Glendale Agrees to Bring Dubler Back as Coach

A little more than a month ago, I posted about Billy Dubler’s situation with Glendale School District, which had threatened to find a new wrestling coach if Dubler didn’t agree to a number of terms that the school board had drawn up for him.

The resulting firestorm, which included a large number of parents and supporters turning out for school board meetings, caught the attention of mainstream media. Dubler, understandably, was upset with the situation – so much so that he was ready to uproot his family, which includes a pair of PJW medalist sons, and find a new school district.

Fortunately, it didn’t come to that. On Tuesday, the school board agreed to bring Dubler back for the 2016-17 school year. I spoke with Dubler on Sunday, and although he would not say which – if any – of the demands he agreed to, he was quite relieved to be staying at his alma mater.

“You don’t know the weight that came off of my shoulders,” Dubler said. “ I got texts from six or seven people during the meeting saying ‘Congratulations, Coach.’ I didn’t realize how much stress I was under until that happened.”

That was good news for Dubler and his family. He said that they had at least one interested buyer after putting their Glendale home on the market, but after they looked at homes in a central Pennsylvania school district they were considering moving to, his wife and sons realized they really didn’t want to move.

“On the car ride home, they were like, ‘We’re not moving, by the way. We’re taking our house of the market,’ ” Dubler said.

Not only did it take a weight off of his shoulders, but Dubler says it’s motivated him to take some weight off his body. Knowing that he was going to be back on the mat with his high school team this winter, he’s changing his diet, and it drove Dubler to work on getting back into shape, so he started doing pushups while at work.

He also held an open mat workout for wrestlers on Friday, and he said the response was strong.

Dubler also is looking to move on from the drama of the past month.

“There’s nothing there that we can’t move past,” he said. “I hope there’s no hard feelings. I want the best for the kids at Glendale and specifically the wrestling team. There are kids that want to win state titles, and I want to help them get there. We’ve got some kids that can do it. I’m pumped.”