George Guido: Bengals coach Marvin Lewis last WPIAL product left

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, December 4, 2018 | 10:57 PM

And then there was one.

With the surprise firing of Green Bay Packers coach and Bishop Boyle High School graduate Mike McCarthy, it means Fort Cherry’s Marvin Lewis of the Cincinnati Bengals is the only current NFL head coach from a WPIAL school.

Since Brentwood’s Joe Schmidt was named coach of the Detroit Lions in 1967, at least one NFL team has had a head coach from a WPIAL school.

In 1997, five of the 30 NFL coaches were from WPIAL schools: Bill Cowher, Mike Ditka, Marty Schottenheimer, Joe Bugel and Dave Wannstedt. If you want to go outside the WPIAL and count Ted Marchibroda of Franklin High School in Venango County, that’s six.

So if Lewis is let go by Cincinnati at some point, it would be the first time in 52 years no NFL head coaches are from WPIAL schools.

Of course, if the Bengals keep losing, Lewis will probably get an extension.

Bring on winter sports

Winter sports start this weekend, and the Trib Live High School Sports Network is set to go.

The network will have 20 radio affiliate and school-run broadcasts doing multiple boys and girls basketball games each week through the regular season and into the exclusive audio and online broadcast coverage of the WPIAL basketball playoffs in February.

Once section play begins, Trib HSSN will average more than 50 high school basketball broadcasts per week. That will include Scott Briggs on WISR Radio in Butler, who will carry Knoch boys basketball games on 680 AM.

This season, Trib HSSN will video stream a boys and girls WPIAL Game of the Week on our website at TribHSSN.TribLive.com.

Also, network broadcasts will include high school wrestling and hockey.

Locally, Mike and Mike (Choma and Pavlik) are ready to hit the airwaves for the Highlands basketball season. All Tuesday games will be replayed Thursday, and Friday games the following Wednesday at 7 p.m. on Comcast Cable Channel 190. All games will be on their YouTube.com channel, Highlands High Football, the next day.

Fortunately for Highlands fans, these games will be available since the Golden Rams play all their games on the road until Dec. 27, when they host their Holiday Tournament.

Test might come

The PIAA’s new rule not allowing a student who transfers after the start of 10th grade to participate in the postseason could face a test soon.

Lynn Greer III, one of the top junior guards in the nation, is back at Philadelphia’s Roman Catholic High School after a brief stay at Virginia’s Oak Hill Academy.

Greer, who led the Cahillites to a PIAA Class 6A title last season, transferred to Oak Hill over the summer. He told philly.com he returned after missing “the family-like atmosphere” at Roman Catholic.

He reapplied at Roman Catholic and resumed classes there Nov. 2.

The son of former Temple guard Lynn Greer, he reportedly has scholarship offers from Florida, Louisville, Marquette, Miami and Oregon.

Roman Catholic is loaded again this year with 6-foot-6 wings Seth Lundy, a Penn State recruit, and Hakim Hart (St. Joseph’s), plus guards Gabe Perez and Louie Wild.

Highly touted freshman Jalen Duren, a 6-8 power forward, and 6-3 guard Justice Williams played for USA Basketball’s national junior squad.

As for Greer, his eligibility case is expected to be heard by the PIAA District 12 committee, which surely will be told he didn’t play a game at Oak Hill.

Stay tuned.

Play of the year

One play in Friday’s PIAA Class A semifinal between OLSH and Farrell was possibly the strangest of the season.

After taking the second-half kickoff, OLSH had the ball on the Farrell 3. Jaymar Pearson took the handoff and was hit hard, fumbling the ball.

The loose ball hit a Farrell player’s helmet and landed in the arms of Andrew Schnarre, who was lined up as a receiver on the left side of the line.

Schnarre took the ball into the end zone as everyone at Slippery Rock’s Mihalik-Thompson Stadium tried to figure out what happened.

It wasn’t enough, however, as Farrell downed the Chargers, 41-10.

George Guido is a Valley News Dispatch scholastic sports correspondent. His column appears Wednesdays.