The phrase “one and done” has always been used to describe a team or individual on the verge of finishing as a loser.

For Buckeye Local head football coach Ron Pobolish, using the phrase “one and done” certainly doesn’t make reference to him as a loser. Instead, it makes reference to Pobolish’s decision to coach one more year and then he is done.

After 40 years in the coaching biz, Pobolish has decided that the 2009 grid campaign will be his last. He will be putting away the whistle, hanging up his hat and saying goodbye to coaching and football. One of the true Ohio Valley football icons is calling it quits.

“It’s been a lot of fun, but it’s time to give it up,” Pobolish said in making the announcement.

While Pobolish was certainly one of the more feared coaches in the valley because of his ability to motivate players, his teams were certainly one of the most entertaining because Pobolish loved surprising opponents.

Pobolish will be capping off one his best rebuilding projects this year when his Panthers take the field. Buckeye is coming off a remarkable 7-4 campaign in 2008 that included a trip to the post-season. Remarkable not because it was the Panthers’ best, but because most pre-season prognosticators were looking more in line of that record being in reverse.

In the three seasons prior to 2008, Pobolish and his staff struggled through a true rebuilding process that produced only six wins total during that span. Last season opened with a shocking win over Martins Ferry, and then continued on impressively closing at 7-3 in the regular season.

As Pobolish embarks on the 2009 season, his Panthers should be one of the top teams in the valley. His list of returnees is impressive and you don’t let a guy like Pobolish hang around too long without paying the price, especially if you’re lined up on the other side of the field.

This is Pobolish’s second go-around at Buckeye Local. His first produced some of the best teams in Panther football history and were some of the best in the state at the time. He enters his final season with a 136-100 career record. Four times he has taken teams to the post-season playoffs with his 1994 team closing at 13-1 after losing in the Ohio state finals.

Buckeye has had just four coaches on the gridiron since 1990 and Pobolish has put together a school-best 67-40 mark at the school and has coached Buckeye in seven of nine post-season games the Panthers have played.

Pobolish graduated in 1966 from Dillonvale High School, a place that was later absorbed by the Buckeye Local consolidation. Following a stellar three-sport career with the Knight Riders, he went on to West Virginia University and was a three-year football starter for the Mountaineers.

Upon his return to the area, he took his first coaching job at Cadiz High which is now part of Harrison Central. In four seasons from ’73-76, his teams won an OVAC title and compiled a 29-10-1 mark. His ’75 team finished at 9-0-1 and the following years the Cardinals closed at 9-1.

From Cadiz, he went to John Marshall and coached the Monarchs for three seasons posting marks of 2-8, 3-7 and 4-6.

Pobolish then took a seven-year break before returning as a head coach at Buckeye South in 1986. His first team finished at 2-8, but he quickly established himself and his program as they recovered in ’87 with a 7-3 record.

In 1988, Buckeye South and Buckeye West merged following a fire that destroyed the West school building. Pobolish continued on as the head coach of the SouthWest High School. His string of success kept running as the Buckeyes posted 9-1 and 5-5 finishes in the two years of existence.

Consolidation in 1990 of the Buckeye Local schools gave Pobolish his third position in the same school district as he took over as the Panthers’ first head coach. The task at hand, build a program with players from seven different towns whose past history was build around competing against one another not as one.

He needed little time to complete that task.

Pobolish’s first four years with the Panthers proved to be one of the best runs of success on the gridiron in Eastern Ohio. Buckeye collected two OVAC crowns and posted marks of 9-2 in ’90, 10-1 in ’91, 9-1 in ’92 and 7-3 in ’93.

Despite that success, the best was saved for 1994 when Pobolish nearly gave Buckeye Local a state championship. That year, Buckeye won 10 straight during the regular season, clinched the OVAC and River Valley League crowns, and then advanced to the state finals at Paul Brown Stadium in Massillon before ending the season with a 17-6 loss to Chardon.

Following the success of ’94 and one more at Buckeye in ’95, Pobolish decided to take another break resigning the post. He later returned to the sidelines coaching on the same football field where he started his coaching career. He spent two years at Harrison Central, coaching the still new school to back-to-back seasons of 5-5 and 4-6. He bid the Huskies farewell after the second season and returned to Buckeye Local for his second stint.

Over the years, Pobolish has been loved and hated. Loved by his players and hated by anyone that lined up across from him. But the two group shared one common feeling. They both had a great deal of respect for the veteran coach.

Pobolish lives in Moundsville with his wife Laurie and the couple have a son, Chet, and a daughter, Ashley. Chet was a standout running back on the ’94 Panther team.

As a player, you dread the day your playing career is over and as a coach, you are old enough to know that some day it will all come to an end.

For Ron Pobolish it will be an end of another career.

For the Buckeye Local and Ohio Valley football community, it will be an end of an era.

DeLuca can be reached at radeluca70@yahoo.com