New classes, ground gainers and stability mark this season
Holly Tonini/For the Observer-Reporter
Belle Vernon’s Quinton Martin averaged more than 11 yards per rushing attempt as a sophomore last year. The Leopards have dropped to Class 3A after reaching the Class 4A title game in 2021.
Observer-Reporter
George Messich has kept a watchful eye on Mapletown’s football program for 40 years as head coach.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
You can expect another season of helmet-jarring hits, long touchdowns and exciting down-to-the-wire games.
Associated Press
Mitch Trubisky, left, Mason Rudolph, right, and Kenny Pickett, center, give the Pittsburgh Steelers their most interesting, and least experienced, group of quarterbacks in many years.
It’s football season already. Hard to believe, right?
Baseball season is still ticking, though the Pirates have long been out of the playoff chase. Washington Wild Things fans are excited about their team having the best record in the Frontier League and chasing the franchise’s first championship. The Penguins created a buzz this summer by re-signing several of their star players.
Though baseball and hockey can provide many thrills, there is nothing quite like football for excitement in Western Pennsylvania. It’s what helps many of us get through those months when daylight hours get shorter and temperatures drop.
For the 45th year, we are giving you a head start on what you need to know about the high schools, colleges and Steelers with the Observer-Reporter’s annual Football Preview. For three decades, this publication has been in cooperation with The Almanac, a sister publication of the O-R.
For the past two weeks, members of the O-R sports staff, The Almanac, the Uniontown Herald-Standard – another sister publication of the O-R – and our correspondents have been visiting area schools, interviewing coaches and players, taking pictures and gathering all the information you need to get ready for the football season.
From what we’ve gathered, this has all the early signs of being a memorable year. Mt. Lebanon is the defending Class 6A state champion, there is a buzz about the potential of Upper St. Clair in Class 5A and Belle Vernon in 3A, and the Class 2A Century Conference should be much improved.
Pitt is defending an ACC championship for the first time and will begin the season with the Backyard Brawl against West Virginia.
The Steelers have questions to be answered at quarterback – but not as many as the Cleveland Browns – and a new name for its stadium. After another early exit in the playoffs, the Steelers have something to prove.
Who’s playing where?
The WPIAL starts a new two-year realignment cycle this season, Though not many local schools were impacted by the realignment there are some significant changes.
The most notable is that Belle Vernon, the Class 4A runner-up, has dropped to the Class 3A Interstate Conference.
Class 6A has been reduced to a mere five teams, including defending state champion Mt. Lebanon and Canon-McMillan. Some Class 6A teams will clinch a playoff berth by as early as mid-September.
With Beth-Center and Chartiers-Houston dropping from Class 2A, Class A had to shift teams around in its conferences. Beth-Center is in the Tri-County South, replacing Avella, which moved to the Black Hills, which is where Chartiers-Houston will play. Three of the four Class A semifinalists from last year are playing in the Black Hills.
Sto-Rox, Brentwood and Keystone Oaks have been added to the Class 2A Century Conference, which should make the conference much stronger.
On the run
High school football has always been slow in adopting what works at the collegiate level.
It took some time, but the pass-happy spread offense that became standard in college football two decades ago has finally taken root in high school ball. That has been good news for quarterbacks, who have dominated the local scene in recent years.
In 2021, nine local quarterbacks passed for at least 1,000 yards, led by Mt. Lebanon’s Joey Daniels, who threw for a 2,118 yards in the Blue Devils’ state championship-winning season. Peters Township’s Sam Miller also eclipsed 2,000 passing yards. There were only nine players who rushed for 1,000 yards and four of them were quarterbacks who used their athletic ability to run against spread-out defenses.
This season, however, running backs could be back in favor. The one getting the most attention is Belle Vernon junior Quinton Martin, who is rated a 5-star recruit by most scouting services. With Leopards quarterback Devin Whitlock graduated, Martin should become the focus of Belle Vernon’s offense. Martin rushed for more than 900 yards last season and averaged a ridiculous 11.3 yards per carry.
Mapletown’s Landan Stevenson is the area’s leading returning rusher after gaining 1,725 yards last year. West Greene’s Colin Brady topped 1,400 yards a year ago but the Pioneers will switch him from running back to quarterback this season.
Waynesburg running back Braydon Woods impressed many in the Century Conference when he rushed for more than 1,300 yards. He also returns.
40 years
Greg Schiano, the head coach at Rutgers, made a terrific analysis of American males when he said, “There are two things every man in America thinks he can do: work a grill and coach football.”
Yes, every guy who has played high school football or had a fantasy football team thinks he can coach football. Very few can actually do it. A small number can do it well enough to coach at the high school level and even fewer are able to stick around for more than three or four years.
Then, there are guys like George Messich, the veteran coach at Mapletown. This will be Messich’s 40th season as a head coach, all at Mapletown, his alma mater. This is Messich’s second stint as head coach at Mapletown and that second go-around began in 1987. There are some head coaches in the WPIAL, including new Chartiers Valley coach Aaron Fitzpatrick, who weren’t born in 1987.
Mapletown plays in the eight-team Tri-County South Conference. Since Messich was hired for his second stint with the Maples, the other seven schools in the TCS have gone through 50 different head coaches, four of whom have been hired twice, and one coach lasted only one game before resigning.
Messich’s kind of longevity is rare. Jim Garry coached at Fort Cherry for 44 years. The legendary Jim Render of Upper St. Clair had a 49-year career as a head coach. Those are the exceptions. Coaches don’t last very long these days. Some can’t handle the pressure from parents and school board members. Some don’t win enough games. Some just get tired of the job.
“One thing that bothers me about coaches, and this isn’t a shot at anyone in particular, but I hate to see someone come in when they know they’re going to have a real good team, stay for two years and then the good players graduate. Then they see all these young players who aren’t nearly as good. They say they’re not going to go through that rebuilding and leave,” Messich said.
“If you quit at that point, then you weren’t in coaching for the right reasons. In Class A and Double-A, it’s going to run in cycles. You’re going to be good for two years and then you’re going to be down for two or three years. If you’re just coaching when you have the talent, then I think you’re in the wrong business.”
So what makes Messich, who was a starting offensive tackle on Pitt’s national championship team in 1976, get up in the morning and return to the practice field every fall after all these years?
“First thing, I don’t get up in the morning,” Messich is quick to say. “It’s great being a retired teacher. You can work on things during the day, maybe work on football stuff, then you go to practice.
“It’s something you really have to love or you can’t do it. … I don’t know how long I can continue to coach, but I still love working with the offensive linemen every day.”
Messich coaches at one of the smallest schools in the WPIAL, but Mapletown has 32 players on its roster this year. That shows how much Messich is liked by the students and people within the community.
“Coaching has changed a lot in 40 years,” Messich admits. “I’ve had to change my coaching style a lot. Somebody will know in a year or two if they really love it or not. It’s not just coaching. You have to take care of the kids on the field and off the field.
“I really don’t have any problems with the parents. I’m pretty fortunate in that area. When I go to coaches meetings, I hear the problems and horror stories other guys have, parents complaining about them and stuff like that. I’ve been fortunate here with parents. What helps is I’ve known many of the parents of my players. I have 32 players on my roster and 17 of them, I taught at least one of their parents in fifth grade. I’ve been friends with them forever. They know what to expect out of me and what I expect out of their sons.”
Though Messich hasn’t won a WPIAL championship – heck, Mapletown hasn’t won a playoff game in its history – he will likely join a small group among coaches this season. If Mapletown running back Landan Stevenson gains 349 yards – , then he will become the third player to rush for 4,000 career yards while playing for Messich. Derek Bochna and Dylan Rush were the others.
New coaches
In contrast to Mapletown’s coaching stability, five area schools will have new head coaches this season.
One of those is not exactly a new coach. Dan Knause is the coach at Trinity. This will be Knause’s third head coaching job. He was at Chartiers Valley for the previous five years.
Aaron Fitzpatrick, an energetic 32-year-old, has replaced Knause at CV.
Two of the new head coaches are in the Mon Valley. Marcus McCullough takes over at his alma mater, Ringgold. Marc Gambino, a former assistant at Elizabeth Forward, is the new boss at Charleroi.
In Greene County, Shane Ziats has moved from assistant at Waynesburg to head coach at Jefferson-Morgan.