Evening Sun: Seidenstricker named all-area football coach of the year

Don Seidenstricker guided South Western to a division title and past the death of a team member in his final season as head coach.

South Western's Don Seidenstricker is The Evening Sun's 2011 All-Area Football Coach of the Year. (THE EVENING SUN --- FILE)

Decked in a lightweight South Western High football jacket and his trademark jean shorts, the recently retired Don Seidenstricker has been as familiar a fixture on the South Western sidelines as Dial-A-Downs, yard lines and goalposts on the field.

With a slew of motivational maxims he seems to pick out of his back pocket, a candid no-nonsense style, and a high-order commitment to making Mustang football a 24-7-365 commitment, the loquacious Seidenstricker put his stamp on a South Western football program in which he invested so many of his autumns.

Seidenstricker again is the All-Area Football Coach of the Year after previous honors in 1989, 1997 and 2009.

One of the oldest coaching cliches is "It's not how you start, but how you finish."

Seidenstricker wrapped up his career on the sidelines with a season record of 9-3, the program's 13th YAIAA Division I championship in 26 years, and a playoff berth that culminated with a loss against plenty tough Cumberland Valley.

"It's really been very satisfying," Seidenstricker said of his final season on the sidelines, one in which the Mustangs overcame a mountain of adversity.

He said, "There's an old saying, 'The harder you work, the better you get.' Our kids really did choose to work hard and become a better football team. They really caught fire. I thought our kids played exceptionally well and what's lost in there is the fact that, through three to six weeks, we got better each week.

"There were some great

football players on this team and some kids who really possess a lot of talent. But this was one of the teams with kids that I felt, however, really played at a higher level. That's what I think is something special about this group."

Rewind the clock to Oct. 7. The Mustangs are staring at a 15-0 halftime deficit against a polished Dallastown team frontloaded with veteranposition players.

Seidenstricker isn't happy. His troops have just labored through six uninspiring quarters of football spanning back to their last game.

The head coach finds that unacceptable for a team of this caliber. Considering not only the talent it contains but also the people it has behind it during a Friday night home game of this magnitude, the coach simply cannot accept it.

Seidenstricker knew exactly what he needed to tell his team in the locker room.

He briefly schooled them on the rich tradition of Mustang football. He spoke about the connection with the community and the heritage of the program. He reminded his team that there was a buffet line of people they could not let down that night. So, Seidenstricker quickly improvised.

There is a sign at The Mustang Corral that reads, "Challenge is inevitable and defeat is optional."

"We're not going to walk under that sign," Seidenstricker informed his team. "We're going to walk onto the field from behind the stands. Those people have been behind you. Now you need to be behind them. I asked them to make contact with those people. To tell them, 'Thanks for coming. We're not going to let you down."

The Mustangs' true grit and resolve surfaced in that second half. The Mustangs erupted for 15 points in the third quarter and pulled off a dramatic 29-21 win that ignited the partisan home crowd.

"I think that was our defining moment of the season," Seidenstricker said. "We got emotional on our last touches. Honestly from that point forward, we didn't look back. And that really was the beginning of the winning ways."

Then, following the most significant win of the season, tragedy emerged.

Benjamin Bynaker, a junior wide receiver for the Mustangs, was killed with his mother, Tammy Bynaker, by his father, Gary Lee Bynaker, in a double murder-suicide on Oct. 10.

The death of Bynaker, who wore number 81, sent shock waves through the school, which rallied immensely in the trying times following his death.

"The kids showed tremendous maturity beyond their years in how they rallied," said Seidenstricker, who was close with Bynaker.

One of the toughest aspects in the aftermath of the tragic loss, Seidenstricker explained, "was knowing how close Ben and his dad were."

South Western played with a purpose the remainder of the season, honoring their fallen teammate by wearing "81" on their helmets.

Looking back on it all now, Seidenstricker says that managing so many different personalities into a unit and watching them surrender "me" for "we" has been what he's most proud of.

Of course, Seidenstricker will take with him a seemingly endless supply of memories. Memories from the season and from the speed clinics, 7-on-7s, skill development camps and lineman's challenge will not fade.

"Quite honestly, it was a lot of fun," Seidenstricker said. "There's been an awful lot of support from our school district and administration. This is a very, very good place. It was a very, very good place to coach football, the game that I love. It's been kind of neat to go out, I guess on my own terms. It's pretty satisfying."

zsmart@eveningsun.com

Source: http://www.gametimepa.com/ci_19618542?source=rss_viewed

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