Changes are in store for the varsity baseball and football teams at Fayetteville-Manlius High School in 2020 with new head coaches for each of them – though they are familiar faces.
In the wake of its unlikely run from a no. 7 seed to its first-ever Section III championship last spring, Jason Rutkey earned numerous Coach of the Year awards and other accolades.
But early in September, Rutkey announced that he would step down after four seasons. He said that new administrative duties at Clary Middle School, plus taking post-graduate classes in administration, would keep him from the time needed for coaching duties.
To replace Rutkey, F-M, in November, tapped Cory Nelson, who was a varsity assistant and is also one of the most accomplished pitchers in school history.
Twice, Nelson was an All-Central New York selection with the Hornets. Then he went to Le Moyne College, where in 240 innings pitched over four years he struck out 193 and, in 2009, recorded a no-hitter for the Dolphins.
At the same time, F-M would add Robert Donnelly to serve as Nelson’s assistant coach. Donnelly comes from the college ranks, having served as an assistant at SUNY-Oswego after graduating from that school in 2014.
Around the time that Nelson and Donnelly were hired, news broke that Paul Muench, who had coached F-M’s varsity football team for most of the last two decades, would retire.
Muench, a long-time history teacher at F-M High School, said that, after 32 years of teaching, he was retiring in June, and wanted to step aside from coaching as well.
Having coached for seven years at Oswego High School, Muench was hired to coach F-M football in 2000. A year later, led by Damien Rhodes, the Hornets won the sectional and regional Class AA championships.
Though never getting back to those heights, Muench’s teams would frequently contend in the 15 seasons that followed, interrupted by a two-year stretch in 2013 and ’14 where Rhodes was head coach.
Now, as F-M is set to move to Class A football in 2020, a new head coach takes over as, on Monday night, the school board approved the hiring of Dan Sullivan.
As with Nelson, Sullivan is getting promoted after serving as an assistant varsity coach. He had spent the last two years at F-M as defensive coordinator, which was a return after a decade-long absence from the sidelines.
Sullivan had stints at several colleges – University of Chicago, Illinois Wesleyan and Drake, among others – and was head coach at Eureka College in Illinois before resigning in 2008.
A job opportunity brought Sullivan to Central New York five years later, and in 2018 Muench tapped Sullivan for his staff. Now he gets the main job as F-M leaves Class AA football for the first time in 20 years.
