," he said. "What he showed me and tought me was amazing, about how important preparation is, that head coaching is an 18-hour a day job."

5. He's a big wrestling guy.

Growing up in the coal region of Northeastern Pennsylvania and attending Northamption, where the Konkrete Kids are one of the nation's top teams, it's expected. So when Brandon's wrestling team comes up, he jumps on the topic. "Everyone up there knows about Brandon and they want a shot at them," he said.

-- EDUARDO A. ENCINA

Comments

First off I played under Coach Strunk for four years and I just wanted to clarify that he is a very firey guy who loves the game. He will push kids to their full potential and get the most out of all his players. He is great with the kids on a personal basis with very admirable “person to person” skills, great leader, and a great friend to talk to. You guys are very lucky to have him.

On another topic I would love if Brandon would come up and wrestle my boys at Northampton would be a great match!

[Gary McCready]

Learn how to read. He said one of the factors in choosing to come to Florida was the fact that a great wrestling program exists in Florida. His son wrestles and wanted to make sure that wrestling was alive and well in the state of Florida. Read the author's comment above your misguided, anonymous post. He praised the Brandon streak and is excited to see them wrestle in person one day. I gathered all this information by reading new stories. So get your facts straight and read more. I can't wait to meet our new coach.

Since Plant City's wresting coach is a former Eagle and Russ Cozart deciple, I don't think bashing Brandon's wrestling program will make him many friends on his own faculty!

[Eduardo A. Encina]

To clear some confusion, Strunk told me that he plans to retain Kelly's assistants and that he has been in touch with them. He might bring one of his own assistants from Pennsylvania, but that is still up in the air at this point.

It seems that he wanted to get out of his job in Pa., but was unable to, so he will have to wait until June.

And his discussion about Brandon, it meant to praise the program.

[D]

From what I've heard since he will not be here for the spring and he has no ties the coaches that were there last year will run the team during spring practice.
I thought the administration wasn't happy with a lot of those people and now for the next month they are running the show.

[concerned parent]

If he is not from here what Assistant coaches does he have?

[D]

This guy doesn't sound very humble. Make sure all of those schools in PA tune in to ESPN2 @ 9 and see what a real wrestling program is like. I guess Plant City thought he could get out of his teaching contract and get down here immediately and his school is making him fulfill his contract. Also there is a reason why PC has had so many coaches and I think we are learning why Administration!

[Mark]

He will be there in the Spring. Don't worry. I did not read anything that said anything about anyone beating Brandon in wrestling. I believe he complimented Brandon. I also would not worry about our new coach being surprised this fall.

are you telling us the guy is NOT going to be there in the spring? Now i think there could have been a better hire. Maybe the guy is going back to work out those three schools in his area that he said will all kick brandon's butt in wrestling. this guy is in for quite a surprise this fall.