Editor’s note: The commentary below contains opinion. The author's name has been withheld at the writer's request.
Notes, quotes and factoids about the WPIAL football championships.
Anyone who attended the WPIAL Class 6A football championship at Heinz Field last Saturday night and stayed for the entire game didn’t get home until Sunday morning.
That’s why the WPIAL needs to change the format of the title games at Heinz Field.
The Pine-Richland vs. Central Catholic game was the last of the four WPIAL title games at Heinz. The first game started at 11 a.m. and the fourth didn’t end until 11:50 p.m. Saturday. And this isn’t the first time the final game has ended near midnight. A high school football game that ends around midnight is ridiculous.
So, wise up, WPIAL. Next year, start the games at 9:30 a.m. or 10 at the latest. It’s not too early. If playing at Heinz means the world to kids, like so many people claim, then it shouldn’t matter what time they play. Heck, in Massachusetts, state championship games are played on a Saturday at the New England Patriots’ Gillette Stadium starting at 9 a.m. So, 9:30 or 10 isn’t too early.
If the WPIAL doesn’t want to start that early, then play three game at Heinz instead of four. People don’t realize how expensive it is for the WPIAL to rent Heinz for the day. The WPIAL has never revealed the exact price, but six figures is likely. So you can’t play in Heinz twice. It’s too costly. Playing four games is thought to help pay the bills, but the Class 1A final doesn’t even attract 500 fans in many years. The loss would be minimal if that game wasn’t played at Heinz.
Just play the Class 6A game every year at Heinz along with the 5A or 4A game. Rotate the other classifications every year for the third game. The WPIAL would certainly be criticized for that, but so what. They’re always criticized for championship sites. The games at Heinz Field don’t attract all that many fans any longer. Change is needed.
• The attendance for the four championship games at Heinz this season was 14,110, according to the WPIAL. That’s a minimal increase from last year’s 13,612. It was a chilly day this year, but sunny and dry. Still, attendance isn’t what it used to be at Heinz. For many years, attendance was around 20,000. When Heinz Field opened in 2001, the four games attracted a record crowd of 39,031. In 2016, attendance was 17,500 and an all-time low of 12,000 in 2017.
• This factoid certainly won’t make Pine-Richland feel any better about its 10-7 loss to Central Catholic in the Class 6A final: Pine-Richland held Central Catholic to 138 total yards. In 38 championship games in the largest classification that have been played at either Heinz Field or Three Rivers Stadium, that ties for the lowest-yardage total of the winning team. Gateway also had 138 when it beat North Hills, 7-6, at Three Rivers in 1986.
• Kudos to Thomas Jefferson defensive coordinator Jack Giran, who is in his 50th year of coaching high school football — and still going strong. Giran has molded together some great defenses in recent years and this year’s is an all-timer. Thomas Jefferson gave up only 60 total yards in the Class 4A final. That is the second-lowest yardage total of any of the 76 title games played at Heinz since the stadium opened in 2001. Aliquippa allowed only 55 yards to Quaker Valley two years ago, and Aliquippa lost, 2-0.
Giran, 70, has been an assistant coach at a few different schools but also was the head coach at Steel Valley when the Ironmen won back-to-back WPIAL titles in 1988-89, with quarterback Marcel Weems and running back Olando Dulin. Giran obviously loves coaching and this gives you an indication: He lives in Florida for much of the year, but comes back to the Pittsburgh to coach.
“The biggest thing he has is so much experience because he’s seen everything,” Cherpak said. “He’s so good at putting people in the right position to be successful. That’s what he does best. But he’s been coaching 50 years? I can tell you I’m not going to make 50 years.”
• Central Valley’s Mark Lyons is one of the most underrated coaches in the WPIAL. He has been the school’s coach since it opened in 2010 and now has three titles. And did you know Lyons is the WPIAL’s 11th-winningest active coach with a 170-93 record. He took Monaca to the WPIAL Class 1A title game three consecutive years in the 1990s.
• Washington plays Avonworth for the WPIAL Class 2A championship Saturday and there is a neat little similarity between the two teams. Get this: Both head coaches have 75-year-old fathers who are assistant coaches for their sons.
One of Avonworth coach Duke Johncour’s assistants is his father, Barry, who used to be the head coach at old Churchill High School, which closed in 1987 and became part of the Woodland Hills district. Barry’s quarterback the final year at Churchill was Duke. Barry Johncour is in the press box during Avonworth games and talks with his son on a head set about the Antelopes’ offense.
One of Washington coach Mike Bosnic’s assistant coaches is his father, Mike. The elder Mike Bosnic was the coach at Laurel Highlands and Albert Gallatin decades ago.
First Published: November 21, 2019, 4:13 p.m.
