Episode 33-Mike Gilger

Brian sits down with Lourdes Regional Athletic Director Mike Gilger about Lourdes sports. Mike also discusses his time as an athlete for the Red Raiders and the Mount Carmel Red Tornadoes.

Episode Transcript

(00:06):
May 20th, 2025. It is a Tuesday here at Our Lady
of Lords Regional School here, Brian Christiana back with
boards athletics director Mr. Michael Gilder.
It's been the day of Gilder's here on the podcast.
How you doing, my friend? All right, how are?
You doing? Mike, it's beautiful.
Final season we just got done grading some exams.
How's been how's the school yearbeen for you?

(00:27):
It's. Been good, yeah, I teach juniors
and seniors yeah, I think we hada great group of kids, you know,
this year, the class and senior class, they're all really smart
kids, bright kids yeah. So.
Yeah, so. Junior year here at Lourdes,
it's American Lit and then senior year is British Slit.
How has that been for you teaching those subjects?
Good. It's been real fun.

(00:49):
Literature is something I, I have a strong passion for,
probably going back to when I was in high school.
Nice. You know, in those two subjects
goes back to American literature.
We had great English teachers here when we went to high school
here with Miss Builder and Mrs. Vamp.
So. Great teachers.
Fall on their, fall on their footsteps, yeah.
And we still keep in contact with Miss Builder pretty
frequently. What are some authors or poets

(01:11):
that stand out to you in those in those worlds?
Yeah, so as far as American literature goes, we go from the
end of the Civil War all the wayup through present day.
We usually and around the 1960s,so I don't know as far as when
we get to poetry, I do like someof the poetry that we nice in
modernism, yeah, which is aroundthe the 1920s all the way up

(01:34):
through World War 2. But yeah, I mean, I like EEE
Cummings. He's got very untraditional form
and stuff like that, which I enjoy teaching what kids seem
like, yeah. That's good stuff, man.
And I mean, we had some tough teachers here, like you said,
Miss Builder, Mrs. Venom, can you talk about your time in
their classes here at Lords? Yeah, all I remember really much

(01:55):
about that. Is that really sparked my
interest. Nice.
One of the things that we read is Fahrenheit 451.
Yeah. You know, just learning the
importance of writing and obviously in that, in that
setting, you know, you're not allowed to read and things like
that. So as far as, you know, the
importance of books that I've really seen that spark my
interest. Good stuff just in, you know,

(02:17):
what a world without writing would be like.
And yeah, it's it's kind of the one one thing that really stuck
with me. It's probably really cool giving
back to a place that you care about very, very much.
Oh, definitely, definitely. When the opportunity opened up,
I guess it'd be two years ago, you know, at this point it
seemed like someone was definitely interested in and,
you know, just the ability to show kids, kids that, you know,

(02:40):
I was once in their footsteps. Yeah.
So show them you know, the the path here and you know, just try
to try to get them become betterkids and hopefully one day
better adult. Yeah, Mike, let me ask you this
one also, because you're in thisbuilding here at Lords.
You graduated near 2014, but nowyou're working here and you're
not the only guilder in the building work with your Uncle

(03:02):
Bill, your cousin Taran, your cousin John, your sister-in-law
works here as well. I mean, what's it like working
with a lot of your family? Oh yeah, it's definitely a very
unique even seeing some of my cousin's kids right up and down
the halls. We talked about Jayden already
with your uncle, it was so cool.Yeah, I mean, just just seeing
some familiar faces is always great.
And you know, outside of family,just people that I've known

(03:23):
forever, you know, it almost seems like an extended family
here at. Lord's it has.
But yeah, no, it's definitely, definitely very unique.
Never would have thought in a billion years that I'd be out
here working with my uncle, my cousins, things like that.
But yeah, no, it's, it's great. It's awesome to see some clear
faces. Always for sure.
So you graduate from 2014, you played basketball here, you were

(03:44):
also a part of the last baseballteam here at Lords.
Can you tell us a little bit a little bit about your
experiences on the baseball team?
Oh man, Yeah. So my freshman year was a rough
year a little bit as far as baseball goes, and that's OK.
Yeah, we ended up on 15. But we had a blast, I'll tell
you that. We had about 10 or 11 kids.

(04:06):
We played some competitive games.
One game that always sticks withme is we played Scoople Haven.
Scoople Haven's always very good.
I think their head coach that was there when when I was
playing, he's he's still their head coach now.
Wow. Like Director Scott Buffington.
But he always has great teams. And they won a district title
that year. I remember beating them two to

(04:26):
one after the first inning. And let's just say he he wasn't
super happy with them walking up.
We lost that game 27 to 2 and three and wow.
So that's one game that kind of sticks with me.
But we had a blast, you know, wewere nice, you know.
But yeah, so we lost our baseball team after my freshman
year, did a Co-op with Mount Carmel, which we still have.

(04:48):
We've had some great players come through the system.
Tana Schultz being 1. You know, we have two great
pitchers for them now, Clark Cartwright and Lane Jakello, who
you know is in your media. Class Oh, he's a great kid.
Yeah, they're both super stand up kids, very, very smart.
I taught both of them Clark I had the last two years.
This year I had very good in my class, but just really played

(05:09):
kids too. So but just getting back, excuse
me, getting back to, you know, the baseball stuff and the
co-ops. We I was also on the last
football team that. Oh, you were on it?
Yeah, your freshman year. Yeah, that was the fall of 2010,
so I was on the last team there.Kind of the same deal there with
baseball. Football.
I remember the. Numbers.
I think we had to forfeit a gameto Nativity 'cause we didn't

(05:33):
have the kids. So that's kind of what led to,
you know, a lot of the coops andthings like that.
But again, had a blast, you know, lots of memories for my
fresh mirror with that, along with basketball.
As well, what was it like playing for Corey?
Coach Hauser, yeah. So he was nice.
I'll tell you what, he really helped me out in the making the

(05:53):
adjustment to playing for Mount Carmel because he was, he was on
the staff with Carm D Francesco over at Shamokian.
Yeah. And then Carm was my coach over
at Mount Carmel. So yeah, even just some of the
terminology and things like that, it was a very, very
transition to go play for. That's awesome.
He. Was great guy, great guy too.

(06:13):
Cared a lot about the about the school along with the program.
Always had his players backs andit's.
What was it like playing for theBig Red?
It's unique, yeah. I'm trying to think of where to
start with this one here. You know, going from a small
school here at Ward's to go and plan for the state's winningest
program, top ten in the nation all time wins.

(06:37):
You know, it kind of felt like that first year.
It felt like something on a Friday night.
You know, they're I I went from a team that had to pour for the
game for not having enough players went one and nine that
year to next next fall. We're talking about winning
state championship. You know, it was, it was a very,
very different just culture. Yeah.
Really taught me a lot about myself along with teamwork and,

(07:00):
you know, hard work and all that.
Kind of stuff, Mike, I remember in high school, I mean, you were
like, you were the prime liaisonof Lords and Mount Carmel.
I mean, you, you played footballfor them.
And it was, we always thought like, oh, man, Lord kids will
never shine. You know they won't get their
shot, but you did it. You did it.
You played very well. And one of the moments and
memories I always think of with you in football is that pitcher

(07:22):
down here at Kent Memorial whereyou're on the field.
It was you Billy Rock, I think was or the.
Oh the the captains. Yeah, the captain's picture and
seeing a Lord guy there from Mount Carmel, that was like,
holy beep, you know what I mean?Like, that's just so cool to
see, to see you do that. That was really cool.
Yeah, it was, it was odd. You know, I never would have

(07:43):
expected me being a captain for a team for school that I I
didn't go down there. So that was yeah, that was
definitely a unique experience. I remember that pitcher very,
very well because it's it's veryironic.
So the captain's out here is me,Zach Wasieleski.
He was our quarterback. Jake Jones, he was our right
tackle. I believe he right tackle.
He played offensive line, offensive line and Brett

(08:05):
Zoscherman linebacker and then along with the Schmokin.
So they started the anthem like during the coin toss, which was
really weird. Odd that normally doesn't
happen. So you know, the captains were
out there meeting the captains from the other team.
So we all turned and looked at the flag.
So in that picture you have the captains from Al Korman and then
the captains from Schmokin. Well, here, you know, one of the

(08:26):
captains for Schmokin was my best friend growing up, Sean
Sean McLaughlin was still he, helived on the same St. as me.
His parents still do. I should say our parents, you
know, they're there more. Shane Williams also, you know, a
kid I grew up with playing football with Raven Miller,
same, same deal. So you know that that picture

(08:47):
does stick in my mind because a bunch of guys from smoking,
which is where I'm from. Proud 5th Warder here.
Yes, you are still. Live in the 5th ward.
I thought I moved out of the 5thward.
Turns out when I paid my taxes still.
You're still there. Yeah, but yeah, no, it was
definitely, definitely a unique experience.
There wasn't easy, wasn't easy. Now go to play for another

(09:07):
school. You know, many of the kids, you
know, there's, there were times where, you know, I was
frustrated and, you know, I, I didn't know how to train and go.
But yeah, you know, it's just anexample of trying new, trying
new things, you know, put your best foot forward trying to work
through that and you know, everything ends up working out
so. It was a good run for you at
Mount Carmel as a football player.

(09:28):
You also play basketball here atLourdes and you play for Pete
Long. Yeah.
What was it like playing for Pete Long?
Pete, I know the answer to this,but Pete was a very charismatic
guy, very cared, cared a lot about the the program, did a
great job while he was here withthe program, taught us a lot of
things about, you know, again, playing hard, playing with the
best of your ability, always giving your best effort, if

(09:52):
anything that you're doing. And obviously, you know, he was
very charismatic about Barry. So I think some of that, you
know, obviously were off of me. So my some of my teammates and
we had some pretty good teams. Yes, we did.
So we were young when I was an under classmen.
I played a lot of freshmen sophomore, but then by the time
I was a junior, a lot of the kids in the grade ahead of me

(10:13):
were returning starters as well.That was a good team, I.
Think we had that was the first time like we had 20 plus wins in
a decent. Amount of time, yeah, 10 years
or so. So if I remember correctly also,
it would have been your sophomore year.
You guys made it to March Hall, I think.
Yep. You guys beat Minersville.
Zach Chesney hit a big. Shot.

(10:33):
That's a crazy game. Yep, yeah.
That was that was, I just remember at the time in 7th and
8th grade and even as an underclassman, it was really
cool seeing that group of guys, you Matt Savitzky and
Pennypacker, you guys really cared and you guys really wanted
to win. And I think Pete was the right
big leader for that. And I mean, your uncle was there
as well as an assistant. James was there.
It was a good time to be a a Lord's basketball player.

(10:55):
It was. Oh, for sure, for sure had some
big wins like you were talking about, but you know getting to
play at marks Hall is always something that's like one of the
goals, right, the boys and girlsbasketball team.
So being able to do that, you know, being able to set an
example because then you know, that next cycle of kids was
really like Thomas Schultz, I think in 7th.

(11:16):
Grade Yeah. Ty was like 6 or 7th grade,
Yeah, whatever it was so that that group came up.
Through And they saw some good players, yeah.
Yeah. And obviously they, you know,
they went on to do much bigger things than we do.
So, you know, yeah, that's kind of what the tradition I think
has kind of been here. Basketball program, our girls
program, it's bad. Very long.

(11:36):
Time. So yeah, it was.
It was just great to be part of that tradition.
So after that you decided to go to LVC Lebanon Valley for
football? Yeah, well, you played football,
but you went to school for. I went to school school.
I studied English there, so it was kind of like a mixture of
literature, like multimedia stuff, like nice, I'm sure the

(11:58):
word skip now, but like working with Photoshop, nice multimedia
stuff. That's good stuff.
Man on top of journalism, publicrelations, mix in there.
How was it there at LVC for you?It was good, Yeah.
I really liked it. One of the things that kind of
attracted me down there was actually it.
It's kind of like AAI shouldn't say Hub, but there are a lot of

(12:18):
people from Scoop County that. Yeah.
So I knew some of the kids for playing basketball, Beamer in
the Scoople League. Some of my friends, like one
from Marion Tribe Valley, have roommates down there from North
Scoople. Nice.
So, you know, that was a little bit.
I knew some kids that were goingdown there.
You know, they talked to me a little bit about playing

(12:38):
football down there. You know, we had some good teams
down there, about 500. Nice.
That happens. But yeah, yeah, whatever the
case is. But I really liked it down
there. It's nice area.
And yeah, it wasn't much different than around here, to
be honest. With you really small.
Town, everybody kind of seemed to know everybody.
Yeah. And a lot of people in Scoop

(12:58):
County. So that's kind of mix.
It kind of reminded me of it. Nice.
So after LVC, did you move back home right away?
Yeah, after Lebanon Valley movedback home, was looking for a
couple different jobs. I worked at the news I'm for a
little bit. As it's your dad.
Yeah, yeah, believe it or not. Was Mark there?
Was your brother Mark there at the time too?

(13:19):
No. Mark, I think he had one or two
years at the Republic. He was at the Republican Herald
there. I think he was there for a year
or two before I was out of school.
Not anywhere. That guy is singing for a little
bit. No, he he was not the news.
I am. Yeah, I was there.
My dad, he he works in the news.He's.
Your dad's been for a legend there, yeah.

(13:39):
But yeah, I worked at the news item for a little bit there,
eventually got a job up in the university, which is where I was
at before. With Mary, right?
Yeah, Mary Rascal. Great lady.
Great sports information director, taught me a lot about,
you know, not just writing and things like that and stat and
games, but, you know, how to just work in a two sports

(14:00):
setting, which, yeah, I think I learned a lot too from their
athletic director, Mike. Oh, Doctor McFarland, Yeah.
Great guy, you know, cares a lotabout his coaches, always having
his coaches backs, just very organized and things like that,
which, you know, I'm trying to do here as that.
Yeah. So after Bloom, there was an
opening for the athletic director position.

(14:20):
You applied and you got hired tobe the new athletic director,
replacing coach Michael Clombaro.
How's that been going for you? Good.
Yeah, it's been been good, You know, the last two years.
I think I learned a lot about what it takes to be in this
position. Some things I I knew I had time,
obviously working with schedules, things like that.
But I, I did Applesburg, you know, just as I had scheduled

(14:43):
games. I'm just working with the
schedules and getting workers and that.
So a lot of things I was familiar with coming into the
role, but, you know, there's some surprises and it comes with
that. Yeah, but yeah, no, it's going
well. I enjoy being around the kids
and, you know, trying to be a positive role.
Model you are, but you are. You know, I was, even though I
wasn't involved with the school right after college or anything

(15:05):
like that, I was somewhat involved with coaching.
So, you know, I, it's not like Istepped away from the place for
seven years after after school or anything like that.
So I was still familiar with what was going on at the school,
which is obviously a big help for stepping into school and
administrator. So yeah, it's, you know,

(15:26):
definitely a year 2 has been easier just to know what to
expect from each morning and youknow, when you got to take care
of something with that on backwards.
One of the best parts about Lord's athletics is that they
are a part of the school league Athletic Conference.
Can you tell us a little bit about the league?
Yes, school league is great, great conference to be in.

(15:47):
You know, the schools we've had a long tradition of playing
with, yes. So that, you know, that
obviously plays into not just rivalries, but just a good
relationship in playing them in every, every kind of sport.
Yeah. I mean, they're easy to work
with all the athletic directors and school to work with.
Great, great guys. Yes, it's it's been good for us

(16:11):
to be a part of and you know, definitely looking at. 100% And
one of the cool parts about the school league, it's just how
competitive it is. Mike, you're you're, you are a
Lords historian in my opinion. You really care about this
place. You have a long legacy with your
family and so forth being aroundLords so much.
Who do you think is our biggest rival in sports?

(16:31):
Well, I'll say this, I know in basketball it's definitely
school. Haven.
That's Yep. And that's just that goes back
to the 90s. So when we won a state title, I
don't know if we ever won the school league champion.
I don't think did they not win at the year?
That time, so when we won the states, we had two losses, the
boys and they're both school Haven was during the regular

(16:52):
season, was in the school leagueplayoffs.
Really. Yeah.
So that that kind of goes back to we've had some.
I think there's always, you know, new rivalries depend on
the kids. You know, sometimes they play
travel basketball. Yeah, soft, you know, whatever
the case is there in volleyball,you know, So, you know, they
turn into friendly rivalries. I think when kids know each

(17:14):
other and being yeah, you know how the world is now where
there's not much, you know, of distance between schools.
There are new rivalries growing nice.
But I would say, well, school haven Williams Valley is always
tough. And they are, you know, they're
they're close. I think that plays into that
rivalry. So depending on how you're
looking at it, I think there's arivalry, but just about every
team we've played for the last 40, yeah.

(17:37):
However long, I always, always think about one, especially like
when we were kids, how good nativity was for girls.
But girls basketball, I mean, that was Josh had a lot of good
teams and nativity just got in the way of them.
Yeah. And it's just incredible to see
the the Catholic school rivalries.
Yeah. And it's, it's, it's great to
see. Yeah, I was going to say even

(17:59):
right there, Nativity and Marion, obviously you want to be
competitive against them. There are two other Catholic
schools. And you can't even forget about
Cardinal Brennan. Cardinal Brennan Yeah, sometimes
I do forget about them because Inever play them.
We never played them. Yeah, we closed out.
I think that was 1. 2008, 2007 somewhere, yeah.
Mary yeah. So I never got the chance to
play them, but yeah, that's thatwas a big rivalry because we put

(18:20):
them in football along with basketball and stuff like that.
So. I think they had the coolest
mascot name, the Chargers. Yeah.
That was a. Cool one, yeah.
Like you said, though, Cardinal Brennan, Nativity Marion
Catholic schools in my opinion, even though enrollment might be
declining, which it's a nationwide problem right now,

(18:41):
athletics keep getting better. How are coaches doing it,
getting these players better and.
Better and better, yeah. I don't know.
I mean, my opinion, I think it, you know, it comes back to the
kid. If the kid wants to, you know,
continue to grow the rest as a player.
They're coachable kids, you know, they, they're willing to
learn, try new things, try new techniques, which is what our

(19:02):
every coach, you know, tries to show their players.
And we've been lucky that we've had those type of kids, you
know, the last couple of years. Right now in track, we have two
state qualifiers. Wow, Billy Rachel, he's going to
be competing the 400 and the 2 relay races for Mouthful Live
Kapitsky and Live Kapitsky. She's just been a dominant force
there as a thrower, she's a. She's a talented individual.

(19:26):
It's incredible. Yeah, but you take those two
kids for example, too, like theyjust, they have great
characteristics. You know, they're coachable
kids, but on top of that, they're they're smart in the
classroom, they're willing to learn, they're very responsible
kids and the rest like success just kind of takes care of
itself when you have those type of kids.
So. But there are two great

(19:46):
individuals and two great examples of what student
athletes should be like. Mike, I want to talk about this.
We're getting close to the end. I want to talk about our Co-op
with Mount Carmel. Sure.
Can you tell us a little bit about how that got started and
how it's going to this day? Yeah, so the Co-op, actually it
dates back, it predates our co-ops in football.
Oh, OK. It goes back to track and

(20:08):
wrestling. Yeah.
And the third one being swimming.
Yeah, swimming before cross country.
Yeah, but then cross country wasn't track.
So that was like mid 2000s, but then in 2011 we talked about
baseball already. And football.
Our co-ops kind of just grew in 2011 and it's my knowledge and I

(20:30):
do have, you know, as far as some documents on Piwa portal.
Things like that, yeah. We filed for a Co-op with
Shamboken and I would have been a freshman in high school.
So yeah, exactly. Remember when this happened, you
know, as far as appealing in thepapers, stuff like that, but do
have a document on the document portal about this.

(20:50):
But anyways, we filed for a Co-op with Shamboken in a couple
of those scores that we met. Football, baseball, and as it
does in public schools goes to school board meeting and I was
basically voted against at the school board meetings.
So then we applied for a Co-op with Mount Carmel.
They accepted us and since then the co-ops have only grown great

(21:11):
because now we have a Co-op and boys soccer like that doesn't
date back to 2011. It's definitely more recent.
It was after I was in high school.
So I'd say somewhere between 2016 and 20, somewhere around.
There, yeah, I would say. Yeah, like Mount Carmel had
their own volleyball team when Iwas in high, so that's a fairly
recent one. Racing their kids to us.
Golf might have been around that2011 period.

(21:34):
Golf. Yeah, I'm.
Not sure it. Might even have even been
before. Yeah, I did go back through last
summer to try to get some of this history stuff.
I have some stuff to always share with, but I just try to go
through the yearbooks and figureout exactly when this stuff was.
Probably should have brought that with me.
That's OK. Yeah, but but yeah, so I mean,
the co-ops definitely grew. I think, you know, this past

(21:55):
year we had like 35 kids on our boys soccer.
Yeah, that was a good example ofa Co-op there.
Volleyball was over 20. I think it was about 25 kids
there. Wow.
Between the two schools. Congrats.
You know, that's always a growing sport.
Golf kind of same way golf. We we have a Co-op with Southern
Columbia. That's great.
I like that you, Steven, Cassandra all work together and.

(22:16):
That Oh yeah, they're great schools to work with.
And we have a good, good relationship with Shamokin, too.
Nice. You know, I I know.
Maybe the perception. Yeah, people might think.
Isn't necessarily that, but Billy Clark over there is doing
a great job with their athletics.
You know, Chris Van is head of the District 4.
He's always there, you know, to answer questions.

(22:38):
There's a lot of turnover in theathletic director realm of
District 4. So, you know, Chris Venna is
always very, very good in, you know, answering any questions
you might have about any specific policies or whatever
the case might be. But yeah, no, we we do have a
good relationship with Shamokin because those other new schools
they mentioned with lots. So the one, the one good part,

(23:00):
ladies and gentlemen, is Mike isgoing to be coming back with us
more often because he's going tobe keeping us updated on Lord's
athletics, letting us know what's going on in the athletic
world. Mike, what is the website that
people can go to For more information on boards athletics?
Yeah, so our athletics website actually just went underwent
some new, new looks, nice stuff like that.
So it's really nice. It's really well done.

(23:21):
But anyways, the the website URLwould be Lords redraiders.com
and on there we also have a linkto our 24/7 online clothing
store. Yeah, it's really nice stuff on
there. But you know, go back to
boosters, which helps fund everything for our student
athletes and all of our sport teams.

(23:41):
We're kind of unique where we have one boosters programmer
nice all of our sports teams. So let's go.
But yeah, our our calendars are two for already for next year's
sporting events. Oh awesome, 26.
So yeah, that's the place you want to go.
Large Red Raiders. Dot com and then the Facebook
page, you guys, you're you're soon that all the time.

(24:02):
Yeah, I try to be. I think that's a little bit of a
run over there from where it helped bloom.
You that's OK they're. Athletics just been trying to be
on times and trying to from our student athletes news items
great to us all the local newspaper draws so whatever it
is. And then the best way to get in
contact with you would be. E-mail is good.
OK, so e-mail Mike dot Gilder atwork or feel free to call the

(24:24):
school. Ladies and gentlemen, again we
want to thank Mr. Michael Gilder, the athletic Director
here at Our Lady of Lourdes Regional School in Cole
Township, for being here on the show.
Thank you again, Mr. Yeah. Thank you, Brian.
Oh, you will be where we have a lot to go over.
So again, you can listen to us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and

(24:46):
on Amazon. Everybody have a great day, stay
safe and enjoy.