The Panther Valley School Board chose a new high school football coach Thursday night, but it was not the one preferred by team members and their parents.

Rick Jones was appointed by a 5-4 vote. His salary will be $4,100 per year.

Several football players, parents and fans spoke before the vote at Thursday night’s regular school board meeting to voice support for Shawn Hoben, who coached many of the players at the junior high and knee-hi levels.

When it came time to vote, four board members said they preferred Hoben, and four preferred Jones. Board President Wayne Gryzik cast his vote in favor of Jones.

Gryzik said after the meeting that he voted based on what was recommended to him by administrators.

“It’s not a vote against anybody. They were all pretty good applications. It’s just to take the best person at the time,” he said.

Hoben and Jones were among three candidates the board interviewed for the position. The previous coach of the high school football team, Scott Price, resigned after two seasons.

Hoben previously served as an assistant coach, and played football at Panther Valley before graduating in 1986.

He spoke before the vote and said he debated whether to apply but decided he could bring something positive for the players that he has coached at the lower levels. He recalled standing in the locker room last year with the 17 remaining members of the team — after several players had left during the season — and vowed that he would do what he could to give back to the program.

“I swore to myself I wasn’t going to let that happen again if I had the opportunity. Those 17 kids that were in that locker room had heart,” he said.

Hoben said he wanted to be positive, and expressed respect for the other candidates for the job.

The players, many of them underclassmen who had recently played for Hoben at the junior high level, said he was the best man to coach them in high school too.

Christine Turner is the mother of a senior football player. She said Hoben has the love and determination to lead them.

“We already have that foundation, you don’t need to bring in somebody new to establish that,” she said.

Ninth-graders De’Antay Alston and Sincere Flamer, eighth-grader Tremaine Ervine and sophomore Jaden Shubeck spoke out in support of Hoben.

“There were times I wanted to quit, and he gave advice to me to stick with football,” Flamer said.

Bobby O’Gurek of Summit Hill, a graduate and self-proclaimed “huge fan of Panther Valley football,” said through an adaptive communication device that he feels it’s time to change the mental ego and culture within the football program.

“It has been so frustrating to see our student-athletes working very hard year in and year out, yet finishing the season with a feeling of disappointment,” he said.

O’Gurek said Hoben loves Panther Valley as much as he does.

“He wants to get more students to come out for the team, and most importantly improve the Panther Valley community support,” O’Gurek said.

Ervine moved to the district a couple years ago and said he learned a lot from his coach. He knows the players’ strengths, and how far to push them.

“He sees the potential all of us kids have, and he knows how to discipline us without bringing us down completely to the point that we don’t want to play football,” Ervine said.

Angela Krapf, whose husband Keith is a board member, said she thought some of the board members looked as if the public comment was an inconvenience.

“For some it may be annoying and aggravating, but for some in this room, and for these kids, it’s everything,” she said.

Following public comment, Gryzik and board member William Mansberry said he and his family have been the subject of intimidation because he didn’t support Hoben as a candidate and called it appalling. He said people he calls friends care more about sports than education.

“I am my own person and cannot or will not be intimidated or harassed to persuade a vote concerning the welfare or good of this district, its students, faculty or taxpayers,” he said.

Gryzik said he had known Hoben a long time, and respected the support that he had as a local candidate for the job. He said all the candidates were qualified. He then vaguely alluded to people making threats against him, but he said he did not want to identify them.

“You don’t threaten me, you don’t try to intimidate me, you don’t try to coerce me, and you don’t try to prevent me from going through certain boroughs because I got a target on my back because I’m not, or I may not vote the way you want me to vote,” Gryzik said.

Keith Krapf, Renee DeMelfi, Joseph Faenza and Irene Genther voted for Hoben. Justin Foster, Steven Foster, Gary Porembo, Mansberry and Gryzik voted for Jones.