Ron Coursi knows he has moved around a lot in his career and hopes his current stay will last longer.
Last week Kursi was confirmed as Suburban York High School’s next athletic director. He will succeed Matt Marshall, who announced in October that he was retiring after six years at school to find work at a new sports complex in the area.
A Columbia, Maryland native, Kursi left Woodland Hills High School outside of Pittsburgh and moved to Chambersburg in July 2021 to be closer to his family. His new job will cut his trips to his hometown by almost half.
“Family is very important to me and as my parents get older it is very important to spend as much time with them as possible,” Coursi said. “In suburban York, I am 45 minutes from my parents’ front door, next to my brother, niece and nephew.
Last Monday, the York Suburban School Board had an annual salary of $110,000 on its agenda. His annual salary in Chambersburg is $114,000, according to the School Board’s hiring program.
While Marshall will leave the York suburbs at the end of December, Coursi said he plans to end the winter sports season in Chambersburg before starting a new job. Dr. Christopher Adams, deputy director of York Suburban, will help the sports department meet its responsibilities during the transition period.
Coursi is no stranger to York County. After serving charter schools in Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh, he replaced legendary Bearcats administrator Joe Chiodi as York High School’s athletic director in January 2016. He only spent one full academic year there before taking up the same position at Woodland Hills in the summer of 2017.
He spent four years in Woodland Hills before coming to Chambersburg. At the time, he called Franklin County Class 6A a “sleeping giant” with great athletic potential.
“When I arrived in Chambersburg, I had no intention of leaving anytime soon,” Cosey said. “Here we have excellent conditions, and we were able to hold corporate events. I had a great time here. If I didn’t go down this path, I wouldn’t be able to be a leader, and I won’t take a job (outside York) if I can’t finish the winter (in Chambersburg).”
However, Coursi hopes this will be the last time he changes jobs. The 41-year-old said he would like to leave York Suburban if possible.
The Trojans compete in Class 4A football and Class 5A basketball and have made solid strides in these sports in recent years. The York suburb has traditionally been a stronghold for swimming, cross-country running and athletics.
“I locked my resume in a filing cabinet,” Coursi said. “Matt is doing a great job and the department is not falling apart, but my job is to take the area to the next stage of development. It’s a bit smaller than I’m used to, but you can still get great results here. I am an A (NCAA) Division III Athlete and the message to me is that the sport is important but study is the foundation. York Suburban ticks all those boxes.”
A former Carnegie Mellon University basketball player, Coursi planned ambitious initiatives and campaigns throughout his career as an athletic director.
At York High School, he developed a plan to reopen some collegiate sports, including baseball, softball, soccer, and competitive support. In Chambersburg, he organized the Hoops for Harmony basketball tournament in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day to raise money for racial justice groups in Franklin County. Chambersburg also hosts the Peach Bowl presentation, which brings some of the state’s top football teams to the school on the first weekend of the season.
He also organized a basketball tournament to prevent gun violence in Woodland Hills and said he would like to host a similar event in suburban York.
“This is something York County is impacting right now and it is important to mobilize resources to curb gun violence,” he said. “York County isn’t famous for peaches, but I wanted to have the opening weekend of the football championship and bring together the best teams in the country.”
Kursi will join Jeff White of York High as the second black athletic director currently at YAIAA. He previously served on the Central Pennsylvania Conference Diversity and Equity Committee and said he hopes to continue to promote diversity in his new job.
With many YAIAA athletic directors retiring or leaving the industry due to busy schedules in recent years, Kursi said he hopes to become a leader for the entire YAIAA.
“When I was in York High School, I looked up to guys like Marty Trimmer (from Central York), Arnie Fritzius (from Red Lion) and Tory Harvey (from Dallaston), Kursi said. “Now everything is younger and fresher, I returned as an elderly politician. I’m in love with Yorkshire, I think you can get suburbs, cities and country within a 15-20 minute radius. It’s an amazing experience. If you can dream up, you’ll find it in York County.”
Matt Ellibone is a sports reporter for GameTimePA. He can be reached at 717-881-8221, mallibone@ydr.com or on Twitter @bad2theallibone.
Post time: Dec-15-2022