Ellwood City graduate Joe Lamenza named football coach at alma mater

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, December 13, 2018 | 6:57 PM

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A familiar carol this time of year states “there is no place like home for the holidays.”

Pardon Joe Lamenza if he doesn’t take that classic a tad literally after being named the new head football coach at his alma mater, Ellwood City.

“It’s exciting,” Lamenza said. “It’s good to be back home.”

The 1996 graduate will take over the Wolverines’ coaching job after a 2018 season which began with Nick Hand stepping down before his second season because illness. Then, Rob Magnifico took over the head coaching duties on an interim basis.

School officials decided last month that Hand would not return and a permanent search began.

“We are excited to have an Ellwood guy,” athletic director Curt Agostinelli said. “Joe brings a lot of coaching experience from both high school and college.”

Lamenza was an assistant coach at Robert Morris before becoming head coach at West Mifflin in 2006. The Titans finished 3-6 is his only season.

Then, in 2011, Lamenza was named head coach at Mohawk, where he guided the Warriors to a 7-29 record in four years, including a winless 2011 campaign.

Lamenza left Mohawk when he was offered the job to take over for legendary Blackhawk coach Joe Hamilton in 2015. In his three years, the Cougars were 8-19 with a winning record of 5-4 in 2016.

This past season, he helped Jeff Beltz as an assistant at Beaver.

The timing of the hire was big from both sides.

“It is great to get a coach hired in December,” Agostinelli said. “Come January, he will hit the ground running.”

The new Wolverines coach agreed.

“The sooner the better because it allows you to take your time putting your staff together, and there are more coaches available this time of year,” Lamenza said.

Ellwood City won three of its final five games in 2018 to finish 3-7 overall and tied for sixth in the eight-team Class 2A Midwestern Athletic Conference. The three wins were one more than their total from the 2016 and 2017 seasons combined (2-16).

The turnaround mindset is there for a program that hasn’t qualified for the WPIAL playoffs since 2011.

“I’m excited, but we have a lot of work to do,” Lamenza said. “I’m looking forward to starting the off-season program as soon as we get back from break.”

Don Rebel is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Don at drebel@tribweb.com or via Twitter @TheDonRebel.

Tags: Ellwood City