Last minute football coaching changes being made in BPS

Even though official practices are just five days away, two Buffalo Public high school football program’s coaching staffs are getting overhauls this week.

WNY Athletics has learned that Tony Truilizio will be the varsity head football coach at Hutch-Tech and that Brian Hillery resigned from the same position at McKinley.

Truilizio and Hillery confirmed their respective news to WNY Athletics on Wednesday.

Hillery cited “a disagreement with administration” as the reason for his resignation.

Hillery went 10-8 in two seasons as the head coach at McKinley, leading the Macks to a playoff appearance in 2016.

Truilizio takes over for Chris Gelsomino at Hutch Tech.

The news at Hutch-Tech came as a surprise for many who expected longtime assistant coach Nick Todaro was going to take over the program.

After running most of the offseason workouts for the program, Todaro, an alumnus of Hutch-Tech, was told Tuesday night that he would not get the job.

Early Wednesday morning, a petition was made on Change.org in support of Todaro asking for Buffalo Public Schools officials to reconsider their decision.

Truilizio served as the offensive coordinator at Erie Community College for the last three years. Before that, he was the head coach at North Tonawanda High School from 2012-2014 and held the same position at Riverside High School from 2000-2012.

Truilizio is a physical education teacher at Riverside and is currently the head coach of the district’s boys’ lacrosse team.

Practices for all fall sports teams in Section VI start on Monday.

Frank Wolf contributed to this report.