Franklin Regional soccer maintains standard through coaching roller coaster

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Sunday, November 2, 2025 | 6:55 PM

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Coaching turnover, while necessary at times and inevitable at others, can be damaging to an athletic program at any level. Even the good ones.

It can cause rifts, distractions and impatience as a new leader fosters change and buys time to implement a system.

Franklin Regional, though, hasn’t had issues with its boys soccer program, despite frequent movement at the top.

Coaches may change, but the expectations and talent pool stay the same.

Nick White is the team’s fourth head coach in six years. The second-year mentor guided the Panthers to back-to-back WPIAL championship games after he replaced Lukas Petersen, who led the team for two years (2022-23).

The Panthers (18-4) finished as the WPIAL 3A runner-up for the second consecutive year with a 2-1 loss to West Allegheny on Saturday at Highmark Stadium.

They will open the PIAA playoffs at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Hollidaysburg (17-2-1).

Petersen was 2 for 2 in playoff trips, making the semifinals in ’23. He succeeded Thomas Louisy, who led Franklin Regional to the semifinals in his only season in 2021.

Louisy took over for the program’s winningest coach, Rand Hudson, who coached the Panthers for 11 seasons over two stints and won back-to-back WPIAL titles in 2018 and ’19, with a runner-up finish in his final season in ’20. The team also made the PIAA semis twice on his watch.

So, what’s the secret to maintaining such a high level of expectation and execution?

“You can trace it to Rand,” White said. “He built what we have here. I had him come in during the preseason to talk to the team. He had a great message for the boys: What does it take to win a championship? He told us how we’re a program that is always going to get a team’s best shot.

“We’re standing on the shoulders of the stuff he built.”

That explains why teams celebrated more than usual when they managed to beat the Panthers this season. Belle Vernon, Penn-Trafford and Allderdice were overjoyed with one-goal victories over the perennial power.

All due respect to White, maybe in the Panthers’ case it has more to do with the players than the coach. They have kept the bar raised despite new leadership.

“He leaned on us when he came in,” senior goalkeeper Emerson Bush said. “He talked with us about what he wanted to implement.”

White joined Franklin Regional after serving as an assistant for a decade at Fox Chapel, where he is a teacher.

“Nick and Rand are similar but different,” Franklin Regional athletic director Zach Kessler said. “They are both such good guys. Nick is very intense. The kids respect him and how he coaches. We are really fortunate to have him.”

Said Panthers junior defender Thomas Bridges: “We’ve tried to make coaches feel as welcome as possible.”

Don’t get the wrong idea: There have not been bad breakups with coaches in the program. A search for continuity has been a spin of the wheel with what coaches call “uncontrollables.”

“There have been changes for different reasons,” Kessler said.

Hudson, for instance, decided it was time to step down. He wanted to watch his sons and daughter play in college. He since has taken on a role as an assistant at Grove City College, where his son, Colton, plays.

Louisy and Petersen departed the program for personal reasons; Petersen joined his wife, who landed a job in Baltimore.

“I am trying to connect our youth and high school programs and keep things moving forward,” White said. “We have a youth camp now and winter sessions. I want the kids to grow up and want to wear the FR logo.”

White took Saturday’s loss hard.

“I needed to have them better prepared,” he said. “It’s on me. I will do everything I can to help these boys as we prepare for the state playoffs. They are great kids. They played so hard (Saturday).”

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Franklin Regional