Bishop Ludden assistant football coach Dan Salisbury brings nearly four decades of coaching to the gridiron, and the Gaelic Knights are reaping the benefits of that under first-year head coach Jim Ryan.

“When you bring around 36 years of experience, from any coach, if you’re not willing to learn from other people in general or learn from other coaches, you’re kind of short changing yourself,” Ryan said.

Most weeks are generally the same for Salisbury, but this week will be anything but. Salisbury returns to his old stomping grounds at Solvay for a battle against a hungry Bearcat team tonight. Kickoff is at 6:30 on Spectrum News 1.

“Definitely mixed emotions," Salisbury said. "I’m a competitor. I want to win the game, but I do love those guys over there.”

In his eight seasons at Solvay, Salisbury saw it all, rallying a program that struggled before his arrival to a Class B sectional championship in 2019.

“There were a lot of exciting and wonderful moments," Salisbury said of his time at Solvay. "A lot of great memories. Again, it’s going to be hard to go against those guys, but we’ll do what we can on Friday.”

But it won’t be the first time this has happened for Salisbury.

“It happened to me one other time when I retired from teaching," Salisbury said. "I went from Hannibal to Westhill, and we drew Hannibal on the schedule. I was on the wrong sideline and started coaching the wrong team at one point, because it was just very weird to be on the other sideline.

“Hopefully I’ll remember what team I’m coaching this Friday and we’ll get through it.”

It might not be the last time these two squads play. Tonight’s game features two of the top teams in Class C. And with Salisbury’s experience at Solvay, he knows exactly what to expect.

“We were really young last year at Solvay," Salisbury said. "Really young. Those kids have grown up. They’re getting great coaching over there and they’re having a great season as well, so it’s going to be a hard-fought game, but I’m expecting our kids to line up correctly and just play fast, relax and have fun.”