Scholastic Notebook – 09/16/2011

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, September 16, 2011 | 2:50 PM

Look through the list of the leading passers in WPIAL football after the first two weeks, and you can see the gene pool is pretty deep.

Some of the top passers have good bloodlines, or have some relative who was either a notable player or coach.

* Seneca Valley’s Jordan Brown, the WPIAL’s second-leading passer, is the son of Clark Brown, who was a two-year letterman at quarterback for Michigan State. Jordan’s older brother, C.J., was a star quarterback at Seneca Valley a few years ago and is now a backup at the University of Maryland.

* New Castle’s John Mattarazzo is the son of former New Castle player John Mattarazzo, who played for Pitt.

* Tanner Garry of Fort Cherry is the son of Fort Cherry coach Tim Garry, who also played for the Rangers. Tanner’s grandfather and Tim’s father is Jim Garry, a longtime coach at Fort Cherry who retired after the 2002 season with more than 200 victories.

* Pine-Richland’s Austin Whipple is the son of Mark Whipple, who is the quarterbacks coach of the Cleveland Browns. The elder Whipple also has been an assistant coach at the University of Miami and a few other NFL teams, including the Steelers. Austin’s brother, Spencer, is a backup QB at the University of Miami.

* South Fayette’s John Lerda is the son of Mark Lerda, who was the standout quarterback on Brashear’s first City League championship team in 1979.

* North Allegheny’s Mack Leftwich is the son of Pitt offensive line coach Spencer Leftwich. The elder Leftwich was also a member of Todd Graham’s staff at Tulsa before coming to Pitt.

Brown, Mattarazzo, Garry, Whipple, Lerda and Leftwich are all among the top 20 passers in the WPIAL after the first two weeks of the season.

Rise of the Warriors

Penn-Trafford opened some eyes last week when it went on the road and defeated Mount Lebanon. If Penn-Trafford beats Hempfield tonight, it will be a significant victory of sorts for the Warriors.

Penn-Trafford is 2-0 and it has been eight years since the Warriors started 3-0. In 2003, Penn-Trafford won its first four games before losing to Gateway, 45-14. How ironic. Penn-Trafford plays Gateway next week.

Football Numbers

* It is not a good start to the season for the Allegheny Conference. The Allegheny is the only conference in the entire WPIAL that does not have an undefeated team. Four teams are 1-1 and four are 0-2.

A number of other conferences in the WPIAL have at least three undefeated teams.

* Geibel and Norwin are the only teams in the WPIAL that haven’t scored a point in the first two weeks.

* Upper St. Clair and Beaver are the only two teams that have not given up a point.

* West Shamokin’s losing streak has reached 36 games and the Wolves are only three away from the WPIAL’s longest losing streak. Geibel lost 39 from 1996-2000.

Legendary Coach Dies

The world of WPIAL athletics was saddened this week by the death of longtime Hopewell High School baseball coach Joe Colella, who collapsed and died Sunday of an apparent heart attack.

Colella, 80, was Hopewell’s coach for 48 years, won 16 section titles, three WPIAL championships and one state title. He also was Hopewell’s American Legion coach for 48 years. He won over 1,600 games with the two teams, including 650 as the high school coach. He was inducted into the WPIAL Hall of Fame in June.

Joe Rubino was Colella’s assistant coach and Rubino is currently coaching a Hopewell team in fall baseball that includes a number of Hopewell High School players. Rubino was one of the last people to talk to Colella Sunday morning. Looking back, Rubino said what happened later that day was strange. Rubino tells the story.

“We were in a tournament last weekend,” Rubino said. “I saw Joe at church Sunday morning and I called him later before our semifinal game. He said if we won and got to the championship game later in the day, he would come over because the game was at Penn State Beaver.

“Well, the way the semifinal game played out was just eerie. Our pitcher was throwing a perfect game in the fifth inning. We had complete control of the game until the top of the seventh. Blackhawk scored four runs and beat us.

“At the time, I was just upset we lost the game. Now, looking back, it was just really weird. Because the time he passed away would’ve probably been right around the time we would’ve been playing the championship game. It’s just kind of surreal. Losing that game might have been an omen because maybe he would’ve come to the [championship] game and passed. That would not have been good in front of the kids. It’s just strange because of the way the game went.”

Young Blood

There are no records to prove it, but we here at MSA Sports think that Marc Kania is the youngest athletic director in the WPIAL.

Kania was hired this week as the new AD at Avella. He is 22 years old. The position is only part time, though. Kania, a 2007 Chartiers Valley graduate, makes his living working for Carnegie EMT.

Another Player Dies

There have been seven deaths of high school football players in the country since the start of the season last month.

The latest was Latrell Dunbar, a junior fullback at D’Iberville High School in Mississippi who died last Friday after collapsing during a game. Dunbar made a block on a play and then collapsed walking back to the huddle. The coroner later ruled he died of acute cardiac arrest.

Paramedics worked on Dunbar on the field before taking him away by ambulance. He died a short time later.

Reports say this is one of the most lethal years for young football players in the past half century, according to records compiled by the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research. There were eight deaths in 1970, according to the center’s records.

From 1980 to 1984, an average of one high school football player died each year during the summer practice season. But the death rate has roughly tripled to 2.8 deaths per since then, according to a study released in July by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Where Are They Now?

* After the first two weeks of the college football season, Canon-McMillan graduate Jeravin Matthews is tied for second in tackles at Northwestern of the Big Ten Conference. Matthews has 10 tackles.

Also at Northwestern, Central Catholic graduate Quentin Williams has two tackles and half sack.

* At Toledo, a former WPIAL player and a City League player are off to good starts on defense. Brashear graduate Jermaine Robinson, a defensive back, is tied for fourth on the team in tackles with 10, including 2.5 tackles for loss. Linebacker Terrell Anderson has eight tackles, including one for loss.

Toledo is 1-1 with a victory over New Hampshire. Toledo lost to Ohio State by only 27-22.

Tags: Avella, Beaver, Brashear, Canon-McMillan, Fort Cherry, Geibel, Hopewell, Upper St. Clair, West Shamokin