Burkhardt's surprising announcement after home win against Thomas Jefferson

After eight years of success, Lady Wildcat's coach Mark Burkhardt has decided to call it a career after the 2022-23 season. After the girls basketball game between the Lady Wildcats and the Thomas Jefferson Jaguars, where the Lady Wildcats won 39-30, Coach Burkhardt spoke with Bill Brown and Mike Yandirck. When asked how the big section win felt, Coach Burkhardt said "They (Thomas Jefferson) held in there and chipped away so credit to them." Coach then followed that statement up with the surprising quote "I don't know if you guys know, but this is my last home game so this was a nice way to end it".

Coach Burkhardt's storied career as the Head Coach of the Lady Wildcats did not start out easy. "The program was a mess when we inherited it," admitted Coach Burkhardt, "and we have done well with argubly the hardest schedule in 5A almost every season." Many wonder why a coach who has turned the program around would want to leave. Coach stated that "I told the girls in the first practice of the season that it had no bearing on how we did this season. Everyone has their experation date and its just time".

Since signing on to the Greater Latrobe Lady Wildcats in 2015, Coach Burkhardt took a team with a lossing record to a team that made three playoff appearances and has only had one losing season (2016-17). We here at the Wildcats Network greatly appreciate all that Coach Mark Burkhardt has done for the Lady Wildcats Basketball team and wish him the best in whatever he plans to do in the future.