Charleroi, Monessen to renew football rivalry
One of the state’s oldest high school football rivalries will return in 2016.
Charleroi and Monessen high schools will resume their rivalry, which began in 1907, Aug. 25 with a non-conference game to kick off the season at Memorial Stadium in Monessen.
With the PIAA’s expansion to six classifications, the WPIAL gave its member schools the option to either play a second preseason scrimmage or schedule a non-conference season-opening game.
Charleroi and Monessen hadn’t met since 2007 but opted to play the 100th game in the WPIAL’s longest-standing rivalry. Charleroi leads the series 47-43-9.
“When the opportunity presented itself, we decided to bring it back,” Charleroi athletic director Bill Wiltz said. “It’s huge. The rivalry has been missing. Both communities want it, and it’s a good opportunity for us to play some good competition on the first week.”
When the WPIAL realigned its classifications following the 2007 season, Charleroi was placed in Class AA with a full nine-game schedule that prevented the Cougars from playing the Greyhounds.
Monessen won the first meeting in 1907, 11-0, and the two played every year from 1923-2007 with the exception of 1972, when Charleroi did not have a football season because of a teacher’s strike.
Both riverfront towns were once bustling industrial bases with people from Monessen and Charleroi often working side by side in the mills or factories, and the annual game gave bragging rights to the winners.
For a number of years, the rivalry was played on Armistice Day and drew thousands from across the Mon Valley.
Monessen head coach Joe Salvino, who played high school football at Monessen and spent 26 years as an assistant football coach in the district, also is pleased the game is returning.
“Unless you have a rivalry like Aliquippa and Beaver Falls, you haven’t experienced anything like it,” Salvino said. “It’s a great thing because it’s one of those things – Charleroi and Monessen – and to be honest with you, it’s one of those games people from both schools live for.”
Though the two schools haven’t played in nearly 10 years – Monessen won the last matchup, 28-17 – they have scrimmaged the past four seasons. Though the competition didn’t count, each drew large crowds and kept concession workers busy.
When Charleroi head coach Donnie Militzer was hired in 2014, he researched the program’s history and learned of the rivalry with Monessen. The crowds at scrimmages against Monessen and his players’ excitement regarding the matchup opened his eyes to how much a game would mean to both communities.
“Obviously, it’s one of the best rivalries in the WPIAL,” Militzer said. “We missed it big time. The community wants it. For the past four or five years, both schools have made the most money off those scrimmages. It’s really a game that everyone wants.”
For the two schools, which are connected by the Charleroi-Monessen bridge span over the Mongahela River, the annual game brought droves of fans to Memorial Stadium and the old Charleroi Stadium, which was in use from 1937-2010.
The rivalry has included well-respected coaches such as Charleroi’s Rab Currie and Monessen’s Jack Scarvel, talented players such Monessen’s JoJo Heath and Charleroi’s Darrell Harding, and high stakes, including Charleroi’s 28-6 win in 1959 to propel the Cougars to the WPIAL title game.
Both have produced athletes who have gone on to play major college football and in the NFL, and both have fans that live and breathe football on Friday nights.
It took almost a decade and the change of high school athletics in Pennsylvania, but the rivalry is back.
“Scrimmaging Charleroi wasn’t the same,” Salvino said. “Now that it’s an actual game, the rivalry parts of it will renew and it will be a good thing for both communities.”