FRANKLINVILLE — Mark Blecha remembers quite well the initial success he had when he took over as head football coach at Franklinville Central School in the fall of 2000.
Inheriting a squad that was coming off some down years, Blecha posted a 7-3 record in his first campaign with the Panthers. He followed that up with respectable marks of 5-4, 4-5 and 7-3. Through four seasons, his career record was 23-15.
Things couldn’t have been much better for the former Olean High assistant.
“They were 2-6 for the last three years before I got here,” Blecha recalled, “and then all of a sudden, bang, we had that 7-3 season and I’m thinking, ‘OK, this is it. We’re gonna shoot for the moon.’ We had solid teams.
“At that time, we were playing the Randolphs and the Maple Groves and all those teams, too,” he added. “Then a lot of talent kind of dried up.”
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