New leader: LH grad Raffle takes over Mustangs football team
Aaron Raffle has coached, played for or been associated with a wide variety of football teams since his graduation from Laurel Highlands in 1991, including youth, high school, semipro, college and even flag football and women鈥檚 professional football.
He鈥檚 now circled back to where he started and is excited to step in as Laurel Highlands new head football coach.
鈥淚鈥檓 excited to be back and looking for some big things coming forward,鈥� Raffle said. 鈥淚鈥檓 excited about the returning players that we have and very excited about the class that鈥檚 coming in.鈥�
Raffle has held coaching and administrative positions throughout his career. His latest job had him at George Mason as head coach and defensive coordinator of the school鈥檚 club football team the past two years. The Patriots don鈥檛 have a varsity football program but Raffle found success with the club squad, leading it to a 7-1 regular season and a No. 5 national ranking in 2023 and to a North Atlantic Conference championship, a No. 3 national ranking and into the national semifinals last year.
Logistics became a problem, however, as Raffle moved back into the Fayette County area last year.
鈥淲e needed to come back and be a little closer to the family. Really the big thing had been the time away from the family,鈥� Raffle said. 鈥淚 was commuting down to Virginia the last two seasons. That commute became pretty difficult, being down there four, five, six days a week then being home a couple days.鈥�
Raffle, who received a three-year contract, feels like the school and the administration are behind him as he assumes the head coaching position at his old school.
鈥淪upport has been phenomenal,鈥� Raffle said. 鈥淓verybody that I鈥檝e interacted with from the administration to the boosters club to some of the assistant coaches, everybody鈥檚 been great, everybody鈥檚 been helpful in getting us on the right track.鈥�
The 50-year-old Raffle is still in the process of putting together his coaching staff.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got some good guys that are interested right now that we are talking to,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e had several meetings on all three aspects, offense, defense, special teams.
鈥淚鈥檓 actually moving some of the gentlemen up from the middle school because they鈥檝e got good experience and they did a good job with those guys. And we鈥檝e got a pretty good incoming freshmen class.鈥�
Raffle played for Laurel Highlands from 1988 to 1991 under Mike Bosnic and then one year under Jack Buehner although an ankle injury forced him to miss his senior season. He was part of the Mustangs first playoff team under Bosnic in 1989.
鈥淎fter high school I went to college at California (Pa.) for electrical engineering but didn鈥檛 play football there,鈥� Raffle said.
He did play semipro football for seven years as a linebacker and longsnapper.
Raffle recalls how he first got involved in the other side of football while living in Virginia.
鈥淚 had a stepson that was playing and I started coaching him and that sort of brought football back to me,鈥� Raffle said. 鈥淚 sat there and watched his very first football practice and after it was over the head coach addressed all the parents and said if anyone鈥檚 interested in volunteering we always need help and I was probably the first one with my hand up.
鈥淭hat was the beginning. Thirteen years later I found myself coaching high school.鈥�
Raffle coached at the youth level for a number of years, including basketball, and eventually delved into coaching at higher levels. He was defensive coordinator for the Prince William Monarchs semipro football team from 2015 to 2021 where he was part of two league championships and back-to-back undefeated seasons.
Raffle moved on to become defensive coordinator at Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Virginia from 2016 to 2019 before taking over as head coach from 2019 to 2023. Under his watch the team had its best record in 16 years.
He also joined the DC Divas women鈥檚 pro football team as a coach and consultant in 2022.
Now he鈥檚 back at his alma mater..
鈥淚t felt like a good opportunity,鈥� Raffle said. 鈥淚 would love to be able to bring back sort of the glory that we had in 鈥�89 with that team.鈥�
Raffle doesn鈥檛 consider himself a screamer or yeller when it comes to coaching.
鈥淚鈥檝e got a very laid back coaching style,鈥� he said. 鈥淢y goal is always to develop everybody on the team, not just a handful of players. I want to make sure that everybody comes up equally because I want to put everybody to be in a position to be successful, whether it鈥檚 offense or defense.鈥�
While he considers himself a laid-back coach, he admits that isn鈥檛 always the case.
鈥淚鈥檓 laid back when it comes to the instructional piece of coaching and I鈥檓 laid back when I鈥檓 dealing with the coaches as well because I want to try to build a good repertoire with everybody,鈥� Rafle said. 鈥淏ut if we are consistently doing things not up to a standard then we鈥檒l start to apply a little bit of pressure to bring that standard up, at the risk of sounding like Mike Tomlin.
鈥淚鈥檒l make sure that I have your attention when I鈥檓 talking to you but I will be your friend and mentor. We do things neatly and cleanly and we do things as a team, do it together.鈥�
Raffle will likely be more involved with the defense than the offense.
鈥淚鈥檓 more comfortable on the defensive side but I do have a lot of offensive concepts that I鈥檓 bringing with me, things that we鈥檝e run at other places I鈥檝e been whether it was college or semipro or high school,鈥� he said. 鈥淏eing able to bring those concepts to Laurel Highlands, I think, is going to help us be a little more successful.鈥�
Raffle takes over for Rich Kolesar who had a 26-33 record in six years, but that included the Mustangs first conference championship and first road and home playoff wins over a two-year span from 2021 to 2022. Laurel Highlands was 2-8 in 2023 and 4-5 last year.
Raffle hopes to utilize every piece he has at LH.
鈥淚 feel as though everybody that鈥檚 on that squad can be a weapon, can be a good, solid player,鈥� Raffle said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 sort of what our aim is, to make them all good, solid football players, and put everybody in that position where they can be successful.鈥�
Raffle enjoyed his time at George Mason and feels the experience helped him improve even more as a coach.
鈥淚 learned a good bit,鈥� he said. 鈥淐lub football at the college level is kind of like the college version of semipro football because you鈥檙e working around a lot of different schedules, whether it鈥檚 class schedules or work schedules for players as well as coaches. So being able to be dynamic in practice planning and practice scheduling was crucial, just helping them manage their time. That was the biggest hurdle with club football.鈥�
Raffle is confident his past experiences can help him in getting Mustang players recruited.
鈥淚 actually generated a lot of college connections coaching high school in Virginia, just simply from the recruiting aspect of things,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e were very good at being able to get student-athletes in front of college coaches and recruiters and helping them through the process if they needed it, and just being on the collegiate side of things, understanding what the admissions process is like and how those dollars fly around in different ways.鈥�
Raffle鈥檚 wife Heather is an Albert Gallatin graduate.
Raffle, the son of Gary and Ruby Raffle, has three sons 鈥� Milo, 5, Adam, 21, living in Virginia, and stepson Anthony, 25, living in Florida 鈥� and one daughter, Tessa, 2.