CLYMER - In the sporting world, hiring a new coach tells fans a few very specific things.
First, that in all likelihood the squad the year - or years - prior had a season worth forgetting; second, that they (the fans) should expect the new coaching staff to talk often of "rebuilding"; and third, that "rebuilding" is simply coach speak for, "We're going to be bad for a while."
Above all, though, the change can be an exceedingly disruptive process for players, especially when having to learn a new system, new terminology and the way a new coach or coaches want things done.
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Dave Bodamer
That is most cases.
Clymer Pirates football fans, however, can rest easy.
Despite having longtime coach Marc Heiser yield his head coaching duties - his son, Tom, is a senior on the football team so Marc chose to step down in order to be able to better enjoy Tom's final playing days at the high school level - the Pirates might be experiencing just about the smoothest transition possible.
Jayvee defensive coach and varsity assistant Dave Bodamer, who has been a member of the Pirates coaching staff for the past five years, is now stepping into that head coaching role and Heiser, meanwhile, isn't even leaving the team, but instead will be the squad's offensive coordinator.
"It's been a really smooth transition," Bodamer said. "We haven't seen any kinds of problems at all. The boys have responded well and the nice thing is that we still have the core coaching staff together. We've just kind of shifted responsibilities."
Best of all for Bodamer, a Titusville, Pa., native that played Division II basketball at Milligan College in Tennessee, Heiser not only gave his successor the reigns following a very successful 2011 campaign - the Pirates began the season with a 2-3 record but bounced back to reach the Class DD Final at Ralph Wilson Stadium - but also gave him ample notice that a possible change was in the works.
"(Heiser) called a coaches meeting in the winter," Bodamer explained, "and told me that he wanted to try this out. So he gave me plenty of time to start preparing."
He added of his situation, "I'm not trying to adapt to a new school and a new team and I have not been thrown into the fire. There hasn't been anything that has turned people upside down. We all know each other anyway, so it's been nice to have that stability."
That is not to say there haven't been adjustments. This is, after all, Bodamer's first football head coaching job.
In addition to taking on the special teams duties - a task he admitted he had to do "a lot of studying on" - there is the managerial, day-to-day minutiae that beforehand he never given a second thought to.
"It's definitely more difficult and the workload has increased," he said of becoming head coach. "All the new stuff - planning practices, equipment (and the like) are all the things that before (as an assistant) you kind of took for granted and knew would be done by someone else."
Overall, though, the new coaching dynamic has gone well as Heiser focuses on the offense while also being there, should the situation arise, to offer Bodamer a little advice.
"He's really helped me along the way," Bodamer said.
The players, meanwhile, unaffected by any changes, just want to get out on the field and start playing for real.
"They're ready to hit somebody else," Bodamer said with a laugh.