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The Point Skyhawks came into the offseason with openings at key coaching positions heading into football season. One of the most important vacancies was the quarterbacks coach. The Skyhawks filled the role in April and tabbed Charlie Skalaski IV as the coach to lead the most important position on the field. 

Skalaski comes to Point with 16 years of experience. Skalaski is an offensive mind, but he has spent time coaching both sides of the ball. Skalaski served at Albany State for the last two seasons as the quarterbacks coach. 

Before his stop at Albany State, Skalaski coached the wideouts at Robert Morris. Skalaski coached defensive backs at Charleston Southern. Skalaski was in charge of the defensive quality control at Liberty before his stop at Charleston Southern and also held several other roles during his time at Liberty. 

Skalaski spent several years coaching the defensive side of the ball, but he always had his sights set on returning to offense. Skalaski used his years of experience coaching on defense to learn and gain a better understanding of how to attack defenses. 

“I had the opportunity to coach either defensive or offensive quality control,” Skalaski said. “Every veteran coach I knew, even though I was an offensive background guy, said take the defensive job because you’ll learn a ton of ball doing that. I got to do that for two and a half years, and for me it was a learning experience.” 

The quarterback position for the Skyhawks was a revolving door last season. The Skyhawks had three different quarterbacks battling for the starting role deep into the season in 2023 and were never able to find much consistency. 

Skalaski hopes to bring consistency to the position, but he also wants to be consistent as a coach for the players. 

“Consistency is what I’m going to expect for them, but consistency is also what I’m going to provide for them,” Skalaski said. “All of these guys have different skills, talents and abilities… I want to get them really good and what they’re good at, and then ask them to do the things they’re good at and be consistent. Then, over time you work their deficiencies too.” 

Skalaski emphasizes the quarterbacks doing their job and trusting their surrounding parts. Payton Allen, Mitch Gossett and several young quarterbacks will compete for the starting quarterback position over the summer.
The competition will hinge on which guy makes the right play each day, but Skalaski is also looking for a quarterback who will take over the reins and be the leader of the team. 

“That’ll be a big thing I’ll start this summer with the guys, just doing some Zoom meetings and leadership training,” Skalaski said. “Just trying to develop that side of them while we’re away from each other.” 

Skalaski will handle recruiting for Point in areas like Savannah and other areas in eastern Georgia. While recruiting, Skalaski is looking for players that fit Point and may have been overlooked by other teams. 

Over the years, several coaches have had an influence on him as a coach. Skalaski’s dad, also Charlie Skalaski, has been a football coach his whole life and was able to teach how a coach should show up each day. 

During his 16-year career, Skalaski has had several other coaching influences. Skalaski played and coached under Frank Rocco at Liberty Christian Academy in Virginia, and Rocco’s impact still influences Skalaski today. 

“Playing and coaching for coach Rocco at the high school level, he ran everything like a college program,” Skalaski said. “I’ve gotten to work at some big places, and I’d still put him toe-to-toe with anybody as far as X’s and O’s but also as far as management, organization, motivating guys and just working. That’s the thing I probably learned the most from him is how to do the work.” 

Skalaski learned the most from Jamey Chadwell from a schematics standpoint. Skalaski was on the opposite side of the field as he was on Liberty’s coaching staff and Chadwell was coaching at Charleston Southern. Skalaski eventually coached under Chadwell at Charleston Southern.

Skalaski took over as the defensive backs coach at Charleston Southern, but he wanted to work under Chadwell in any role. Chadwell taught Skalaski how to love players properly in order to get them to buy into the program. 

Skalaski has had several stops along the way, but he felt that Point was the next step to take in his career. Ultimately the way Point’s program was run from top to bottom and Trevor Zeiders’ character as a head coach made Skalaski feel that the Skyhawks were the right fit for him. 

“The biggest thing was I wanted to work for a man of character and someone I could trust… When this job came open, I started asking [about Zeiders], didn’t hear a negative thing,” Zalaski said. “Once I got a chance to get down here and see it, it’s a small campus at Point but it’s a nice campus. They’re trying to do things the right way.”