Pinkowski resigns football job at C.B. Aycock
By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on December 28, 2012 1:47 PM
PIKEVILLE -- Friday nights at Hardy Talton Stadium next Fall will be missing a hint of "Pink" amongst all the powder blue and gold.
Following 14 seasons as head football coach at Charles B. Aycock, Randy Pinkowski has officially resigned. Pinkowski plans to remain at the school as a physical education teacher. Athletic director Charles Davis said he expects the search for Pinkowski's replacement to begin in January.
Pinkowski's decision to resign came down to what he described as, "a leap of faith," and the realization that he had taken the program as far as he could. He first announced his resignation at the school's Fall athletic awards banquet earlier this month.
"In sitting down at the end of last season and thinking about where we were and all we have accomplished to this point and trying to make some decisions on what I felt I had to do to move it further, I felt like I had taken the program as far as I could take it," Pinkowski said. "It has been a great 14 years. Aycock is a great school and there are great people here. I'm the problem and I need to step aside. I felt like my personal goals and what was going on with the organization weren't matching up."
Pinkowski spent one season as an assistant coach at Aycock in 1998 before being named head coach prior to the 1999 campaign. The Golden Falcons compiled a 75-83 record during Pinkowski's 14 seasons. Aycock went 65-63 during the last 11 years and went 4-3 in seven trips to the postseason. Pinkowski guided the Golden Falcons to the playoffs in seven of his last 11 seasons, including his best year, a 10-3 finish in 2009. Aycock also had seven players named to the East-West All-Star Game and two others selected to the Shrine Bowl during Pinkowski's tenure.
"As always we hate to see a coach of Coach Pinkowski's caliber leave us," Davis said. "He has definitely done a great job for us. He is leaving the program in a lot better shape than it was in 14 years ago. We appreciate all he has done for the program and the school."
Perhaps the accomplishments Pinkowski is most proud of during his tenure at Aycock is the 13 players who attended college on football scholarship and the improvements made to the facilities. Upgrades to the practice fields, goal posts, scoreboard and the building of the weight room all occurred during the past 14 years. The weight room, built and designed for all of the school's athletes, has created a contagious environment amongst all the Golden Falcons' coaches and players and the benefits have been reaped in number of different sports.
"I've been fortunate to have good kids with good grades," Pinkowski said. "We don't ever have 11 great athletes out there on the field but we have one or two and we've done a good job of promoting them and working with college coaches to get them to the next level. It is a combined effort between our coaching staff and the kids and their teachers and counselors. I'm real proud of our fitness program. When I got here we didn't have a weight room and now we have one of the nicest in the county."
Pinkowski acknowledged that he anticipates a return to the sidelines when the right opportunity presents itself.
"I'm going to be on the sidelines again," Pinkowski said. "I'm not smart enough to do anything else. This is a leap of faith for me and I don't know what the Lord's got for me. I'm fine with being a head coach or an assistant. After 14 years of being in charge it might be a welcomed blessing to be an assistant for a while. I'm just going to see where my feet land and once I hit the ground I'll be running. If you keep staying in the same pond you're not going to know what else is out there."