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Barchuk retires as Kingsway FB coach

As the 2015 season was ending, Tony Barchuk was giving serious thought to retiring as Kingsway's football coach.

"How long can you do something?" Barchuk wondered back in December in typically blunt fashion, his Brooklyn accent still apparent after all these years in South Jersey.

The answer was 37 seasons.

And 366 games.

And a stretch of transformative growth at a school that went from fielding a Group 1 football program in 1979 to a Group 5 program in 2015.

But on Thursday, Barchuk announced that he had retired as Kingsway's football coach.

"Terrible," Barchuk said, when asked how he felt about stepping away from the Kingsway football program.

After a deep laugh, Barchuk put his decision in perspective.

"You wonder how liong you can do something like that, and do it effectively," Barchuk said. "I've been wondering if I've been doing everything that I needed to do, like I've done in the past.

"For me, first and foremost it's always been about the welfare of the kids. It's time to get a young guy in here, some new ideas, and move this thing along."

Barchuk's teams went 206-155-5. His 2001 team won the South Jersey Group 2 title and three other teams made the sectional finals -- in Group 2 in 1994 and 1995 and in Group 4 in 2012.

Barchuk's total of 366 games coaches is second on South Jersey's all-time list only to still-active Florence coach Joe Frappolli's 426.

His 206 wins ranks 10th on the all-time list.

But the people closest to Barchuk say that wins and losses never defined him as a coach, or a man.

"A great football coach and an even better person," Delsea coach Sal Marchese said of Barchuk. "I always looked up to him."

It's hard to overstate Barchuk's status as an institution at Kingsway. He has been the constant in a school district that has undergone burgeoning growth and massive change over the last 40 years.

"He is synonymous with Kingsway," James Lavender, Kingsway's superintendent, said in a tweet.

Kingsway athletic director June Cioffi: "This place was his life. We'll never find another one like him."

Barchuk, who played football at North Carolina State, came to Kingsway from a school district on Long Island in the late 1970s.

"I drove past the place when I first got here," Barchuk said. "I couldn't believe how little it was. I was a New Yorker, like John Travolta walking down the halls."

Barchuk said he "came to love" Kingsway.

"My heart will always be here," Barchuk said. "There's something about this place."

Barchuk's teams were known for their physical style of play, with heavy emphasis on defense and the running game.

"I'm most proud of the relationships I had with these kids," Barchuk said. "I tried to teach them some things, some philosphical things like, 'When the going gets tough, the tough get going.'

"Old-fashioned, Vince Lombardi sayings. But they are true.

"And these kids, they got it."

Barchuk plans to continue to teach health and physical education at Kingsway through the end of the school year. He also will coach the Kingsway softball team for the last time in the spring.

"I'll be like Casey Stengel," Barchuk said.

-- Contact Phil Anastasia at panastasia@phillynews.com

-- Follow @PhilAnastasia on Twitter