A Derry grad and former Penn State LB, Tim Sweeney spearheaded the Trojans’ turnaround

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, November 16, 2018 | 7:18 PM

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Derry used to have a stripe down the center of its football helmets and decals on the side. Then an old fuddy duddy came along and wiped the mustard-yellow domes clean.

He did the same to the program’s deficient past.

Tim Sweeney will lead his Derry team (11-1) onto the sod at Heinz Field on Saturday afternoon to play Aliquippa (11-1) for a WPIAL championship. It will be the pinnacle of a five-year rebuilding project in which the 1985 Derry graduate and his staff pulled a flailing program into the boat and taught a small town to “believe.”

The Trojans finally broke through, reaching the finals for the first time as Derry — 73 years after then-named Derry Township reached the Class AA title game and lost to Dormont, 30-19.

The road to Derry Area High School literally has a series of Trojan heads painted on it, a tribute to a football team that seemed more likely to be infected by a Trojan horse.

A sleepy town was awakened by blaring fire truck sirens and revved-up motorcycle engines — modern game-day traditions that see Derry rumble to life on fall Friday nights and can be heard from Peanut to Keystone State Park.

“Coach Sweeney has always said, ‘I’m a Derry guy,’ ” senior running back Justin Flack said. “He bleeds blue and gold. When he took over the program, there was some doubt in the community’s mind. But look at what he’s done. He means so much to the program.”

A throwback with an unbridled passion for his family and alma maters, Derry and Penn State, Sweeney stalks the sidelines with panache: dress slacks, a button-down shirt and tie and classic-style running sneakers.

“I’m a Penn State guy,” Sweeney said. “I love Joe Paterno. That is how he dressed. When you see someone with a tie and a dress shirt out there, there is no question of who the boss is.

“We’re representatives of our school. I hope the teacher who goes with the debate team dresses up, too.”

Game day is, perhaps, where the flashiness stops. One day this week, the coach left a film study in a Penn State T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops as a cold drizzle greeted him in the high school parking lot.

“Forgot the coat,” he said. “Oh well.”

But he’ll never forget his greatest influence, his late father.

Dick Sweeney, a former Derry Borough basketball standout who played at Georgetown and later Saint Vincent, was killed in a plane crash Nov. 11, 1985. The former VP of sales for Newcomer Products in Derry, Dick Sweeney was returning home from a business trip to Chicago, set to fly into Latrobe Airport when his flight went down.

“That was my first year at Penn State,” Tim Sweeney said. “My dad is still my ace.

“I still love watching basketball, and he had a lot to do with that.”

What would dad think of this incredible football run?

“He would be as proud as anybody from Derry,” his proud son said.

Tim Sweeney, who part-owns a long-standing manufacturing business in Latrobe with his two brothers, was a multi-sport athlete at Derry — what else is new with the school’s sportspeople? In addition to football, he was an all-state volleyball player. He was Dom DeLuca before Dom DeLuca came along.

But football was his ticket to college. He went on to play linebacker at Penn State from 1985-88. He was a member of the 1986 national championship team and later served as president of the Penn State Football Letterman’s Club.

Paterno joined his list of mentors.

“I have been blessed to have numerous, fantastic coaches,” Sweeney said. “My dad, coach (Carl) Albaugh in football, coach (Rich) Schall in volleyball. They all had an impact on me.”

And they inspired him to try to reshape his high school program, which he did with a steady climb.

When Sweeney took over in 2014, Derry was mired in an 18-game losing streak and giving up more than 40 points a game.

Slowly, methodically, the Trojans improved. Roster numbers grew, and the best athletes in the hallways put on shoulder pads and those unornamented helmets.

A spark ignited.

Derry went 4-6 and then 5-4. Then came that magical 2016 season when the Trojans finished 11-1 and reached the WPIAL semifinals for the first time since 1995 (they lost to Aliquippa, 46-20).

Last year, the team went 9-2 and lost in the quarterfinals.

This season brought a third straight conference title and two playoffs wins — 46-0 over a Central Valley team that upset No. 1 Aliquippa, 14-8, in Week 9; and one for the ages last week: a 36-29 victory over North Catholic that included a 21-point fourth quarter and a play-of-the-year nominee turned in by Flack, who returned an interception 30 yards for the go-ahead score with 1:43 to play.

Sweeney, an assistant at Derry from 2006-09, is enjoying the run of prosperity but takes more pride in watching his players learn humility and working as a group.

Like their coach, players seem almost bashful when it comes to attention.

“As a coach, I just want to have a positive impact on the kids,” he said. “I don’t have the patience to coach youth sports. I like working with the kids at this level. I have a connection with them. Sure, they see me as an old fuddy duddy. I’m not hip, and I’ll never be best friends with them. But I want to help them grow into young men. I could coach here or at Aliquippa, the message and the goal is the same.”

But his heart is with Derry, his game day disdain with the favored Quips, also 11-1.

Sweeney has no secrets to success but has become the envy of many counterparts who are looking for the magic potion.

“What he has done is what every coach envisions when they take over a program that is down,” Yough coach Scott Wood said. “He got the kids, school and community to buy in. Tim is a class act as a person. When my son was in his (car) accident, he called me that Sunday and told me he did not want to talk football. He was only worried about how Dallyn was doing. That meant the world to me.

“I hope they are able to finish the job Saturday and best the Quips. They deserve it.”

A simplistic approach has worked for four-plus seasons and Sweeney won’t change for the finals. A brochure-thin playbook and diligent manner of simply letting his athletes make plays are part of the Sweeney way.

“We don’t need 10,000 offensive plays and 9,000 plays on defense,” a Derry assistant coach said. “Just line up and play.”

Sweeney gets results, on the field and in the classroom. Derry never has had an ineligible player in his tenure, and a number of players are at or near a 4.0 grade-point average.

“I enjoy the high school game,” Sweeney said. “I’m old-school. I don’t like to watch NFL or college games (unless Penn State is playing). The game has changed so much. I don’t want to watch guys dancing on the field.

“I watched Michael Singletary, Jack Lambert, Dick Butkus, guys like that. If I was starting a team, Reggie White would be my first guy. Just play the game hard, the way it was meant to be played. That’s how our kids play.”

Bill Beckner is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Bill at bbeckner@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BillBeckner.

Tags: Derry Area