Wojtczuk replaces Winkler as Perryville football coach

There wasn't much time for Mike Wojtczuk to consider replacing Keith Winkler as the Perryville High School football coach.

"As far as the details go, the details are a little fuzzy to me too," Wojtczuk said. "I just got notice that coach Winkler resigned and I was asked if I was interested in being the head coach. Then it was taken to the board and the board approved it on Tuesday morning."

Perryville athletic director Jeff Steffens said he found out July 15 that Winkler was resigning.

"I found out the same day he did," Steffens said about Winkler.

The Perry County School District board of education accepted Winkler's resignation as football coach and voted to hire Wojtczuk as coach during a special session Tuesday. Board president Tina Littge declined to answer if Winkler's contract would have been renewed if he had not resigned.

"He teaches at our school," she said. "We didn't fire him."

Winkler spent the last two seasons at Perryville after nine seasons at St. Vincent. He compiled a 1-19 record with the Pirates.

"I resigned, let's just put it that way," said Winkler, who will continue to teach physical education at Perryville. "There was some things that happened. I want to wish the kids the best and the new staff all the best. I enjoyed it. Now I'm just going to have a little more time. My daughter's going into high school. I get a little more time to watch her play ball."

This is Wojtczuk's second stint at Perryville. He served as an assistant coach during the 2004 and 2005 seasons before becoming the coach at Grandview. He spent two winless seasons at Grandview before serving as the assistant head coach at Windsor in 2008 and 2009. He returned to Perryville as a position coach last season.

"Hopefully he is going to bring the stability to the program where he is going to be a longtime hire, just as we were hoping coach Winkler would be," Steffens said. "He's been here before so he's not one who just came in to the community last year."

The 36-year-old Wojtczuk, who teaches social studies and physical education at the high school, also served as the junior varsity football coach last year, so he already has a relationship with many of the players who will be on this year's varsity team.

"Obviously I was surprised by what happened because of the timing and everything," he said. "That's kind of always been a dream in the back of my mind to be the head football coach at Perryville. I feel like Perryville has a rich tradition in football and I feel like I have a lot to offer as far as a football coach. I always thought it would be a great opportunity to be the head football coach at Perryville High School."

Wojtczuk, who lives in Bonne Terre, Mo., said there are lessons he learned when he took over a struggling Grandview program that he can apply to the Pirates.

"You've got to talk to kids," he said. "You've got to be in kids' ears all the time. That first year I was at Grandview, I had six kids show up to camp. Played an entire football season with 18 kids my first year. Got out talking to the kids and beating the bushes and things like that and my next year we had 43 or 45 kids out for football, so obviously things were starting to move in the right direction and kids were starting to believe in what we were trying to do there as a coaching staff."

Wojtczuk doesn't have much time to put his own stamp on the Pirates program. Perryville plays in a jamboree Aug. 19 and the season opener is Aug. 26 against Herculaneum.

"We want to be known for playing fundamentally sound football for four quarters and being a hard-nosed football team," he said. "If we're going to get beat, it's not going to be because we beat ourselves because of silly mistakes or because of being unprepared. We will never be unprepared."