Since the Maple Grove and Chautauqua Lake football merger ended in 2015, the Thunderbirds have gone through four coaches in four seasons.

Ryan Gibbs hopes that instability ends with him.

A 2004 graduate of Panama Central School, Gibbs was named the Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Brocton head coach by the Chautauqua Lake Board of Education at its July meeting.

He joins a list of coaches that includes Adam Erickson, Rich Morton, Curt Fischer and Bryan Bongiovanni in the last four years.

Submitted Photo

Gibbs came up through the Chautauqua Lake midget football program before serving as Bongiovanni’s defensive coordinator last season.

“Football-wise it was kind of like a whirlwind thing. … My kids wanted to play flag football and when we got them started I was the parent who signed the kids up and was content being in the bleachers,” he said. “The guys recognized me and told me they thought I could add something coaching-wise. The following year I was in charge of the flag team and called the offense for the midget team. After that first year I took over as head coach for the midget program and did that right up through last year.”

Offensive coordinator Kevin Denney and offensive line coach Steve Haas will return to Gibbs’ staff from last season while Gibbs, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, will continue to call the defense.

Gibbs organized the team’s workouts beginning in December once they knew Bongiovanni would not be returning as head coach.

“We found out in December when Bryan approached me and told me he was going to step aside,” he said. “From December on, I had basically been running workouts. I didn’t know exactly what my role would be, but I knew I wanted to get stuff rolling.”

He continued leading the team through the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic even though a new head coach wasn’t named at that point.

“To me, the frustrating part is knowing the momentum we had built during the wintertime,” Gibbs said. “Once COVID hit, we stayed on Zoom for about two and a half months. I’d work out with them and we began installing the offense and defense, but there is only so much you can do.”

The task of bringing together young men from three different school districts — four if you include Ripley’s tuitioned students — will now fall on Gibbs, who played for head coach Chris Payne at Panama.

“The Westfield and Brocton kids — Ceric Kristan, Connor Utegg — they have been all in from Day 1,” Gibbs said. “The Chautauqua Lake kids, because they’ve seen so much change, were a little more apprehensive at first. Now that they’ve been around us they know that these coaches are here … and I hope they understand I intend on being here for a long time.”

While good memories are usually created in wins, Gibbs points to a loss against Fredonia last year as what he hopes turns out to be a turning point for the program. The Thunderbirds held a 23-16 lead after three quarters before Fredonia rallied for a 28-23 victory.

“I can tell you, it might come off weird, but the turning point for us as a program and our momentum coming into this offseason was that loss to Fredonia,” he said. “The kids really realized that we are going to battle for them. We love them and they love us. … I think that will be something you look back on and it will be one of the turning points for our program.”

Gibbs and his wife, Stephanie, live in Stow with their two sons — Brayden, who turns 11 this month, and Tristen, who turns 13 this month.

Like every other coach in the state, Gibbs has been unable to work with his team in person this summer as the coronavirus pandemic has restricted in-person gatherings. As a first-time head coach, that could be used as a crutch, but Gibbs looks at it through a different lens.

“I’ve been preaching that everybody is in the same boat. The times we are together, I feel really confident in the amount of offense and defense we have installed,” Gibbs said. “All kids are locked out of their gyms, so you better come ready to work Sept. 21.”

And while Gibbs would like to have success in terms of wins and losses during his first year at the helm, he is looking at success in a much broader scope.

“First and foremost I want to bring stability,” he said. “I want to have a relationship that the kids can trust. That’s part of the battle I’m fighting right now. They were all supportive and that made me feel really good once it got announced that I was the head coach. … Once you have stability, you can bring that discipline to build the program the way you want.”