Hall of Fame
Paul Harrica has been a teacher, coach, athletic director, principal, and superintendent for nearly 40 years in Section VII and X. He began his career as a physical education teacher at Dannemora High School (Section VII) in 1974 where he initiated programs for grades 5-8 and implemented girls varsity programs in soccer, volleyball, basketball and softball. Paul also coached varsity baseball, basketball and soccer there leading his teams to Section VII Championships in basketball and baseball. As a result he was voted Mountain Valley Conference Coach of the Year twice.
In 1985, Paul was hired as Director of Physical Education and Athletics at Franklin Academy (Section X) in Malone where he also became Assistant Principal. At Franklin, he organized a committee called Save Our Sports to help raise money to fully fund the school’s programs for two years while on an austerity budget.
Following eight years at Franklin, Paul moved on to become the high school principal and athletic director at Chateaugay Central School (Section X). In 2005, he became Superintendent at Chateaugay until retirement in 2008.
Paul proudly served on the NYSPHSAA Executive Committee and the NYSPHSAA Budget and Audit Committee. He was previously a member of the NYSPHSAA Central Committee from 1993-2007 and served on the Selection Committee for the new Executive Director. Since 1998, Mr. Harrica also served as President of Section X where he was instrumental in creating a Section X and Section VII football merger as well as developing the section-wide Selection Classification Process at centralized sites. In 1993, Paul was named Section X NYSAAA Athletic Director of the Year and, in 1999, was the recipient of the New York State Council of Administrators award.
Harrica earned a bachelor’s degree from Ithaca College and a master’s from Syracuse University.