"Mr. High School Sports" - Quick Outs
By Matt Popchock
A few final thoughts on Week 2 of the WPIAL football season, and a few preliminary ones on Week 3:
*This has nothing to do with football, but kudos to the Post-Gazette's Mike White for helping break this story...
It was a bittersweet weekend for Hopewell; less than 48 hours after its upset of Class AAA runner-up Montour at Tony Dorsett Stadium, head baseball coach Joe Colella, after whom the on-campus ballpark is named, died. Forty-eight is also the number of years that have passed since Colella started coaching Hopewell's American Legion team, in addition to his duties as varsity skipper. His teams won over 1,600 games, one PIAA title, and three WPIAL titles, his last coming in 2010. My condolences go to the Hopewell family and to the Colella family, and Mike did a great job eulogizing him in his blog Monday. A while back I wrote about how the WPIAL Hall of Fame should stay consistent with other sports halls of fame and wait till a coach retires or is deceased before inducting him. Looking back, I'm glad they made an exception for Joe this past summer, and that he got to enjoy that moment.
*Are any of us really surprised Rushel Shell hit 500 in September before the Pirates did? That's the number of rushing yards the Hopewell senior needs to tie Mike Vernillo's WPIAL record, and if you think he loves playing Montour, as evidenced by his performance in Week 2, wait till you see what he's done to their arch-nemeses. In three previous games against Moon, Shell has racked up 836 yards on the ground, more than against any other Parkway Conference team, having gained at least 250 in each of those games. Moon's run defense has looked very vulnerable after two games, so there's a very good chance Shell could put himself in position to break the record at home in Week 4 versus Mount Lebanon.
By the way, I'll have more this week on why I'm glad Todd Graham was on campus Friday, and why I'm glad Pitt is supposedly on Shell's short list...
*Keep your eye on Dontez Williams of Steel Valley. You know his older brother, Delrece Williams, as the one who led the WPIAL in regular season rushing last year with a district record 2,149 yards. Dontez already has 471 yards rushing in the Ironmen's first two games. Not that we expect him to keep this up, with the toughest part of their schedule yet to come, but he's on pace for a 2,000-yard campaign of his own, and would approach that record if he does, somehow, stay the course. According to Tony Greco of Panther Digest, Dontez seems high on Pitt, though it looks like the bulk of the D-1 offers, come what may, may not trickle in till next year.
*You might have heard about flooding in other parts of the state that has washed out high school football schedules, though it did affect the WPIAL on some level too. Valley's Class AAA non-conference game at Hollidaysburg was canceled and reportedly will not be made up. I realize time and money are probably factors, but to play, potentially, just an eight-game season seems detrimental to both teams, even if the game is, manifestly, meaningless. This isn't like the tenth game that non-playoff teams schedule at the end of the year (though fewer are doing so these days), and it isn't the NFL, where you have four full-length exhibition games to evaluate your team. For a lot of teams, that second non-conference game is your last big chance to get ready for the games that count. Even if it means a neighboring, neutral-site school "loaning" its stadium, I think it would behoove both teams to make up the game. Coaches like all the prep time they can get.
*I feel Joe Namath's pain. Really, I do. Mike Zmijanac continues to do a phenomenal job at Aliquippa, which has to be the clear-cut favorite in Class AA right now, but I had higher hopes for Beaver Falls in Week 2. I expected that to be a much tighter game, and I also expected the Tigers to run Trey Hall even more than they reportedly did. Right now the Midwestern Conference is most definitely the Quips' to lose. But I think BF will bounce back abruptly, and I'd like to think there's still a pretty good chance these teams will meet again at Heinz Field, if not sooner. Still, I also think BF needs to throw the ball more effectively to take a little pressure off Hall, and I think that need was exploited in Week 2.
*Speaking of which, Beaver Falls' visit to Laurel is one of the games I'm looking forward to in Week 3. Once again, I predict a big effort from the Tigers, though Dylan Jones is another great tailback, and the Spartans are tough up front; plus, they'll be anxious not to fall too far out of the MAC playoff chase early. In Class AAA, New Castle got its swagger back against Ambridge, but its Week 3 opponent, Central Valley, is also riding high after a hard-fought win over West Allegheny (watch that one on ROOT Sports at 6:30). Steel Valley-South Fayette in Century Conference action also has potential; the Ironmen get their first real test against the WPIAL champs, who have opened with a tough OT loss to West Mifflin and a decisive win over Summit Academy. There are also two non-conference games in Quad-A that are appealing: Upper St. Clair versus North Allegheny (NA blew them out last year, but USC may be poised to turn the tables) and the one I'll be attending, Penn Hills at Mount Lebanon, featuring Indians receiver and Pitt recruit Corey Jones against Luke Hagy, a possible Pitt recruit as well (listen to that one on 93.7 The Fan Friday).
*Not to sound biased, but it would be nice to see schools like Western Beaver and Fort Cherry, just to name a couple, enjoy great seasons. I think it would help public perception of Class A, in which the gap between the haves and have-nots doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. Western Beaver has a terrific athlete in Eric Blinn to lead its offense, and Fort Cherry's Tanner Garry, on his best day, is a fun quarterback to watch. But Western Beaver got destroyed by Clairton (who hasn't?), and although Fort Cherry gave Rochester some fits early on, the Rams eventually won their Week 2 contest going away. Right now, as far as small schools are concerned, it appears Sto-Rox is easily the closest to closing that gap.
*One of the unsung heroes of Chartiers Valley's first win of the season, a 37-14 triumph over Big Eight Conference rival Trinity last Friday, was junior kicker Kristina Coyne. She connected on three of four extra points, and opened the scoring with a 27-yard field goal. This isn't anything ground-breaking. Every once in a while, you'll see a high school team with a female placekicker, and usually it's someone with a soccer background--like Coyne, who has played on CV's varsity squad since she was a freshman. In fact, I remember a neat story out of Mount Pleasant a few years ago involving a young lady who made a game-winning kick and earned homecoming queen honors the same night. But the issue of athletes of one gender playing sports of another gender is sometimes a sensitive one.
It's interesting how some of us "ooh" and "ahh" whenever we see a female football player, but others are irked by the idea of male athletes playing female sports. For example, Quaker Valley's Annie Houghton competed for a WPIAL boys' tennis title in 2006, which was permitted because she didn't compete in girls' tennis season due to injury, and when she became the first girl to ever win that tournament, it was one of the feel-good local sports stories of the year. However, Greensburg Central Catholic took some heat last year for allowing several boys to play varsity field hockey, because it didn't have enough girls to field a team. One school even forfeited a playoff game against the Centurions, stating a concern for the safety of its conventionally all-girl team.
At the risk of sounding trite, equality is a two-way street. If people wish to be treated as equals, let's treat them as equals. Speaking as a former WPIAL athlete, I know that every sport, regardless of gender, has some sort of risk associated with it at some level. Those who play them typically understand that before asking their parents to sign the permission slip, so, to me, the issue of safety becomes less of an excuse to totally exclude one gender from another sport, as long as a boy or girl has a compelling reason to play on one team instead of the other. Speaking as someone who believes in fair play, in neither of the aforementioned cases was politicking of any kind necessary. No WPIAL rules were broken, so as long as that is the case, I'm okay with mixing genders under certain circumstances.
In the meantime, speaking also as someone who has spent time around women's sports in the past and in the present, I support Kristina Coyne, and any other young woman who demonstrates the skill and the gumption necessary to play a male-dominated sport like football.
But would you let your son play a predominantly female sport, or let your daughter play a predominantly male sport, for any reason? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this one...
(Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mpopchock)
