Wednesday, August 27, 2003

By Mike White, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Only two years ago, Mike Bosnic was concentrating on his blocking assignments for Pitt and hopefully helping the Panthers to a bowl game.

Now, Bosnic is concentrating on what plays he should call and hopefully guiding a bunch of Mikes to the WPIAL playoffs.

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Bosnic is in his first season as head coach at Carmichaels High School. He is only 25 and only two years removed from playing offensive line for Pitt. Two years ago, he was preparing for Pitt's season opener against East Tennessee State. Now, he's getting ready for the Carmichaels Mikes' opener Friday at Burgettstown. Carmichaels is a WPIAL Class A school in Greene County.

"Coaching was something I always wanted to do," Bosnic said. "I love the game of football and I love being around it. It's my passion. I definitely thought someday when my playing career was over that I would want to stay involved in the game with coaching. I just didn't think it would happen so fast."

Bosnic graduated from Pitt in 2002. He moved back home with his parents in Uniontown and decided to start working on his master's degree in special education at California (Pa.) University. He also got an assistant coach's job at Carmichaels last year, working with the offensive and defensive lines.

When John Menhart retired as Carmichaels' coach after last season, Bosnic decided to try for the job. Menhart was Carmichaels' coach for 14 seasons, but now these are Mike's Mikes.

"I learned a lot from Coach Menhart, just being with him for one year," said Bosnic, who played at Albert Gallatin High School.

Two long-time Carmichaels assistants, Gene Franks and Tim Jones, decided to stay with the program and work for Bosnic.

"Being honest, I don't think I would've been able to step in and do this without those two," Bosnic said. "Being so young and being in my first year, it would've been hard without them."

But coaching runs in the Bosnic family. His father, Mike Sr., used to be Laurel Highlands' head coach and is now an assistant at Carmichaels. One of Mike Jr.'s brothers, Nick, played basketball at Duquesne University and is the boys' basketball coach at Connellsville. Dan Bosnic, the youngest boy in the family, is a tight end at California after transferring from Temple.

"Having my dad as an assistant helps," Mike said. "We talk about this stuff all night long. We're both on the same page with everything."

Carmichaels made it to the WPIAL Class A semifinals last season, but most of the starters on that team have graduated.

"We have a chance to surprise a lot of people," Bosnic said. "We lost a great group of seniors, but the well definitely has not run dry at Carmichaels. We have some tough, hard-nosed kids and that's the thing that has impressed me the most."

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