The retirement didn't last long, but he knew it wouldn't.

Mark Capuano, who retired as Moon Area High School's football coach after the 2008 season, will be the head coach for the Pennsylvania team in the annual Penn-Ohio All-Star Football Classic at 7:30 p.m. June 26 at Geneva College's Reeves Field.

It comes as no surprise that Capuano will guide the Pennsylvania team. The Midwestern Athletic Conference Coaches Association usually selects a recently retired head coach from its membership to lead the all-star squad.

"I'm looking forward to it," said Capuano, who compiled a 143-108 record in 24 seasons at Moon. "I don't know if the [Pennsylvania] roster has been completed, but I know some of the players who are going to be on it and we've got some pretty good kids. There are a number of guys, from West Allegheny, Hopewell and Blackhawk, who I've coached against and know a little something about. It should be fun."

The Pennsylvania team's roster wasn't going to be completed until this week. Practices begin Monday at Blackhawk High School.

Ellwood City coach Don Phillips is one of Capuano's assistants and will run the offense. Capuano, considered a defensive guru by many, will handle the defense.

When asked if the defensive coordinator got the first choice on whether a player will concentrate on offense or defense in the game, Capuano laughed.

"When we were talking about players, coach Phillips would say, 'I think he looks good on offense.' So, I think he was getting first pick," he said. "But that's OK because there aren't a lot of restriction on the offense. You can't have an empty set ... you've got to have a running back in the backfield, but that's about it.

"On defense, you have to play a '50' and you can't blitz, so you've got to be pretty basic. So, I'm going to tell coach Phillips he's got to score 40 or 50 points because we've got to play a 50 [on defense] and can't stop anybody."

Naturally, Capuano was kidding. It's a good bet Pennsylvania's defense will be solid with him calling the shots.

This will be the 30th annual Penn-Ohio game. The Ohio players are selected by the Quad County Coaches Association in the Buckeye state and the contest is played one year at Reeves Field in Beaver Falls and the next at a stadium in Ohio.

A heated rivalry has developed between the two sides and there have been some incidents in the games, a fact that isn't lost on Capuano.

"It's a physical game, but I'll tell the players that they don't want to do something and get thrown out of the game after working hard for two weeks to get ready for it," he said.

Some of the players expected to be on the Pennsylvania roster include Blackhawk quarterback Zack Hayward, Beaver running back Jake Nardone, Cornell quarterback/defensive back Christian Jackson and Center defensive end Chris Kimbrough.

"It's going to be a fun two weeks," Capuano said. "And I'm looking forward to the game at Geneva after they've redone the field down there. Hey, what else would you rather be doing on the last Friday in June?"

Capuano's coaching career won't end when the Penn-Ohio game is finished. While he won't be running a program in the fall, he will be the defensive coordinator at South Side Beaver. For those who know Capuano, this shouldn't come as a surprise. He has said when he resigned at Moon he wanted to keep coaching.

"I just thought the program needed new blood and that's why I resigned," he said. "But I thought I'd give college coaching a try and I talked to a few people I know. Then what happened is that James Winner, who was on my staff [at Moon] got the job at South Side and asked if I wanted to go down there as the defensive coordinator."

It was an offer Capuano, who loves working with the defense, couldn't pass up.

"I love coaching and teaching football and that's what I'm going to be able to do without having to worry about anything else," he said. "South Side is just down the road and Jim has a couple other guys who were with us at Moon on his staff, so it'll be pretty much all guys I know and that will make it easy.

"I'm going to have to get used to games on Saturday afternoon [South Side plays its home games at 12:30 p.m. Saturdays] but all that means is I'll be able to go watch Moon play on Fridays."