Apollo-Ridge’s Bartha to step down as athletic director, stay on as girls basketball coach

By: Michael Love
Monday, March 7, 2022 | 5:04 PM

Purchase Photo Options

As Ray Bartha prepares his Apollo-Ridge girls basketball team for Tuesday’s PIAA Class 2A first-round playoff game at District 10 champion West Middlesex, he also is moving forward with his plans to transition away from the school’s athletic director position after 14 years.

The Apollo-Ridge School Board accepted and approved Bartha’s resignation as athletic director at its Feb. 28 school board meeting, and his last day will be March 31.

Also at last week’s meeting, the board recognized Bartha’s more than 50 years of service to the district as a teacher, coach and athletic director by naming the basketball court at the high school as “Ray Bartha Court.”

“I think it’s just time for me to spend some time doing what I want to do and not be locked into other commitments with the athletic department,” said Bartha, who will remain the coach of the girls basketball team.

“I won’t have to be at the school all day and do those daily things an athletic director needs to do. I will just have the basketball season.”

Bartha, 75, said he did give a little thought to staying on until the end of the school year and spring season. But, he said, he had extended the move several times before officially making it within the past couple of weeks.

“It was time to draw the line and say, ‘It’s over.’ I didn’t want to go into April, May and June,” he said. “It is time for me to go. I’ve been here for 52 years, and I’ve done as much as I can do here.”

At the end of this month, as Bartha moves on from his duties as athletic director, John Skiba, the director of school safety and the Vikings football coach, will take over in that position April 1.

Skiba also was approved as the new athletic director at the Feb. 28 meeting.

“This is a transition we’ve been looking at for about a year,” Bartha said. “They knew I was going sometime this year. It wasn’t like there was any big secret. My family wanted me to go a couple of years ago, and I didn’t.”

Skiba will remain football coach and the director of school safety and student services.

“Ray has been there since the school was formed,” Skiba said. “He is so well respected in the community and also well respected inside of the school doors. He’s a legend for what he has done with the girls basketball team and for Apollo-Ridge athletics. He’s done a lot of great work and put us in a really good position to succeed moving forward.

“I am stepping into a program which is already well run. With him still being around as a coach, if there is anything that I have, I can always go to him. I know he will be there to help me, all the other coaches and the kids.”

Bartha was hired as the athletic director at Apollo-Ridge in July 2008, four years after retiring as a special education and social studies teacher.

Two years into his AD tenure, Bartha resigned as girls basketball coach after 35 years with 536 wins, 11 section titles, 23 playoff seasons and the WPIAL Class 2A title in 1991 to his credit.

He returned to the bench last year and guided Apollo-Ridge through a covid-shortened 8-5 record and 5-2 mark in section play.

Apollo-Ridge currently is 16-6 overall. The Vikings helped secure a spot in the PIAA tournament with a 40-39 victory at Fort Cherry in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs Feb. 21.

They haven’t played since falling to eventual WPIAL 2A runner-up Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in the quarterfinals Feb. 24.

Bartha is the second athletic director in the Alle-Kiski Valley to step down prior to the end of the 2021-22 academic year.

Josh Shoop resigned at Plum in early February, citing family as a main reason for his decision. Brian Miller, most recently the athletic director at North Catholic, is getting up to speed as the new head of the Mustangs’ athletic department.

“It was nice being the athletic director because I was able to deal with all of the sports, all the athletes and form close connections with the coaches and other athletic directors as I was able to help them and they were helping me do this job the best that I could,” Bartha said.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Apollo-Ridge