Dave Krakoff couldn't pass it up.

"It just all made sense," he said. "It was something I felt I should do."

It was a job at The Villages Charter Schools near Orlando, Fla., where he will serve as administrator for special projects -- and as a result, Krakoff recently resigned from his posts as English teacher and boys' basketball coach at Pine-Richland High School.

He taught at Pine-Richland for nine years, serving as head basketball coach the past four.

Krakoff compiled a 54-45 record, guided the Rams to the WPIAL Class AAAA Section 3 title in 2007 and also made a trip to the WPIAL semifinals that season.

Krakoff, 35, doesn't have much time to ponder the move. He, along with his wife and four children -- with the eldest being 6 -- leave for Florida Saturday.

While he will not be the head basketball coach at The Villages Charter, one of Krakoff's duties will be helping to direct the school's athletic programs.

As he mulled over the offer, Krakoff, a Keystone Oaks High School graduate and Castle Shannon native, understood that he would be leaving much behind, but he also knew the endless possibility that awaited him and his family.

"This was very much a family decision, as is anything we do and what made it tougher is that for nine years, I was treated like gold at Pine-Richland," Krakoff said. "We never make any decisions based on just individual need, but we do it on how it will best work out for our entire family.

"If anything, this was a decision that was not just about one thing, but there were multiple benefits and that is what made it one in which we felt we should make."

And one that, when he spoke on the phone this past weekend, he had no regrets making.

The Villages Charter is a public charter school, attended mostly by children of people who work for The Villages, the largest retirement community firm in the country. As Krakoff explained, one of the components that go into where a child attends school in Florida is not only where they live, but where their parents work in some cases.

Krakoff, who has been residing in Green Tree for the past several years, said he was a little uncertain when first approached about taking a job in administration at a charter school.

"When I first heard that term, I was unfamiliar and the first thing that came to my mind was that it was a private school, but it is not," he said. "I think some of us forget sometimes how good we have it here in Western Pennsylvania with our public school system and, for the most part, you just kind of go to school right in the community you live because just about every community around here does an awesome job of educating its students. But, some places in the South, that is not the case and although we might look at the charter school system as a strange arrangement, I just think we are not used to it more than anything else."

What Krakoff must become used to is his winter nights not being filled with basketball games -- something that has been a portion of his identity. He admits it might be difficult, particularly next season.

"I am a competitor and have always been," Krakoff said. "I love to compete and there is nothing like a big section game. When you are in the locker room and about to come out on the floor and you are at North Allegheny and it is a packed house, I mean, how can you not have your blood flowing and your adrenaline rushing through you? If you are alive, you are excited in that situation.

"But, next year when that opportunity is not there, I will look back on that time and cherish it -- and I'll find other ways to compete."