Familiar coach guides Summit Academy’s return from 1-year hiatus

By: George Guido
Sunday, August 22, 2021 | 6:01 AM

4160748_web1_VND-FacesMcCloud1-040119 — Louis B. Ruediger | Tribune-Review

John McCloud is back as Summit Academy coach after a two-year retirement.

What’s old is new again at Summit Academy.

After a two-year retirement, John McCloud is back at Summit as the head football coach. The 1972 Valley High School graduate was an assistant football coach, wrestling coach and athletic director for nearly 20 years and has dedicated his life to serving at institutions for court-adjudicated youth at places like Summit and Glen Mills in Eastern Pennsylvania.

McCloud had moved to Georgia but soon found he missed the daily challenges of working with troubled youth, just about the time the Knights’ head coaching job opened.

Summit Academy did not play football in 2020, opting out during the covid-19 crisis.

Even though students reside on the Summit campus, it’s not an automatic that they come out for football. Many have never experienced what it’s like to be part of a team and have never set positive goals.

“We only had 19 early in training,” McCloud said. “We have to recruit. We hope to have 30 kids out. A lot of kids here are afraid of the running thing. We just have to make them feel comfortable. We take a lot of water breaks and let them have a chance to feel good about themselves. A lot of the kids, I just hold their hands and say, ‘You’re OK.’”

Many from the inner cities have found their way to the pastoral setting of the Herman neighborhood in Summit Township, Butler County.

“I think we coaches have a job to get those kids to work together,” McCloud said. “You get the kids from Philadelphia and the kids from Pittsburgh, you see (each) can actually be a good person. When they start working out, those kids tend to start to understand a little bit about each other, especially when we’re trying to block and tackle. It’s a process.”

McCloud has always enjoyed teaching the fundamentals of the game, accepting the challenge to work with those who have never played football.

There are triumphant times when the Summit Academy way of doing things works. In 2013, when the Knights made the WPIAL playoffs for the first time, three players were nearing the end of their court assignments or “sentences.” The three all said that if Summit beat Beaver Falls, they would stay at the school through the playoffs, even though they could go home.

Beaver Falls won, 50-26, but that’s not the point. The players saw how being part of something was so positive.

McCloud’s assistants in his return season include Brison Twyman, Terry Oringer, Ken Brosier and former Highlands quarterback Gage Clark.

“They’re first-year guys, but they’re good football guys,” McCloud said.

The Knights start their return to play Aug. 27 at Avonworth and begin the home season Sept. 4 against Leechburg.

Summit will be in Class 2A Allegheny Conference.

Summit Academy

Coach: John McCloud

2020 record: Did not play

All-time record: 45-157-0

SCHEDULE

Date, Opponent, Time

8.27 at Avonworth, 7