Changing of the guard in the WPIAL
High School football got underway with some schools playing Week 0 games, it gets into full swing this weekend when we enter Week 1 of the season.
I wanted to revisit the luncheon I attended on July 17 at Grand View Golf Club in North Braddock with 10 of the greatest WPIAL football coaches past and present.
Good friend Bill Priatko put the gathering together. A small gathering to talk football has blossomed into an event that is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
New coaching attendees were on hand. Thomas Jefferson coach Bill Cherpak made his first appearance at the gathering along with retired coaches Joe Hamilton (Midland, New Brighton, Hempfield, Blackhawk), Don Yannessa (Aliquippa, Baldwin, Ambridge) and Jack McCurry (North Hills).
They joined previous attendees, including active coaches, Jim Render of Upper St. Clair, West Allegheny鈥檚 Bob Palko and Aliquippa鈥檚 Mike Zmijanac. Retired coaches who returned to the luncheon included Pat Tarquinio (Ellwood City, Beaver), Joe Mucci (Greensburg Central Catholic and Jeannette) and Tom Nola (Serra, Clairton, Gateway).
The 10 coaches have garnered a total of 49 WPIAL football championships, one Catholic League championship and eight PIAA championships. There were also 2,535 wins between this group, three of the four winningest coaches in WPIAL history, and seven of the top 14.
Here are some left-over items that did not make it into my previous article on this luncheon.
As I mentioned previously, one of the highlights was a phone call from Dick LeBeau, former Steelers defensive coordinator who now holds the same position with the Tennessee Titans. He is a friend of Priatko. LeBeau called my cellphone and addressed the coaches on speaker.
鈥淭he greatest coaches are high school coaches, like you guys,鈥� LeBeau said. 鈥淚 well remember my high school coach and the knowledge that he gave to me that helped me to have the success that I have had in my coaching life.鈥�
LeBeau鈥檚 statement prompted a frank discussion on the state of high school coaching in all sports, but with an emphasis on football.
鈥淭here鈥檚 not going to be a generation like this again,鈥� said Render. 鈥淐oaches don鈥檛 last nowadays.鈥�
There is evidence to support that statement.
In recent years some WPIAL coaching legends have decided to retire. George Novak, one of the winningest coaches in WPIAL history, the one who built the Woodland Hills Wolverines into a powerhouse, the man who had close to a dozen players go to the NFL stepped away from coaching in November of 2016.
Joe Hamilton won 342 games before retiring after the 2014 season. He made Blackhawk into a perennial WPIAL power.
Tom Nola, resigned as Gateway鈥檚 coach in November of 2015 after only two seasons. Nola came to Gateway after 12 highly successful seasons as Clairton鈥檚 coach. He won six WPIAL Class A championships and four PIAA titles at Clairton and his teams had a state-record 66-game winning streak at one point.
At Gateway, Nola had a 9-10 record. The Gators were 5-4 in 2015, but failed to make the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs. Nola was 136-22 at Clairton and had two coaching stints at Serra. His all-time record is 160-64.
Increasingly, high school coaches have had to deal with meddling parents and/or short-signed school board members to keep their job.
John Tortorea resigned in early August as Quaker Valley鈥檚 head football coach after six seasons. Tortorea, 42, praised the Quaker Valley district and administrators, but claimed parents were the reason for his resignation.
The hours are long and the pay for coaching is not great, most coaches do it because the enjoy working with young people. Unfortunately, the problems they face are making a lot of coaches decide the headaches aren鈥檛 worth it.
Yannessa summed up the situation 鈥淭he new guys on the block can鈥檛 take the pressure from school boards, booster clubs, parents and even players. They can鈥檛 tell anyone any longer, 鈥楲ook, you鈥檙e full of baloney. We鈥檙e going to do things like this and if you don鈥檛 like it, tough. Here鈥檚 the door.鈥濃��
Once some of coaches mention above retire we probably won鈥檛 see coaches like that again.
At last year鈥檚 gathering the question was asked, 鈥榳hat was the greatest game or the most satisfying game that you ever coached?鈥� Here are the responses of the four new coaches who attended this years luncheon.
Bill Cherpak: 鈥淚 remember the losses way more than the wins. All the championships were special, but they run together.鈥�
Jack McCurry: 鈥淧robably the state championship game in 1993. We were getting our butts kicked for three quarters, we were playing Central Bucks West. We were down, 14-0, somehow we score, we get it back again with no timeouts and two minutes to go in the game on our own 20. We score again and go for two and win the game, 15-14, with three seconds to go.鈥�
Joe Hamilton: 鈥淚鈥檒l give you a game and there鈥檚 a lot of them. Probably the one was the second game in my career. I was 24-years-old and I鈥檓 at Midland. We are playing East Liverpool, they had 2,440 students and we had 64 graduates. It was 1966, and it鈥檚 a big rivalry, we hadn鈥檛 beaten them since 1942. It went back and forth this game and we had a kid named John L. Williams who weighed 145 pounds, but was the top 400 man in the county. We ran a simple pop pass and he caught it and went for a touchdown and we win. The town went bananas.鈥�
Don Yannessa: 鈥淚 lost three championships in a row. I lost in 1980, 鈥�82 and 鈥�83. We lost to Upper St. Clair, 8-7, our only loss to finish the regular season at 9-1. After that game Pudgy Abercrombie says, 鈥榃e will lose no mo in eighty fo.鈥� In the WPIAL title game, we鈥檙e down, 15-14, to Mount Pleasant and we鈥檙e on our own 48-yard line, and there鈥檚 five minutes to go in the game.
鈥淚 know if we punt they are going to keep the ball for a long time, and if they punt, we are going to be 90 yards away with about a minute to go and down by one. I have to go for it, and my quarterback Victor Lay, who went to Temple, hadn鈥檛 completed a pass in Three Rivers Stadium in two years. I said to him, 鈥楥ould you please one time put the ball on the money?鈥�
鈥淗e did and we got the first down, and then Abercrombie says to me, 鈥楪ive me the ball.鈥� He carried the ball about seven or eight times in a row and punched it in, and we win the game. That was the greatest because we finally won a championship.鈥�
Great memories from the WPIALs storied past. With a new season starting, more great memories will be made.
George Von Benko鈥檚 鈥淢emory Lane鈥� column appears in the Monday editions of the 缅北禁地. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.