And the new man is....
Sports
Pagliaro is latest coach to take Buckholts football reins
by Craig Meister | Sports Writer
Published: April 8, 2010
BUCKHOLTS - Another year, another new head football coach for the Buckholts Badgers.
In a special meeting held Monday at the library, the Buckholts board of trustees voted 7-0 to hire Michael Pagliaro as the Badgers' athletic director and head football coach.
Pagliaro, who will start April 19, is the eighth Buckholts football coach in the past 11 years. He replaces Mark McDaniel, whose team finished 1-9 in his only season.
Pagliaro is 96-59-2 in 12 years of coaching - the first 11 came in Illinois - and this will be his first job in Texas and at the six-man level.
Last year he guided Wickenburg (Ariz.) to a 10-1 record and was named the Class 3A (Arizona's third largest of five classifications) West Region Coach of the Year.
"He's got an aura about him that he takes it seriously," said Buckholts superintendent Kent Dutton, who added that there were either 22 or 23 applicants for the job. "He's a student of the game and studies both offense and defense. I think he has some real good plans on how he will help our kids."
Pagliaro resigned while under investigation after his only year at Wickenburg nearly a month after the football season ended.
During the season the local school district launched a probe regarding Pagliaro's twin brother, Tom, who was convicted of felony flight from a police officer in July 2007 in Illinois but was allowed to serve as a volunteer assistant coach for most of the season.
According to the Wickenburg Sun, "the school district's superintendent, Dr. Howard Carlson, said in late October, when he removed Tom Pagliaro from the staff as an assistant coach, that the head coach's brother was never officially approved for coaching."
Michael Pagliaro told the Wickenburg Sun: "My resignation from Wickenburg School District had nothing to do with the issue surrounding my brother Tom or his missing volunteer paperwork. I resigned because it was in the best interest of my future and family."
Dutton said Wednesday he was unaware of that situation and that Buckholts' national background check explored everything from speeding tickets on up.
Dutton said "there is no way" Tom Pagliaro would be a coach at Buckholts.
View the complete article in today's print edition.