Some coaches are remembered for the championships they won. Others are remembered because they changed the culture every time they walked into a room.
Coach Tim Timko was one of those coaches.
He was at Penn Hills long before I got there, serving as the defensive coordinator for the football team. Later, he became one of my assistant basketball coaches for two years. He was always good to me, and I’ll never forget the impact he had on our teams.
Coach Timko wasn’t the loudest person all the time, but when he decided to raise his voice, everybody knew it. He didn’t tolerate disrespect from anybody. I can still picture him sitting in his office wearing a Penn Hills polo shirt, those swooshy warm-up pants, his hair slicked back, casually taking practice golf swings like he didn’t have a care in the world. Five minutes later he’d be on the football sideline or basketball bench bringing an intensity that made everyone around him tougher.
Just having Coach Timko on your sideline gave your team an edge. He demanded accountability before accountability became a buzzword.
I’ll be honest, I was fortunate. Coach was never hard on me. We had mutual respect. He knew I could play, and I respected the standard he expected from everyone around him. Because of that, I sometimes found myself trying not to laugh when he’d get after my teammates or classmates.
One memory still makes me smile.
A student decided to get smart with Coach Timko. Coach paused for a second, looked at him, then absolutely unloaded. I swear the entire school probably heard him. After he finished, he calmly told the kid, “Go get your dad.”
That was Coach Timko. He backed down from nobody. Looking back now, people might call that old-school coaching. Back then, we just called it coaching.
This generation has grown up hearing about “tough love,” but many never experienced coaches who truly lived it. Coach Timko believed in discipline, respect, and earning everything you got. He wasn’t trying to be your friend, he was trying to make you better. More importantly, behind all that toughness was a genuinely good man. He always treated me with respect, believed in me, and played a role in helping shape me as a young athlete. That’s something I’ll always appreciate.
I don’t know where Coach Timko is today, but I hope life is treating him well. He was one of a kind.
And if you were lucky enough to be coached by Tim Timko, chances are you still hear that voice in your head every now and then. Some lessons never leave you.