Wayne Demikoff will roam the sideline as head coach of the Wayne Hills High School football team next season.

The Board of Education promoted Demikoff and hired dozens of other coaches for the spring and fall semesters at a meeting Thursday night.

Demikoff will make $3,140 for coaching the team in the summer session and $11,800 for the regular season.

Demikoff takes over a program that Chris Olsen led for nearly three decades. He served on Olsen’s coaching staff as an assistance coach and defensive coordinator for more than 10 years.

"I'm excited about it. It think it's a great opportunity for me to carry on the traditions that Chris has established that have been great for all these years," Demikoff said after the meeting. "Chris has done such a great job and no one can replace him. It's an opportunity for me to carry on what he created and built his whole life and I'm honored to do that."

Olsen led the Patriots to eight state sectional state championships. Until this year he had also been the school’s athletic director.

"The nice thing is that I've worked with Chris for so long I got to understand how the program works," Demikoff said. "It's not like I'm coming in from the outside and don't really understand how things work here."

Brian O'Connor, Demikoff's counterpart at Wayne Valley, spoke highly of Demikoff.

"It's a great hire. He's been with the program for many years," O'Connor said. "I think he'll do a great job keeping the Wayne tradition going and modling character."

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