Last November, the day after Thanksgiving, Anthony Marchakitus, my high school principal, passed away at age 93. During his career spanning over half a century at Lake-Lehman, he inspired students and educators alike, setting the template for educational excellence at the Luzerne County school.

Among his wisest moves as an administrator was a recommendation to hire a young Temple graduate to coach the football team in 1967. Although George Curry was a Wyoming Valley native, few students at the rural school knew the name. The first impression students had was that the coach was highly motivated and always on the lookout for football prospects. Curry later remembered his first coaching job as one that no one wanted because they had to face much larger schools. By the time he ended his four-year stint at the school, he resurrected a program that once had 22 players going out for football to one that was attracting 70 players in competition for a starting roster spot.Curry was my first interview as a young sports reporter for the school newspaper. As I recall, there were fewer than a handful of players who surpassed or even approached the 200-pound mark. Standing just 5 feet 9 inches and weighing a solid 200 pounds himself, Curry knew what it was like to be a small man in a big man's sport. In tiny Larksville High School and then at Temple, he learned how to outwit and out-quick his much larger opponent, earning second-team UPI All-State honors as a linebacker.Lake-Lehman had a good wrestling program, and it was there that he found the key talent and leadership to mold a winning team. Two years after he arrived at the school, wrestlers formed the nucleus of a rock-solid defense. On the 7-3 team during my senior year, two of the hardest hitters included a defensive back who wrestled in the 127-pound weight class and a middle linebacker and team captain who wrestled at 138.Curry went 23-10-1 at my old school before leaving for Berwick, where, with the student-athletes bigger and the talent pool much deeper, he grew that program into a high school powerhouse. Curry won 405 games and six PIAA Class AAA championships. He was twice named National Coach of the Year by USA Today, which also awarded three of his undefeated Berwick teams a mythical National Championship.During a 46-year career, he became the winningest coach in Pennsylvania history, and his 455 total victories at three schools make him the fourth winningest coach nationally.Beyond all those victories and championships are the immeasurables. A winning attitude infected the community. Game day in Berwick was electric, and Crispin Field became the coal region's version of Friday Night Lights. And then there were the college scholarships that the Berwick program generated. After Curry coached his final game last November, Rep. Lou Barletta noted in a press release that more than 700 George Curry-coached players went on to collegiate careers, with over 200 earning scholarships to top Division I programs."Players you have led to championships have gone on to college, and some even to the National Football League," Barletta said in his letter to Curry. "But still others never played a single down of football beyond high school, and went right into careers, or trades, or into the military, and took with them lessons about life that you taught them in the locker rooms and on the gridiron."They have raised, are raising, or soon will raise families that will become part of the expanding fabric of our community. These are the innumerable futures you have shaped, and the lives you have touched, which multiply exponentially up to this very moment. This is the true measure of a high school football coach and mentor."Marchakitus, the principal who opened the door to Curry's fabulous career, passed away just a week after the Berwick legend coached his last game.Both Marchakitus and Curry shared common core beliefs to inspire excellence. Putting faith and family at the forefront, both loved teaching and inspiring young people. Their mentoring skills touched thousands of young lives who then influenced the community and world beyond the hallways of their campuses.By JIM ZBICK |

tneditor@tnonline.com