5 things we learned in high school football Week 1: Longtime Bethel Park coach returns but on opposite sideline

By: Chris Harlan
Saturday, September 2, 2023 | 8:14 PM

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Seeing Jeff Metheny at Bethel Park’s football stadium isn’t unusual, but seeing the longtime Black Hawks coach wearing Mt. Lebanon colors certainly is.

Metheny won more than 200 games as a head coach himself and returned to WPIAL sidelines this fall as an assistant for new Mt. Lebanon coach Mike Collodi. Metheny made a homecoming of sorts Friday night as Bethel Park hosted the rival Blue Devils.

Mt. Lebanon won 19-16 in overtime. Metheny afterward was in the middle of his new team’s huddle, telling the Blue Devils how they had won a fight in a phone booth.

“Needless to say, he was just a little amped up this whole week,” Collodi said with a laugh. “I warned the kids last Saturday morning. I said, ‘Guys, you really don’t know Coach Metheny, but just brace yourselves for this week.’ So they had fair warning about what they were going to get.”

It’s not uncommon for a head coach to return as an assistant elsewhere but rarely does one join a rival school.

But there are a few examples.

• As Hopewell’s head coach, Dave Vestal’s teams had a terrific rivalry with West Allegheny, and he’s now an assistant with the Indians on Dave Schoppe’s staff. Hopewell twice lost to West A in the WPIAL finals, including a high-scoring 2009 game remembered among the best ever.

• The Ohio River separates Aliquippa and Ambridge, which were longtime Beaver County rivals. Mike Zmijanac, who won more than 200 games in 21 seasons as Aliquippa’s coach, now helps Bridgers coach Sherman McBride, one of Zmijanac’s former assistants.

• Rich Bowen spent nine seasons as head coach at Hempfield and now is an assistant at Greensburg Salem with first-year coach Ty George. The neighboring schools played one another again in Week Zero.

• Another of Collodi’s assistants, Tim Sweeney, also is a former South Hills area head coach at Baldwin.

Metheny resigned at Bethel Park after the 2018 season, which was his 25th with the Black Hawks. He took time away from coaching to watch the college career of his son, Levi, who then played linebacker for Albany and later at Murray State.

Metheny’s career record was 205-144 in 33 seasons, including stints at Waynesburg Central and Hampton. His Bethel Park teams went 164-104 with a WPIAL title in 2008.

When he resigned five years ago, Metheny said “there’s no question” he’d coach again. Collodi welcomed him back to the sidelines as Mt. Lebanon’s quarterbacks coach.

“I’m a pretty good salesman,” Collodi said. “I just gave him a phone call. I knew he was available. We met multiple times, and he met with my assistants to see if he would fit in with us. He said, ‘These are my kind of guys.’ I’m blessed to have a guy like that: 200-plus wins and a wealth of knowledge.”

Tough start for Gators

Preseason WPIAL favorite Gateway is off to an 0-2 start in a season that so far hasn’t been kind. The Gators already were missing two of their best players before quarterback Brad Birch was injured in a car accident Friday.

Backup quarterback Elsidro Bryant played instead and passed for 172 yards in a 27-0 loss to Woodland Hills. Birch’s father said his son fortunately suffered only minor injuries after another driver ran a stop sign but was “sore” and “bummed out” to miss a game.

Birch was headed to the school.

“He just wants to go out, prove himself and have a great year,” Bob Birch said. “He knows a lot of kids on Woodland Hills, so he was really upset he couldn’t get to the game.”

Gateway coach Don Holl said the team already was without two other standout seniors: linebacker/H-back Remy Bose and receiver/safety Steven Jenkins, a Bowling Green recruit. Bose will miss the season after hamstring surgery, and Jenkins was unavailable for the team’s first few games.

Gateway was ranked No. 1 in WPIAL Class 5A to start the season.

“Nobody is going to feel bad for us, but we’re missing some really key guys,” Holl said. “If Jenkins, Bose and Birch are playing, we’re different. Those are three Division I kids.”

Avonworth joins short list

Central Valley loses so rarely that each defeat is noteworthy.

Nobody besides Aliquippa had beaten the Warriors in the past four seasons, but Avonworth has added its name to that short list of victors. The Antelopes had two rushing touchdowns by senior Brandon Biagiarelli in a 28-20 nonconference win Friday night.

Central Valley lost twice to Aliquippa last season, including a Week 9 loss that snapped a 36-game winning streak. Before then, the Warriors hadn’t lost since the 2019 state finals.

They lost again to Aliquippa in the WPIAL Class 4A finals last year.

Another air attack

For the second week in a row, the WPIAL quarterback with the most passing yards was matched up with North Catholic’s defense.

In Week Zero, Serra Catholic junior Quadir Stribling completed 35 of 49 attempts for a school-record 442 yards and six touchdowns.

In Week 1, Shady Side Academy sophomore Devin Harris completed 16 of 29 for 361 yards and four touchdowns Friday.

But don’t mistake North Catholic for a team that can’t compete. The Trojans have played two of the most exciting games of the season, winning 49-42 in Week Zero and pushing Shady Side to overtime in a 34-28 loss.

Starting 2-0

There are 32 WPIAL teams with a 2-0 record, but Connellsville’s might be the most unexpected. The Falcons have waited years for a start like this. The last time they won their first two games was 1997.

Connellsville accomplished the feat this year by defeating Albert Gallatin and Hempfield, both by 28-7 scores.

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.