The Yough School District finds itself in an interesting position these days.

At a time when most district's high school football teams are going through conditioning sessions with its head coach, Yough is looking for a head coach.

That's because Jim Wehner, the Cougars coach the past four seasons, has taken the head coaching job at Baldwin High School. Adding to the problem is that Wehner was the athletic director at Yough, so the district is looking to fill two key positions as the season approaches.

Preseason training camps in Pennsylvania open Aug. 17 with season-opening games Sept. 4.

"We are going to explore all our options. We want to find the best qualified individuals that we can," Yough superintendent Denise Shipe said. "Jim has said he will help us as long as he can."

Shipe said she knew Wehner was looking into other coaching opportunities, adding that when someone is applying for other jobs, there is a possibility of them leaving. So, she wasn't blind-sided by Wehner's departure.

What could hinder Yough's search for a new coach is that Wehner plans to take most of the members of his former Cougars staff with him to Baldwin.

In many cases when a head football coach takes another job at this point, an assistant steps in to take over the program.

"We're not sure what's going to happen, but we have a good [school] district that's attractive to a lot of people," Shipe said.

Naturally, Shipe said the district would like to get the football coaching position solidified as soon as possible. She did not say the district would look for an individual to be head coach and athletic director, but did not rule out that possibility.

"We'll advertise the jobs and see what happens," she said.

Wehner was hired as Baldwin's coach two weeks ago. He compiled a solid 24-15 record in four seasons at Yough and the Cougars reached the WPIAL playoffs three times, twice in Class AAA and once in Class AA, during that period.

What made Wehner, who lives in North Huntington, attractive to Baldwin officials is that he knows how to build a program.

"There's no question he's a good coach," Baldwin athletic director Vince Sortino said when asked what made Wehner stand out from the plethora of others who applied. "And he has a plan on how to build the program from the youth level on up."

Building a program is important to Baldwin football fans. Two of the Fighting Highlanders' neighbors -- Upper St. Clair and Bethel Park -- have been excellent in recent years and have two of the better programs in the WPIAL. Upper St. Clair won WPIAL and PIAA Class AAAA titles in 2006 and Bethel Park won the WPIAL title and advanced to the PIAA final this past season.

Baldwin? Its last winning season was 2003 when the Highlanders went 6-4 overall and 4-2 in the conference. They haven't had a winning season since and are 3-15 the past two seasons.

Baldwin was winless in nine games last season and did not score more than eight points in any game.

"I've always wanted to get to a Quad-A program, that's been one of my goals, and Baldwin has a good mixture of kids," Wehner said. "As far as how many [starters] are coming back, I really don't know. I do know the [Great Southern] conference is one of the toughest in the WPIAL."

Wehner was also hired as a physical education and health teacher in the Baldwin-Whitehall School District. He said he would not have taken the Baldwin job if he didn't teach in the district.

Before taking the head coaching job at Yough, Wehner was at Avonworth High for four years. He has also been an assistant at Seton-LaSalle and South Park, and worked at the college level at Duquesne and Morehead State.

Longevity was something else Baldwin officials were interested in and Wehner appears to be in for the long haul.

"He's committed to us and I think he's going to be here for a while," Sortino said.

"I'm hoping to be there for the next 20 years," Wehner said.

He is also looking forward to matching game plans against some of the top coaches in the WPIAL such as Jim Render at Upper St. Clair, Jeff Metheny at Bethel Park and Jack McCurry at North Hills.

"It'll be a challenge going against those guys because they're the best around," Wehner said.