Scholastic Notebook – 11/22/2013

By: Bruce Markey
Friday, November 22, 2013 | 5:36 PM

The weather for the WPIAL football championships Saturday is not good. The forecast is for cold, possible snow showers and winds gusting to 20 m.p.h.

But for half of the four title games, the outlook looks absolutely perfect.

Never mind the weather, two of the games match perfect teams – and that is a pretty unusual occurrence.

Sto-Rox meets North Catholic for the WPIAL Class A title at 11 and Aliquippa takes on South Fayette for the AA championship at 5. All four teams in those games have perfect 12-0 records.

Since the WPIAL started playoffs for all classifications in 1977, this will only be the 18^th and 19^th title games matching undefeated and untied teams. It is rare to have two title games matching perfect teams in the same year. It has happened only three other times – 2005, 2010 and 2011.

Aliquippa is no stranger to these “perfect” matchups. This is the sixth time Aliquippa has played in a title game with undefeated teams.

Before this year, here are the title games matching undefeated and untied teams:

1986 – Gateway vs. North Hills

1993 – North Hills vs. Upper St. Clair

1996 – Blackhawk vs. Belle Vernon

1999 – West Allegheny vs. Belle Vernon

2000 – Aliquippa vs. Waynesburg

2003 – Pine-Richland vs. Thomas Jefferson

2004 – Seton-LaSalle vs. Aliquippa

2005 – South Park vs. Greensburg Central Catholic

2005 – Duquesne vs. Rochester

2006 – Clairton vs. Rochester

2007 – Thomas Jefferson vs. Montour

2008 – Bethel Park vs. Gateway

2010 – South Fayette vs. Aliquippa

2010 – Clairton vs. Rochester

2011 – Aliquippa vs. Jeannette

2011 – Clairton vs. Sto-Rox

2012 – Washington vs. Aliquippa

Championship Experience

The field of coaches in the four games  today includes a lot of championships. Twenty to be exact. Six of the eight coaches have won WPIAL titles. The only two who haven’t are Sto-Rox’s Dan Bradley and North Catholic’s Bob Ravenstahl.

West Allegheny’s Bob Palko and Woodland Hills’ George Novak have six titles each. Aliquippa’s Mike Zmijanac has five. Central Catholic’s Terry Totten, Central Valley’s Mark Lyons and South Fayette’s Joe Rossi have one title each.

Williams to Temple

The all-time leading passer in WPIAL football will be an Owl.

Sto-Rox senior quarterback Lenny Williams made a verbal commitment to the Temple Owls Tuesday night. Williams was recruited for Temple by former Gateway High coach Terry Smith.

Williams had offers from Rutgers and a few Mid-American Conference schools by the end of the summer. But Temple was recruiting him the hardest over the past couple months.

Some colleges had mentioned to Williams about playing another position in college, possibly receiver or defensive back. Williams had said he was OK with playing another position, but Temple recruited him as a quarterback.

Pass-and-Run Lenny

Williams’ passing accomplishments have been well documented. He is the all-time WPIAL leader in yardage and touchdown passes. But he also has the most offensive yards (rushing and passing) of any player in WPIAL history.

Williams has 11,340 yards offense – 8,305 passing and 3,035 rushing. His total offense is also third in state history behind only Port Allegany’s Matt Bodamer (13,263 from 2009-12) and Allentown Central Catholic’s Brandan Nosovitch (12,876 from 2008-11).

Reitz is Out

Another WPIAL football coaching job is open. Latrobe opened Ray Reitz’s position earlier this week.

Reitz coached Latrobe for five seasons and was 2-7 this year. Overall, he was 18-28. Reitz came to Latrobe from Jeannette, where he coached quarterback Terrelle Pryor and won WPIAL and PIAA championships.

Reitz said he would like to coach again, possibly as an assistant.

“You never like to end with the record we had,” Reitz said. “I still have a passion for it.”

Reitz also had a job overseeing in-school suspension at Latrobe. He is unsure what will happen with that job after the current school year.

Football Player Charged

You don’t often see a high school football player charged by police for something he did “on” the field. But that’s the case with one player in Eastern Pennsylvania.

Misdemeanor charges of simple assault and disorderly conduct were filed against a player involved in an incident during the Annville-Cleona vs. Hamburg game. Police didn’t release the name of the individual charged because he is a juvenile.

However, video of the game from WGAL TV has showed a scuffle on the field where Hamburg’s Joseph Comisky ripped the helmet off Hamburg lineman Josh Hartman and swung it twice at Hartman while he was down on the ground.

Tags: Aliquippa, Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic, Central Valley, Latrobe, North Catholic, West Allegheny, Woodland Hills