JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (WJAC) — On Monday, the Johnstown Tomahawks were met with surprising news as their head coach resigned.
6 News met with the team’s CEO on Tuesday to learn more about the decision and how the Tomahawks plan to rebound from it.
Now former Tomahawks head coach Mike Letizia announced he was resigning in order to spend more time with his family, and we learned that team CEO John Koufis knew of Letizia’s desire to do so but didn't expect it to come so soon.
"There's always a lot of emotion when the season ends, and you expect it not to end but certainly you don't expect something like that, particularly because we had extended him, so he had another year left in the contract; so no, I was not expecting it,” Koufis said.
Just days after suffering a season ending playoff defeat on Saturday, Johnstown Tomahawks head coach Mike Letizia unexpectedly resigned after coaching for 12 seasons with the team.
With the resignation following the playoff loss, we asked if there were any other issues that may have led to this decision.
"Absolutely not, absolutely not,” Koufis responded.
Team CEO John Koufis says that even if the Tomahawks won the championship, he's not sure that Letizia would have stayed.
"His family had supported so much over the twelve years that it was time for him to give back, you'd have to ask him on that because I don't want to assume, but my assumption is that he was pretty firm in his conviction to make a life change to focus on his family."
With Letizia gone, the organization says the search for Johnstown’s next head coach has already begun.
Koufis says that Letizia’s twelve seasons in Johnstown have contributed to making the Tomahawks a stable organization, which is now helping attract new candidates to the position.
"I would expect to have a lot of interest, we've already seen that in the first 48 hours, we're going to go through a process, we're going to take our time to select a new head coach."
While Koufis says the organization reacted to the news with sadness, he told them that next season will still come, and the show must go on.
"Hopefully we take care of some unfinished business because, as everyone knows, the season didn't quite end how we would've liked with the first round there. So onward and upward."
Koufis adds that next year, fans can expect the Tomahawks to be bigger, faster and stronger, not just on the ice but in what they bring to the fan experience.
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