Carl Yanek knew he would be back, he just wasn't sure when.

Yanek has returned to the coaching ranks, this time at Center High School, after a three-year hiatus.

"I stepped down [after the 2005-06 wrestling season] to spend more time with my family," said Yanek, who was the head coach at West Allegheny at the time. "We had two very young daughters to take care of and I needed to spend more time at home. I hated to leave coaching, but my family came first."

But Yanek also realized that wrestling is in his blood and that he would eventually return to coaching.

"My daughters are now 3 and 4 years old," Yanek said. "I wasn't really looking for a coaching job. But when I heard about the opening at Center, I decided to check into it. It was an opportunity to coach a program still in its infancy."

Yanek replaces Ben Fratangelli, who started the program in 2004 and coached for five seasons.

"A change in my responsibilities at work changed my schedule," Fratangelli said. "I didn't want it to affect my coaching, so I decided to step down."

Yanek, a 1987 graduate of West Allegheny High School, has a 15-year resume of coaching scholastic wrestling.

"I started coaching when I was 22," said Yanek, who is now 40. "I started at West Allegheny as an assistant to Bill Yost. My first head coaching job was at South Fayette."

Yanek was the head coach at South Fayette for three seasons, from 1995 to 1998.

He then returned to West Allegheny as an assistant and eventually took over as head coach in 2001. Yanek coached five seasons at West Allegheny. The Indians posted a combined 18-16 record in his final two seasons.

"We're very pleased to find a coach with the resume Carl has," Center athletic director Jim Vendemia said. "He has 15 years of coaching experience and two prior head coaching stints."

Fratangelli had a 26-41 record in his five seasons at Center. The best finish was last season's 7-6 mark. The Trojans had six starters graduate.

"We might be able to fill all 14 weight classes," Yanek said. "We have some talented kids, but we're very young. Most of our kids didn't start wrestling until they were in ninth grade. We need to get them started a little earlier."

Yanek's coaching staff will include Bo Muraco, Ed Driscoll and Randy Ramsey.

"Bo was one of my assistants when I was at West Allegheny," Yanek said. "He will be my varsity assistant.

"Ed Driscoll [a former Quigley coach and athletic director] will be back as our junior high coach. Randy Ramsey is running the youth program. He has 60 kids signed up."

Yanek's top returnees are junior Alex Daugherty (17-12 at 215), junior Jack Haney (14-12 at 135), junior Chris Shahen (14-12 at 103) and senior Kevin Reed (11-10 at 130).

"I was hired one month ago," Yanek said. "We've been running and lifting two days a week since then."

This will be the sixth and final year of Center's wrestling program. The district has merged with Monaca to form the Central Valley School District and this is the final academic year for both high schools.

"This will also be our last season in Class AA," Yanek said. "The merger will move us up to Class AAA for the 2010-11 season. It will certainly be a challenge. But I've never been one to back down from a challenge."

Yanek compiled a 106-24-3 record while wrestling at West Allegheny. He won a WPIAL Class AAA title in 1987 at 138 pounds.

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