By ED BRANNON The News-Herald After three consecutive highly successful football seasons, it appears that the Tiger LaVerde era is over at Franklin High School. LaVerde, 30, has submitted a letter of resignation as the Knights' head coach to Franklin High School principal William Vonada. “I have a letter (of resignation) from him that I will be presenting to the board (Jan. 19),” Vonada said. LaVerde, a math teacher in the Oil City Area School District, said the decision to resign was painfully difficult, but one that he felt he had to make. “This was probably the hardest decision I've ever had to make in my life,” LaVerde said Jan. 13. “I absolutely love coaching and I loved coaching the kids. “But, football is a sport where you need numbers, especially if you want to be competitive year in and year out,” he said. “By not teaching there (at Franklin), it's hard to recruit players and keep the numbers in line with the rest of the schools in our conference. Our numbers are way off from most of the schools we compete against and I know I could've gotten 15 to 20 more kids to go out for football each year just by talking to them at school. “Trying to run an entire football program for grades 7-12 is virtually impossible (with me) being at Oil City.” LaVerde, whose teams went 20-10-0 in his three seasons, said his main reason for leaving came from what he felt was a lack of support from the Franklin Area School Board. “The No. 1 thing was that twice in my three years the school board did not go along with my recommendations for coaches in our youth programs,” LaVerde said. “There were people I had in mind that I knew would help the entire program, but they were turned down. That was extremely frustrating.” LaVerde's decision also stemmed from the fact that he was not able to land a teaching position in Franklin. “I took the coaching job three years ago with the hopes of getting a teaching job (in the district), but that didn't happen,” he said. “I did receive one teaching offer, but it was one that wasn't even reasonable for me to accept, especially after I'd been teaching for seven years. I would've had to take a $4,500 pay cut from what I was making at Oil City. “I will really miss all the kids, but just reached a point where it didn't benefit me to stay.” LaVerde took over as head coach during the 2001 season after Fred Blackhurst stepped down. The Knights went 6-4-0 that season and 5-4-0 in 2002. This past season, Franklin went 8-1-0 during the regular season and captured the first-ever Northwest Athletic Conference championship by virtue of its 21-7 victory over Erie Strong Vincent. The Knights then posted a 22-20 win over Hickory in the first round of the District 10 Class AAA playoffs at Slippery Rock University before finishing at 9-2 after dropping a 36-15 decision in the championship game in a rematch with Strong Vincent at Erie's Veterans Memorial Stadium. “I feel bad for the kids coming back because there's a lot of talent and I know all the hard work they've put in,” LaVerde said. “I really have no idea what I'm going to do, but I know that I will coach again … it's something that I love to do.” LaVerde, the starting quarterback for Oil City in 1990, was named conference "Coach of the Year" twice during his tenure at Franklin.