When opportunity knocked on the Catasauqua athletic door for him, Kyle Rusnock responded.

A year ago, Rusnock took over the reins of the Roughies' cross country program from long-time mentor Charlie Post and began to blaze his own trail.

This spring, Rusnock decided to follow in the footsteps of veteran wrestling coach Mike Conner, who decided to step down after 20 seasons.

Now with a seemingly full plate in the Roughies' coaching circles, Rusnock isn't ready to slow down.

"I was ready for this," said the energetic and effervescent Rusnock, who was recently appointed the new wrestling coach. "Everyone seemed to be on board with it. I met with (Conner) and he was ready to take a break. I feel that I am ready to take this next step."

Rusnock, an assistant coach for the past 10 years at Catty, replaces Conner who won his 250th career match this past winter. Conner has two stints at Catty, one from 1985-1997 and the other from 2004-14. He was the head coach when Rusnock won the PIAA Class 2A state championship in 1992. Rusnock also placed fourth and fifth at state competitions in two previous seasons.

Roughies' athletic director Tom Moll believed it was a natural transition.

"The CHS administration could not be happier with our selection of Kyle (Rusnock) as our next head wrestling coach," said Moll in a prepared statement. "He is the perfect person to continue the tradition of success that we have had with our wrestling program.

"The future of wrestling is bright at CHS and Kyle is anxious and ready to lead our program. But with every new beginning comes an end. I will miss working with Mike Conner. Mike cared deeply for the wrestlers and wanted them to succeed more than anyone else. He has given a lot to this program and school district over his 22-year head coaching career. There never was a dull moment with Mike. He had the ability to always put a smile on my face, for whatever the reason, good or bad. He will be missed."

Rusnock is aware the Roughies will lose several senior starters, but he welcomes back a core of Ryan Greene, Alec Hartranft, Ben Nosal, Mike Shutta, and Satchel Stauffer, who all will help anchor next year's unit.

"We will be losing a lot of seniors, no doubt about it," admitted Rusnock. "But the program is in good shape. We have a good core coming back and we will able to have another good lineup."

Rusnock also credits the ongoing success of the junior high program, guided by his brother Mike, as well as the midget program under Joe Russo, as a pipeline and key to the future.

Russo will be joining him as an assistant coach.

Rusnock also hopes to recruit some possible wrestlers as he is an eighth-grade teacher at the middle school.

"Our junior high and middle school programs are in good shape," said Rusnock. "The only drawback would be having a good freshman and deciding whether to have him get more matches at the junior high level or bring him with us.

"But we continue to have more interest in the program in our own area and beyond."

Rusnock also plans to build on the Roughies' growing reputation as one of the Lehigh Valley's premier programs.

"Our motto has always been to work hard and earn respect," stated Rusnock. "We're just looking to do what we can. We slipped under the radar two years ago, but last year, teams knew who we were.

"The former Palisades coach gave us some fodder when he said, 'Who's Catty?' I think we answered that question last year and we want to keep it going."