Guido: Tough year for A-K Valley football

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, November 14, 2017 | 7:45 PM

This won't go down as a banner year for local high school football.

Many Alle-Kiski Valley programs continued to struggle.

Of the 12 schools in the Valley News Dispatch circulation area, only three had winning seasons: Freeport, Fox Chapel and Highlands. A-K teams had a cumulative record of 39-79 for a .331 winning percentage.

Three teams made the WPIAL playoffs — Freeport, Fox Chapel and Springdale — and all three lost in the first round. No teams will be in the finals over the next two weekends.

Compare that to 1968 when there were four area teams in the WPIAL finals and just three enrollment classifications.

Burrell defeated Freeport in what now is known as Class AA, Kiski Area lost to Latrobe in Class AAA and Oakmont was defeated by Chartiers-Houston in Class A.

Also in 1968, of the 20 schools covered by the Tarentum Valley Daily News, 11 had winning seasons. Two schools finished at .500 and seven had losing seasons.

During the 1960s, there was at least one local team in the WPIAL finals each year. So far in this decade, Knoch, no longer a school in the circulation area, made the finals in 2011, losing to Montour.

The last A-K team to win a WPIAL title was Springdale in 2003.

It's difficult to put a finger on one factor for all the difficulties, but let's hope it's not a permanent down cycle.

Bad year for Chartiers

The person who probably had the worst football year was an 18th century frontiersman who's been dead for more than 250 years.

Pierre (Peter) Chartiers (1690-1759), son of a French immigrant, was a hugely successful fur trapper/trader in the wilds of Western Pennsylvania. His mother and wife were Native Americans, making it easy to trade between the two peoples.

The two high schools named after him, Chartiers Valley and Chartiers-Houston, both located near Chartiers Creek, had a combined record of 2-18.

Couple that with Chartiers Run, which begins in Upper Burrell near Schaefer Fruit Farm and winds its way through Allegheny Township and Lower Burrell before emptying into the Allegheny River across from ATI Industries. Kiski Area and Burrell had a combined record of 2-17.

That makes the schools associated with poor ol' Pete, 4-35.

Bright spots

Still, there were bright spots.

Freeport won eight games, buttressing its all-time win total to 551 victories.

Fox Chapel coach Tom Loughran was named Allegheny 9 Coach of the Year.

First-time head coaches Seth Napierkowski of Springdale and Dom Girardi of Highlands had notable successes.

Before we put 2016 in the rearview mirror, let's pass out this year's awards:

• Biggest upset: Plum put it all together and defeated Franklin Regional, 33-7, on Sept. 15.

• Clint Eastwood Award (Any Which Way You Can): Highlands senior Logan Crise scored touchdowns seven ways: as a receiver, on a kickoff return, a punt return, an interception return, a fumble recovery, a return of a free kick after a safety and, on the final night of his career, a rushing TD.

• Stat of the year: 9. That's how many xylophones Kiski Area has for its halftime band performance.

• Prince Award (Party Like It's 1999): Highlands quarterback Seth Cohen passed for 1,999 yards, one of the area's best single-season marks.

• Toughest schedule: Plum. Six of the 10 teams the Mustangs played made the WPIAL playoffs, including Penn-Trafford and Gateway, who will meet in the Class 5A final this week.

• Best turnaround: Shady Side Academy went winless in 2016, 6-3 this year.

• Game of the year: The Highlands-New Castle game Sept. 8. The Red Hurricanes won 48-47 in double overtime, when the Golden Rams came up short by a yard.

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

Tags: Fox Chapel, Freeport, Highlands, Springdale