With new coach, new class, a season of change at Baldwin

By: Don Rebel
Monday, August 31, 2020 | 12:04 AM

Purchase Photo Options

Previous Next

Changing addresses and moving from one football program to another can be taxing and tough. The adjustment period between coaching staff and players can last well into the first season.

Preparing for the first season at a new school with the limitations of a pandemic makes a difficult transition so much tougher.

But nobody is lining up to make excuses at Baldwin, especially not new head coach Tim Sweeney.

“Everyone in the country has challenges that can either be taken head on where all of us benefit from perseverance, or we can sit around and bellyache to the point where we develop a victim mentality,” he said. “We are doing our best to embrace the challenges that we face.”

Before the 2019 WPIAL football season, there were plenty of big-time coaching changes around the district. This offseason’s biggest move may have been Sweeney leaving Derry to take over a Baldwin program that enjoyed its best season in years last fall.

In six years at his alma mater, Sweeney helped take a moribund Derry program and turned it into a legitimate power in Class 3A with four straight postseason berths highlighted by a trip to Heinz Field to play in the 2018 WPIAL championship game. The Trojans fell to Aliquippa, 42-19.

“Coach Sweeney has been nothing but great,” Baldwin senior receiver Connor Lavelle said. “The virus has definitely held us back, but we’ve made the best of our situation.”

Even though social distancing has been a way of life for most of 2020, the one thing Sweeney has tried to do is get to know each of his players.

“Getting to know the players and working hard to develop every single one of them to reach their individual potential,” he said.

Sweeney might not be bothered by social distancing, but he is not a fan of social media as he pointed out what concerns him about preparing for 2020.

“(I don’t like) players’ reliance on cell phones and texts as a preferred means of communication and their misuse of social media to their own detriment,” he said.

The Highlanders finished 5-6 last fall but qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 2013 playing in the tough Class 5A Allegheny Eight Conference.

So how many starters return from a solid season for the purple and white?

“There are no starters right now on the Baldwin football team,” Sweeney said. “Everyone has a clean slate, and we do not talk in terms of starters or substitutes in as much as challenging each player to aspire to make what they feel is a significant contribution to our program.”

Sweeney made it clear that good players aren’t just about first downs, touchdowns, blocks and tackles.

“Such a contribution is not always performance on a football field on Friday evenings,” he said. “It can be doing well with their schoolwork, being kind by saying please and thank you. It can be their conduct in school and doing good deeds in the Baldwin community.”

One big building block for the Highlanders is two-way lineman Dorien Ford. The 6-foot-4, 295-pound senior is ranked as the No. 10 senior in the state by Rivals.com and is among the top defensive linemen in the country.

Pitt, Penn State and West Virginia are among the dozens of schools that have offered scholarships.

In building a program, Sweeney realizes athletes are needed. He pointed out two players who play other sports at Baldwin and sent out a help-wanted plea.

“Keith Mincin is an outstanding wrestler who will be a freshman on the squad who wants to play football,” Sweeney said. “We need wrestlers at Baldwin playing football, and we need more Baldwin football players on the wrestling team.

“Joey Moeller kicked last year for us and is an outstanding soccer player. Baldwin soccer players need to know that we need them on the football team, and they can focus 100 percent on their soccer practices and games and at the same time contribute to the football program.”

A new coach isn’t the only adjustment Baldwin players are facing this fall. After reaching the 5A playoffs last year, Baldwin has moved up in classification and will be part of the eight-team Class 6A.

However, Sweeney wants to make sure his team’s focus isn’t on the opponents.

“Our focus is and needs to remain on Baldwin football and what we are trying to do,” he said. “The arrow is pointing in the direction that the players and coaching staff want to take the program.”

Lavelle believes that arrow is pointing in a golden direction.

“I’m looking forward to spending one last year with my brothers and finishing the season with the results we expect, a WPIAL championship,” he said.

Schedule

Coach: Tim Sweeney

2019 record: 5-6, 4-3 in Class 5A Allegheny Eight Conference

All-time record: 334-392-26

Date, Opponent, Time

9.11, at Mt. Lebanon*, ppd

9.11, at Hollidaysburg, 7

9.18, at North Allegheny*, 7:30

9.25, Canon-McMillan*, 7

10.2, at Norwin*, 7

10.9, Hempfield*, 7

10.16, at Seneca Valley*, 7:30

10.23, Central Catholic*, 7

*Class 6A game

Statistical leaders

Passing: Mason Stahl*

78-164, 1,062 yards, 8 TDs

Rushing: Angelo Priore*

143-893 yards, 8 TDs

Receiving: Naseer Penn*

24-525 yards, 8 TDs

*Graduated

Fast facts

• Baldwin reached the playoffs last year for the first time since a 56-10 loss to Central Catholic in the 2013 Class AAAA first round.

• The last time the Highlanders won a WPIAL playoff game was nearly 30 years ago in 1991.

• Baldwin returns to the league’s highest classification for the first time since 2015 when the Highlanders finished 0-7 in the Class AAAA Southeastern Conference and 1-8 overall with their lone win coming over Butler.

• As Tim Sweeney prepares for his first season as head coach at Baldwin, it was 31 years ago when Don Yanessa left Aliquippa to take over the Highlanders program that had won only two games in 1986, ’87 and ‘88 combined.

Tags: Baldwin