Matt Humbert guided the Belle Vernon football team through perhaps the greatest era in the program’s history.
Now the Leopards are in the market for a new coach after Humbert announced Thursday he has decided to step down after 11 years at the helm.
Humbert will remain at Belle Vernon as the school’s athletic director.
“What we’ve built at Belle Vernon has been amazing. It’s been special, so to give the reins up to something like this is something many people would question,” Humbert said. “But I also know — I don’t claim to be smart at anything in life — but I know that there’s something that every man and woman in the history of humankind says they want more of, and that’s time.”
Humbert, 40, is married. He and his wife, Kimberly, have two preteen children, which was a huge factor in his decision.
“My kids are still kids, but they’re at that point where they’re about to not be kids, and I want to squeeze that for everything that I can,” Humbert said. “It was a conscious decision. Me and my wife were thinking one more year and then I would step away, but in January, some things changed for the better for her professionally. That, mixed with everything else — I felt like it was good for me and it was good for the program to do it at this time.”
Humbert’s resignation comes on the heels of the announcement that boys basketball coach Joe Salvino will be retiring at the end of this season. The Leopards basketball team is in the WPIAL Class 4A semifinals.
“I didn’t want to have this be a story to take anything away from our basketball team and Joe. I wanted to not make that a thing,” Humbert said. “Now we’re in the semifinals. Our last home game was [Wednesday], and Joe had his moment, so I wanted to procrastinate a little and not take that away from him.”
In his 11 years at Belle Vernon, Humbert compiled an impressive 96-26 (.787) record and, with his prior tenure at Ringgold, now has an overall mark of 128-39. He is also one of only a handful of WPIAL coaches to have won back-to-back PIAA titles.
When Humbert took over the program in 2014, Belle Vernon had not had a winning season in 11 years, but by his second year on the sideline, the team had improved to 10-1.
But his more notable accomplishments came more recently.
In 2019, Belle Vernon made its first appearance in a WPIAL championship game in 20 years when it lost to Thomas Jefferson 41-7 in the Class 4A final. The Leopards also lost to Aliquippa 28-13 in the 2021 championship game.
But things changed in 2022.
Belle Vernon dropped down to Class 3A and also dropped a pair of early-season nonconference games against McKeesport and Penn-Trafford. But the Leopards rebounded behind a pair of future Division I players in quarterback/defensive end Braden Laux (Eastern Michigan) and running back/defensive back Quinton Martin (Penn State), defeated Avonworth 24-7 for the school’s first WPIAL title since 1995 and then knocked off powerhouse Neumann Goretti 9-8 in the PIAA final for the school’s first state championship.
In 2023, Belle Vernon did it again. This time, the Leopards shrugged off an early-season loss to Thomas Jefferson, won a rematch with the Antelopes in the WPIAL final and rolled over Northwestern Lehigh 38-7 in the PIAA championship game at Cumberland Valley High School.
Following that season, Humbert was named the 2023 Post-Gazette Coach of the Year.
Last season, Belle Vernon was 4-6 and lost to McKeesport in the opening round of the WPIAL Class 4A playoffs.
Humbert also guaranteed he will be back coaching again, probably sooner than later.
“I have those gold medals, and they mean a lot to me,” Humbert said. “But what I’m proud of is how me and my staff were able to coach kids and facilitate kids and the way those relationships blossomed. I don’t know what my legacy is because I have a lot of coaching left in me.”
First Published: February 20, 2025, 9:48 p.m.
Updated: February 21, 2025, 2:57 a.m.
