Coach/engineer/PhD Jon LeDonne returns missing swagger to Penn Hills football

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, December 7, 2018 | 10:24 AM

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Jon LeDonne graduated as his high school’s valedictorian, owns a PhD in engineering from Carnegie Mellon and works for a secured research laboratory that supports the nuclear Navy.

Yet, many folks probably know him as the high school football coach with a lumberjack beard who wears shorts on the sideline no matter the weather.

Yes, that guy’s an engineer.

“I think I catch a lot of people off guard,” LeDonne said with a laugh, “because I’m a bigger, burly guy with a big beard. They give me a lot of flexibility at work. They want people to be themselves.”

His “be yourself” style is a reason why Penn Hills is headed to Hershey. WPIAL champion Penn Hills (15-0) plays Manheim Central (15-0) in the PIAA Class 5A championship at 7 p.m. Friday, at Hersheypark Stadium.

When LeDonne and his coaching staff took over the football program last season, they encouraged the players to become a unified family but also allowed the individual personalities to show, senior quarterback Hollis Mathis said. That resonated in a lively and talent-rich locker room, and they followed LeDonne’s lead.

“He definitely comes with a different look,” Mathis said, “and that’s how he approaches everything. I think that’s just a microcosm of how we act. We look a little different, but we come out and get the job done — even though we might not always look the part.

“We’ve got our PhD in football.”

Penn Hills is 23-4 in two seasons under LeDonne, who took over a program coming off 3-7 and 4-6 seasons.

The Indians have a storied history with five WPIAL titles (and a sixth vacated), but they hadn’t won any since 1995. That’s also the last time they reached the state finals.

“They brought swag back to Penn Hills,” said Mathis, a 2,600-yard passer with 37 touchdowns. “They let us be who we are. At times before, you’d find a lot of our players acting a certain way that (other coaches) wanted us to act. That wasn’t us. It was almost like a military environment. And now the coaches have taken a whole opposite approach.”

LeDonne isn’t a Penn Hills graduate but instead an Aliquippa native. He played linebacker/tight end/fullback/split end for Quips coach Mike Zmijanac from 1998-2000, won a WPIAL title his senior year and finished as the state runner-up that season.

He later became one of the all-time tacklers at Robert Morris.

“I know the impact coaches had on my life at Aliquippa and Robert Morris,” LeDonne said. “I just want to give back … Penn Hills is a tradition-rich football program much like Aliquippa, the same type of kids. Kind of what I’m used to. Just a comfort zone, I guess.”

One of Zmijanac’s assistant in the late-90s was Mike Warfield, who has Aliquippa in the state Class 3A final this season. The Quips play Saturday.

“He was a very intelligent kid, both him and his brother Brandon (Aliquippa’s athletic director),” Warfield said, “They loved football. Those are qualities that make a good coach. I’m proud of him and what he’s accomplishing up there. We’re going to be cheering for him.”

LeDonne works at Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory in West Mifflin. His area involves material science, but he’s careful not to divulge details.

“We change the properties of materials to get the results that we want,” LeDonne said. “I can’t say too much.”

He’s worked there for more than six years. Juggling coaching and teaching is a challenge for many, but trying to combine coaching with a non-school job has its own time crunches.

“There are a lot of very early mornings getting into work and late nights,” LeDonne said. “I work for a great boss who gives me some flexibility and a great company that allows me to do what I do.

“And the boss at home is even better taking care of the homefront while I’m gone,” he said of his wife Maggie. They have three children: Mia, 10, Makenna, 7, and Marco, 6.

LeDonne coached three years at Shaler — and won a total of two games — before accepting the Penn Hills job. He brought much of his Shaler staff along with him.

“There was a lot stuff going on in the social media world about how can this guy get hired here?” LeDonne said. “What does he know about winning? What does a white guy know about black kids? Just a lot of stuff, and we looked past that.”

Now, there’s a buzz in the community.

Parents and fans were waiting outside the high school around 1 a.m. last Saturday waiting for the team buses to arrive home from Chambersburg after their semifinal victory over Archbishop Wood, a two-time defending state champion.

“A year and a half later, things are much different now,” LeDonne said. “It’s amazing.”

Chris Harlan is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Chris at charlan@tribweb.com or via Twitter @CHarlan_Trib.

Tags: Penn Hills