Gateway’s Tom LaBuff reflects on 50-plus years coaching and guiding high school athletes

By: Michael Love
Sunday, September 22, 2024 | 11:01 AM

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When Tom LaBuff retired from teaching English at Gateway High School several years ago, he continued to coach the Gators track and field and cross country teams.

He knew that someday he would end his five-decades long tenure with both programs, but his dedication and passion for mentoring and guiding Gateway athletes didn’t diminish.

While he still maintains that love for getting out on the track and on the cross country courses all over Western Pennsylvania, LaBuff has given notice that his time as a coach is drawing to a close.

LaBuff had transitioned this fall to an assistant coach role with the cross country teams with Brent Regus, a former Gateway runner and coaching colleague for several years, taking over the head coaching position.

This spring’s track season will be his final one. He said family is a main reason for his decision to step away.

He said it was a mix of it being a very difficult decision and also knowing it was the necessary time.

“It was that same feeling when I decided to retire from teaching,” LaBuff said.

“But in this case, I am needed at home.”

LaBuff said entering this fall, he wanted to make sure there was a smooth transition with Regus.

“I decided to do it that way to give Brent a taste of what it is like to be the head coach with some support,” LaBuff said.

“I sometimes remind him of things that could’ve been done or should be done. It’s good, as he’s been with me for several years. The kids sometimes forget who is the head coach, and I have to remind them.”

LaBuff said that when he was teaching, that always came first and coaching was second.

“But I was grateful to have that positive influence on kids through coaching after school in the sports I coached where I never could have just in the classroom,” he said.

“It is just something about that which allows you to motivate them in a different way, to find an area of interest where they weren’t as much academically and then work backwards and have them be successful in the classroom as well.”

LaBuff said he talked to the track and field staff in the spring to let them know what the plan was for him moving forward.

As a student at Gateway in the late 1960s — he graduated with honors in 1969 — Labuff ran cross country under coach Walt Donellan and wrestled under the direction of Andy Bulazo.

He was a part of the 1967 boys cross country team which captured the PIAA championship. That team was inducted into the Gateway Sports Hall of Fame last November.

After wrestling two years at IUP and graduating in 1974, LaBuff was hired in 1975 as an English teacher at Gateway and served as a cross country and track and field assistant under Larry Young and as a wrestling assistant under Gateway Sports Hall of Famer Dick Bane.

LaBuff became the boys cross country head coach in 1976, just a couple of months after he helped coach the boys track team to the 1976 WPIAL championship. He added boys track head coach to his resume in 1978.

He helped start the girls cross country team in 1979 and unified the boys and girls track head coaching positions in 1992.

LaBuff also coached junior high wrestling for 26 years from 1979 to 2005.

“All of the coaches I competed under and later coached with had a tremendous influence on me,” LaBuff said.

“A lot of the things I did were modeled somewhat from what Walk Donellan did. Then I had that brief time with Larry Young and learned a great deal from him. The first couple of years I worked with Dick Bane, he had such a structure to practices that I emulated before I took on some things that became my own. I’ve learned so much from so many great coaching colleagues over the years. I am so grateful for that.”

LaBuff’s coaching resume is a mile long, filled with WPIAL and PIAA team championships, top-five finishes in cross country; track team finals appearances; section or league championships in cross country, track and field and wrestling; more than 1,000 individual WPIAL qualifiers in cross country and track and field; and close to 500 WPIAL qualifiers and 300 PIAA qualifiers.

While LaBuff is attached to those accomplished numbers, he said the athletes are the ones who should be most recognized for those achievements.

“There’s 50 years worth, and I am still in contact with some of them,” said LaBuff, who was inducted individually into the Gateway Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.

“This day in age, social media allows that to happen much easier. I am not a Facebook guy, but I will jump on every so often. I will run into people who will tell me about things they remember that they thought were so impactful. It is gratifying to know I’ve had an impact. The kids are who I’ve done this for.”

Gateway athletic director Don Holl said that with all the things that are pulling at coaches today, there aren’t many more people who will coach for 30, 40 or even 50 years in a given job.

“It’s just not that world anymore,” Holl said.

“Coach LaBuff’s been here since Moses ran the anchor leg of the 4-by-100. It’s been so long that he’s been a part of the Gateway athletic community and Gateway family. He just loves coaching. It’s a perfect storm when you have someone who is so passionate about doing something, they are so good at it, and they want to do it for so long. Their impact is immeasurable. There are so many lives impacted by Tom in his long career, and I am sure multiple generations of Gateway athletes. He has given so much to Gateway.”

To celebrate LaBuff’s 50 years coaching at Gateway, in the spring, Gateway had his name emblazoned in Lane 3 down the track’s home straightaway at Antimarino Stadium.

“When there’s someone coaching for 50 years, and you are going to name something after him or her, well there’s exactly one guy,” Holl said.

“Which is why we were excited to put his name literally on the track the way we did. It is prominent, as it should be.”

LaBuff said he was surprised and honored the day he got the chance to view his name on the track for the first time as he was welcomed at the spot by a group of athletes and coaching colleagues ready to celebrate his longevity and dedication to Gateway athletics.

LaBuff also will be honored Oct. 4 in a pregame ceremony before Gateway hosts Penn-Trafford for the Victory Bell on homecoming.

“Hopefully, we will be able to get as many cross country and track and field alumni there as possible as well as those who coached with him over the years,” Holl said.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Gateway