Trib HSSN Head of the Class 2024: Football coaches of the year in each classification

By: Don Rebel
Tuesday, December 17, 2024 | 6:01 AM

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The 2024 WPIAL football season stood out for many reasons, including plenty of turnaround seasons and dominant performances by the coaches of these district programs.

A tip of the cap to these honorable mention coaches:

• Greg Perry of Mt. Lebanon, whose team lost its first five games and was 1-7 heading into Week 8 before winning out and earning a playoff berth with a third-place finish.

• Mike Junko of Upper St. Clair, who went from missing the playoffs with an 8-2 record in 2023 to being undefeated before falling in the Class 5A semifinals.

• Fred Mozzoccio of New Castle, who in his first year at New Castle after a successful run at Neshannock, turned a one-win program into a 5-4 team.

• John Galliot of Freeport turned the Yellowjackets from a 3-7 nonplayoff team into a 8-4 squad that qualified for the playoffs and won a postseason game before losing in the 3A quarterfinals.

• Tim Storino of Seton LaSalle, who in his third season led the Rebels to the WPIAL Class 2A title game following a 5-5 season in 2023 and an 0-10 campaign in 2022.

• Brian Hanson of South Allegheny saw the Gladiators win their 2023 opener, then lose their final nine games before guiding the team to 9-3 season this fall and the team’s first playoff win in decades.

• Dan Bradley of Ellwood City as the Wolverines enjoyed their best season in years, winning the Midwestern Athletic Conference with a perfect record until they fell in the WPIAL semifinals.

• Wayne Wade of Clairton didn’t engineer a great turnaround as the Bears improved by three wins, but they had one of the most dominating defensive seasons with 10 shutouts in 14 games, a season that ended in a classic Class A title game with Clairton suffering its lone loss of the season to Fort Cherry.

• Shane Ziats of Jefferson-Morgan guided the Rockets to their best season in decades with a perfect record and a Tri-County South Conference title before a playoff loss to 2023 runner-up South Side.

When it comes to the 2024 head of the class though, it has been reserved for the golden boys.

The seven area champion coaches, two of whom took their teams to the state championship game as well, have earned Trib HSSN Coach of the Year honors in their classification.

Class 6A

Ryan Lehmeier, Central Catholic

In his first year as head coach at Central Catholic, Ryan Lehmeier led the Vikings to the 2023 Class 6A regular season title. However, Central Catholic is not a program built on regular season success, and following three years of WPIAL Class 6A losses in the championship game, the Vikings were back on top with a ninth WPIAL football title. Central Catholic overcame losses in its first two games to win 12 in a row, including a win over two-time champion North Allegheny in the district title game, 45-14. The season ended with a PIAA 6A loss to state power St. Joe’s Prep in the state finals.

Class 5A

Jon LeDonne, Pine-Richland

If it is an even year, the odds are in favor of Pine-Richland winning a WPIAL championship. The Rams captured their first Class 5A and seventh overall football title in 2020. In his first year as coach at Pine-Richland, Jon LeDonne led the Rams to the golden promised land again for title No. 8. Then this past fall, Pine-Richland opened eyes with a Week 1 win over Central Catholic, finished undefeated to win the Northeast Conference, and then following two playoff wins, the Rams edged defending champ Peters Township to move into a tie for fifth-most district football crowns by dethroning the Indians, 20-9.

Class 4A

Bill Cherpak, Thomas Jefferson

In a year in which Thomas Jefferson coach Bill Cherpak has focused on his health by losing a lot of weight, it was what he and his team gained that carried a special meaning: another WPIAL championship. The Jaguars returned to Cherpak’s favorite kind of football: a grinding, physical brand of “here we come, try to stop us” style of running the football. It paid off in the end with a victory over McKeesport in the Class 4A finals, 28-7. The biggest win for TJ came in the district semifinals when it dethroned Aliquippa and ended the Quips’ 16-year run of title game appearances, 38-21.

Class 3A

Duke Johncour, Avonworth

With a chance to get a high seed in the upcoming 3A playoffs, Avonworth went to Beaver in Week 9 looking to clinch the outright Western Hills Conference crown. Instead the Antelopes got pummeled by the Bobcats, forcing them into a three-way tie for the conference title with Beaver and Central Valley. Duke Johncour and his staff turned up the physical output and the ‘Lopes turned to Nico and Luca Neal to run the wildcat offense that led the team to postseason success and a win in the Class 3A finals over Central Valley, 14-6, for the program’s second district championship in five years. The team nearly won the school’s first PIAA title but lost a heartbreaker in overtime to Northwestern Lehigh, 36-33.

Class 2A

Brian Abbey, South Park

Brian Abbey was a South Park lifer. Now he’s a triple crown winner. He was a freshman on the team when South Park won both a WPIAL and PIAA championship under Tom Loughran in 1997. He was a young assistant coach on the Eagles staff when the program once again swept gold in the district and state playoffs in 2005. Now in his second year as the head coach at South Park, Abbey and his staff turned the Eagles into a physical team that forced its will on opposing teams with a strong unit up front on both sides of the ball. Following a split of its first two games, South Park won 11 straight games, including a win over top-seeded Seton LaSalle in the 2A finals.

Class A

Tanner Garry, Fort Cherry

For the second straight season, Fort Cherry captured the WPIAL Class A championship. For the second straight year, Tanner Garry is the Trib HSSN Class A Coach of the Year. Even though there are a lot of similarities between the two campaigns that saw perfect seasons through the district playoffs end with a loss in the PIAA playoffs, the two seasons were not carbon copies. For one, Garry and his staff had to alter things on the fly early in the season when star quarterback Matt Sieg broke his thumb and could not throw for several weeks. The final win of the year came in the WPIAL finals as Sieg capped off a game-winning drive with an incredible TD pass in the final minute as the Rangers edged Clairton, 21-20.

City League

Donta Green

Westinghouse put District 8 back on the state football map with two great runs to the PIAA Class 2A championship games in 2022 and 2023, each time falling to state power Southern Columbia. There were high expectations again for the Bulldogs entering the season following a drop to Class A in offseason realignment. The season actually began with the first regular season loss by Westinghouse since 2019 when it lost to Beaver. But coach Donta Green and his staff engineered a strong bounce back with three straight shutout wins and nine consecutive wins, including a third City League crown in a row with a win over Allderdice, 40-12.

Tags: Avonworth, Central Catholic, Fort Cherry, Pine-Richland, South Park, Thomas Jefferson, Westinghouse