There's no gaudy, pastel-colored jacket, membership card, lapel pin or secret handshake for the club Thomas Jefferson coach Bill Cherpak entered Saturday night.
"They talk about 'The Club,'" Cherpak said of the society of coaches who have won WPIAL titles. "I go out to different functions and I see [Ambridge coach] Don Yannessa and [West Allegheny coach] Bob Palko and I see them out there and not that you don't fit in, but they have one up on you if you never won a WPIAL title. So, this is nice in that regard."
With a 20-0 shutout victory against West Mifflin in the WPIAL Class AAA championship, Cherpak joined all those coaches whose names are etched into local high school football lore, all those coaches who got to lift those trophies and add a credential to their resumes.
While many WPIAL fans were wide-eyed over West Mifflin's run to the championship game, don't count Cherpak among that bunch. At the WPIAL pairings meeting, Cherpak told a few people he felt a team to watch out for was West Mifflin, even though the Titans were just 4-5 at the time. Maybe it was a premonition or some kind of gut feeling, but Cherpak's prediction rang true.
"Especially the athletes they have, I knew West Mifflin was tough," Cherpak said. "I mean, you look around and they have athletes at every position. They are a dangerous team and I know it's tough to beat a team twice and I was a little worried about that, but we just prepared hard and had a good week of practice."
Those practices had sophomore defensive back Dominic DeCicco ready to be on West Mifflin passing plays. Something got into DeCicco, because he came up with two third-quarter interceptions, which both led directly to scores.
"The first one was overthrown a little and I just snuck up and got my hands under it and caught it," DeCicco said. "The second one, it was a little overthrown, too, and I kind of bobbled it for a little bit and gained control."
It was the second week in a row and the second side of the ball that DeCicco had made a difference on when he made the two pickoffs. In a WPIAL semifinals win against Blackhawk, DeCicco pulled in the winning 40-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Brad Dawson with under a minute left when he broke through an opening in the Cougars' defense. Although just a sophomore, Cherpak knows DeCicco is a leader.
"Absolutely, I expected Dom to step up again," Cherpak said. "He's done a great job for us and we all know that he's a very good football player."
So is Dawson, one of the most intriguing stories in the WPIAL. He's a 6-foot-1, 185-pound dual threat quarterback who is one of the most elusive runners and best passers in the WPIAL, although he's in just his first year as a starter. Peter Winovich, now a tight end at Bowling Green, started at Thomas Jefferson for three seasons before this year.
"He's definitely in Class AAA probably the best quarterback who can run and throw," West Mifflin coach Ray Braszo said. "I don't know what he runs the 40 [-yard dash] in, but he's just so hard to contain. Sometimes you do a good job of getting where you need to be on a play and he finds a way to get out."
"Probably three or four years, he would have been the quarterback [on another team]," TJ junior linebacker Jason Kolodziej said of Dawson. "It was probably hard for [Dawson] to have to sit out and not play quarterback because Pete [Winovich] was older and he was the starter but he got chance to do it this year. What more could Brad Dawson have done?"
The question now shifts to 'What more can Dawson do?' Thomas Jefferson is hoping that the quarterback can lead them to the PIAA title.
If he does that, Cherpak will find himself in yet another club, a much more exclusive club.
First Published: November 26, 2004, 5:00 a.m.