Legendary Lebanon High assistant Bud Getz touched many lives

He was born Harold G. Getz, Jr. on Oct. 12, 1954, but to those who knew him best and loved him most, he was either 'Bud' or 'Coach Getz'.

A longtime assistant football coach and educator at Lebanon High School, Getz passed away last Saturday after a courageous battle with ALS, a neuromuscular disorder also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

By the time his battle ended, he was a shell of his former self physically, as ALS ravaged the one-time Millersville football player's body the way it does to everyone who is afflicted with it.

But to those who were closest to him, particularly his players, he remained 10 feet tall and bulletproof until the end.

As word of his passing made its way around last Saturday, tributes to Getz poured in on social media and via email. As the Lebanon High Football account tweeted last weekend, everyone has a Coach Getz story, including former players like Adam Kuhn and Kenny Miller, the latter also serving on the same coaching staff with Getz in the late 1990s.

Yes, they all have a Coach Getz story, each of them telling a different tale, but with the same theme - Getz's often gruff exterior belied a kind-hearted man with a generous and loving soul.

"My senior year I almost didn’t go out for football. One of the many reasons I decided to play was because I couldn’t stomach seeing a guy like Coach Getz at school knowing I wasn’t out there anymore," Kuhn said in a Facebook post. "I finished the season as an All-County Safety that year and a good part of the credit belongs with Coach Getz, whose tough love, coaching and dedication to staying on my (butt) every day ended up getting the best out of me that I frankly didn’t believe was there before the season.

"There was no coach in my life who was harder on me and in the moment it absolutely sucked being out on that practice field, screwing up, getting yelled at (with some very colorful language), with all of that equipment on in the heat. Nonetheless, there was absolutely nothing more rewarding than being surrounded by friends and family after a game and getting a hard pat on the shoulder while being told 'you played a hell of a game,' from Coach Getz on a chilly Friday night."

A 1992 Lebanon grad, Miller first experienced Getz as a player, then as an assistant to head coaches Tom Jordan and Bill Giovino in the late 90s. To be sure, both experiences were memorable.

"When I was a football player he was one of the toughest coaches you could play for," Miller said in an email. "Some of my fondest memories were from our years that we did a full week of summer camp at Fort Indiantown Gap. We stayed in the barracks and the team was separated in 4 groups and at the time nobody wanted to be in Coach Getz's bunk room.

"I was in " (assistant coach Bob) Norman's Country Club". In the other bunk room they went by "Getz's Grunts", and looking back at it the Grunts may have had it the worst during those 6 days of practice, but those guys also had the most fun. I think The Getz's Grunts were the ones that initiated the full team ambush pillow fight, which we got caught and it led to (running) 200 plus 5 and turns the next day in the rain."

Now a teacher himself in the Elco school district, Miller took a little time to adjust to life as a fellow coach with Getz. But once he did, he gained an even greater appreciation for the man who once coached him.

"As a colleague and coach on the same staff it took me a while to adjust, now being in the coaches room and the coaches meetings," Miller said. "I learned a lot from Coach Getz - it took me a while to address him as Bud, as he was Mr. Getz or Coach Getz. Looking back at those 4 years on the coaching staff, boy, did we have fun and I quickly realized how much the students and athletes meant to him. Coach Getz had a soft side that many at the time didn't always witness, he was always reaching out and helping anyone that needed it.

"Bud was passionate about winning on the field, but he mostly wanted all the kids that he influenced to be successful in life. I know, along with coaches Tom Jordan, Bill Giovino, Gene Schaeffer, and Bob Norman, that Coach Bud Getz had a huge influence on instilling values in me, through the game of football, that got me to where I am today."

Now the owner of his own State Farm Insurance Agency, Kuhn, a 2010 LHS grad, also felt that caring side of Getz when his old coach reached out to him with a birthday greeting a few years back.

"I became a better player and a harder worker in my life because of people like Coach Getz," Kuhn said.

Although he is no longer with them in a physical sense, Getz will live on in the hearts and minds of those who loved him.

Miller may have summed up Getz's life the best when he referenced a line from the movie, "The Sandlot" in his email.

"Heroes get remembered, but legends never die," Miller said, quoting the line. "Coach Getz was a legend."

Getz is survived by his wife Laurel, stepdaughter Emily Weaber, three step-grandchildren and brothers Jeffrey, David and Dale Getz. He was preceded in death by his parents Harold G. Getz and Shirley Getz.

A funeral service will be held on Tuesday at 11 a.m. in the Lebanon High School Auditorium. A viewing will begin at 9 a.m. at LHS and run until the beginning of the funeral service.

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: Legendary Lebanon High assistant Bud Getz touched many lives