An assistant football coach at Parkland High School has been appointed Salisbury High School's head football coach.

Andy Cerco, who has worked as a special education teacher at Salisbury High School, was introduced to the Salisbury school board at its Jan. 19 meeting. The appointment comes nearly two months after Salisbury High School's head football coach Rob Sawicki resigned after some parents complained he allegedly demeaned players. 

Cerco said he would meet with the players on Friday and parents sometime next week.

Cerco said he looked forward to the future and having a good relationship with the team and parents. He said he wants to increase student participation in football and other activities. Cerco said he will make assistant coach recommendations in the near future.

Cerco has been an assistant coach at Parkland for the last four seasons.

"I am extremely excited about the opportunity and challenge to be serving as the varsity football coach at Salisbury High School," Cerco said in a news release. "I feel that Salisbury is a great community to build a successful football program within. I look forward to working with the current players and hope to increase participation as we move forward."

Cerco joins Salisbury's football program after a bitter and fractious time last fall when parents and booster club members complained to the school board about Sawicki. After Salisbury Patch ran the story about the complaints, the controversy continued online with comments both for and against Sawicki. He resigned days later, citing personal reasons.

According to a news release on Cerco's hire:

Cerco is a 2002 Moravian College graduate and played football at Moravian under then coach Scot Dapp. Upon graduation from Moravian, he assisted at Salisbury three seasons before moving on to Central Catholic, Moravian College, Southern Lehigh and finally Parkland, where he served as the co-defensive coordinator under head coach Jim Morgans the previous two years.

"In my coaching career so far, I have been involved with some great people, particularly Coach Dapp, Jim Morgans, Sam Senneca and Jim Cantafio," Cerco said. "In working with these men, I have been able to understand many aspects of organizing and maintaining successful football programs."