Freshness abounds this scholastic football season
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Mike Collodi and his wife, Ali, and son, Luca, are the new faces on campus at Mt. Lebanon High School. Collodi roams the sidelines this fall as the Blue Devils’ new football coach. He teaches physical education at South Park High School and resides in Eighty Four.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Aaron Fitzpatrick checks the Gatorade containers before starting a football practice. As he enters his second season as Chartiers Valley head coach, he reflected on the lessons he learned his rookie year at the helm. “Patience,” he said. “Allow things to develop the way they should.” Reserved and quiet, he added his style is not “to bark” at players but rather to have a “conversation” with them. “Being myself, rather than be the coach I’ve never been,” he said was the other lesson that will take benefit him this season.
Photos: Eleanor Bailey/Almanac
Phil Peckich (second left) discusses strategy with assistant coach Joe Ranalli as quarterback Tanner Pfeuffer and Reed Farmerie (44) listen intently. After three seasons as offensive coordinator, Peckich takes over as head coach and looks to guide the Black Hawks to another conference championship and perhaps a WPIAL title.
There is a freshness about the 2023 scholastic football season in stadiums around Western Pennsylvania. There are new faces on coaching staffs; updated facilities and fields as well as the latest in fashionable uniforms.
Chartiers Valley debuts all three. Aaron Fitzgerald, who embarks on his second season at the helm, is thrilled about the renovations taking place to the stadium turf, seating and press boxes not to mention the flashy signature scarlet uniforms the team will wear this season.
“It’s exciting,” he said. “New face, new field, new uniforms; look good, feel good, play good,” he added.
CV also welcomed a new face, not to mention football fan, in Zack Hayward in the athletics department on Aug. 15. He was hired to replace Mike Gavlik, who left to become the athletic director at Hampton. Hayward, 33, was the football coach and AD at Blackhawk before taking the position at CV.
A former quarterback for the Cougars, Hayward compiled a 25-29 record during his five-year tenure as coach. He guided the Cougars to the WPIAL Class 4A semifinals in 2019.
Hayward earned a business and sports management degree from Geneva College and master’s in sports administration from Southeastern Oklahoma State University. He resides in Hopewell with his wife, Marissa, and three children, Cooper, Noah and Adeline.
While the Colts open the season at 7 p.m. Aug. 25 against South Fayette, they will not host a game in their new facility until they entertain Central Valley on Sept. 15.
Eager to get the football season started, too, is Mike Collodi. He debuts as Mt. Lebanon head coach when the Blue Devils host Gateway at 7 p.m. Aug. 25.
Collodi assumed the reins after Bob Palko resigned in January. For the past eight year, Collodi has coached at Elizabeth-Forward, enjoying seven straight winning seasons, including an 8-1 campaign that featured a WPIAL Class 3A runner-up showing in 2021. He owns a 56-24 record.
Before he had even hit the practice field, Collodi has embraced into the Lebo community, not to mention the football family.
“One of the most surprising things to me was how involved the community is with the football program and how involved and helpful everybody has been from the parents, faculty and administration, and obviously the players,” Collodi said. “Everyone has been so welcoming. Anything my staff and I need, they make it happen. They have been very accommodating and helpful with the whole transition process of being a new coach here.”
The senior class, which includes Connor Young and Beckham Dee, have helped most in Collodi’s transition. Young is a Navy recruit and Dee is bound for the Air Force Academy. “They have stepped up to lead the team throughout heat acclimatization and training camp,” Collodi said.
“I am very excited to start the season at Mt. Lebanon,” he added. “I am looking to coach at the 6A level and face great competition.”
The Blue Devils tuned up for Week Zero action with a pre-season scrimmage against Pine-Richland. The Rams won the WPIAL and PIAA titles in Class 5A.
“It’s a tough schedule, especially with opening with Pine and Gateway,” Collodi said. “We will find out real fast what we are made out of.”
The Gators return quarterback Brad Birch and he is surrounded by four teammates with FBS offers. A senior, Birch has passed for more than 6,000 yards in his career.
Running back Jaquon Reynolds, tight end Remy Bose, slot receiver Kenny Lewis and wideout Steven Jenkins, a Bowling Green commit, are Gateway’s other standouts.
“Gateway is a really good team with tons of speed,” Collodi said. “We need to play a fast and physical brand of football. Keys to victory are not giving up the big play, create turnovers, and win third down.”
Lebo’s second opponent on Sept. 1 at Bethel Park boasts a new head coach as well. After three seasons as offensive coordinator, Phil Peckich has been promoted to head coach, replacing Brian DeLallo, who stepped down for health reasons.
Peckich, who was a standout linebacker during his scholastic career at Montour and collegiate days at Pitt and Robert Morris, welcomed the return to the defensive side of the ball.
“Nothing,” he said of the new position at BP has surprised him but the “biggest thing” is sitting in on the defensive meetings again. “I played defense all my life but when I got into coaching, I jumped to the offensive side. I haven’t been on the defensive side of the ball since 2014 but nothing has caught me off guard,” he said.
At the helm, Peckich has had to become more organized. Time management, he says, is the biggest thing about the position switch.
“You have to make sure your time is managed wisely and you are efficient in what doing,” he said. “As cliche as it sounds, you have to stay to a very specific schedule and you can’t get behind that schedule. You have to stick to it.”
The Blackhawks, who return three key starters in quarterback Tanner Pfeuffer, all-purpose player Ryan Petras and standout lineman Clancy Orie, visit North Hills in their Week Zero game at 7 p.m. Aug. 25.
Though he has been coaching for more than a quarter of a century, Joe Rossi isn’t afraid to take risks and try new things. As he starts his 17th season at the helm at South Fayette, he welcomes a pair of winners to his coaching staff.
The Lions have added former Mt. Lebanon assistants Marty Spieler and Bruce Fronk to their already successful personnel. Both served on Bob Palko’s staff when he guided the Blue Devils to an undefeated season (15-0) as well as WPIAL and PIAA championships in 2021.
Spieler will help coach quarterbacks while Fronk is the defensive coordinator for the Lions. Before coaching at Lebo, Fronk served on the Blackhawk staff from 2016-17. Spieler coached at several places and levels including: Missouri State (2019), Norwin (2018), Florida A&M (2015-17), Buffalo, (2010-2014), Cincinnati (2007-09) and Allegheny (2006).
“Sometimes you have to learn to do less,” said Rossi. “We letting the young bucks go to work. It’s been rejuvenating and I think we are going to do special things with them on board.”