Trib HSSN Head of the Class 2025: Football coaches of the year in each classification

By: Don Rebel
Sunday, December 14, 2025 | 12:16 PM

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The 2025 WPIAL football season stood out for many reasons, including plenty of turnaround seasons and outstanding performances by many head coaches and their staffs.

A tip of the cap to these honorable mention coaches:

• WPIAL champion coach Ryan Lehmeier, who in his three years at Central Catholic has won back-to-back WPIAL championships, a district runner-up and two PIAA runners-up.

• WPIAL runner-up coaches: Art Walker, North Allegheny; Jon LeDonne, Pine-Richland; Matt Miller, McKeesport;

LaRoi Johnson, Imani Christian; Ray Braszo, Steel Valley; and Brian Cooper, Laurel. Those six teams were a combined 61-17.

• Coaches who guided their teams to conference championships, some surprising, some not, included: Brian Tarrant, Woodland Hills; Dan Knause, Trinity; Fred Mozzocio, New Castle; Lou Cerro, Montour; John DeMarco, Elizabeth Forward; Brian Hanson, South Allegheny; John Skiba, Apollo-Ridge; Ron Busby, Western Beaver; Tanner Garry, Fort Cherry; and Ed Woods, California.

• Coaches not listed already who orchestrated big turnaround campaigns of four wins or more from 2024 include: Ryan Linn, Moon; Steve Spence, Chartiers Valley; Chris Rizzo, North Catholic; Mike Bosnic, Washington; Jim Mooney, Beaver Falls; Dan Lis, Chartiers-Houston; Tony Battaglini, Frazier; Drew Dindl, Albert Gallatin.

When it comes to the 2025 head of the class though, there are plenty of golden boys, including two coaches who captured double gold in the district and state.

Class 6A

Coach of the Year: Mike Brown, Norwin

A 4-6 finish for most programs is considered below average. For the Norwin football team, it was the high water mark of success in the 2020’s. The Knights finished 4-6 in 2021 and missed out of the district playoffs via tiebreaker points. In the other four years this decade, Norwin was a combined 7-30, including a 2-8 season last year in which the Knights ended up in last place in Class 6A. However that changed in 2025 as Mike Brown guided the Knights to a tie for second place in 6A with an overall record of 7-4. Norwin won three in a row and two straight games twice while never losing back-to-back games as it qualified for the district playoffs for the first time since 2017.

Class 5A

Coach of the Year: T.J. Plack, Peters Township

Peters Township began the season with a target on its back after finishing as WPIAL Class 5A runner-up in 2024, this a year after winning the program’s first district title in 2023. Target and all, the Indians did not disappoint. Peters Township won the Allegheny Six Conference and every game during a perfect regular season, then added triumphs in the quarterfinals and semifinals, setting up a third straight championship game with Pine-Richland. Head coach T.J. Plack saw his squad pull off one of the greatest comebacks in WPIAL championship game history when the Indians erased a 19-0 halftime deficit to roar back and beat the 2024 champion Rams, 20-19.

Class 4A

Coach of the Year: Mike Warfield, Aliquippa

Aliquippa had won three straight WPIAL Class 4A crowns and had continued to build on a crazy district championship games appearance mark, reaching 16 straight in 2023, when head coach Mike Warfield decided he wanted to step away. The title run and finals appearance streak both came to an end in 2024. Warfield then returned and the Quips rediscovered their golden touch. The 2025 Aliquippa team didn’t dominate, barely making the Class 4A playoffs with three regular season losses, but the Quips got hot as the No. 7 seed in the 4A playoffs, beating Trinity, New Castle and stunning top-seeded McKeesport in the WPIAL finals to capture the program’s 21st WPIAL title.

Class 3A

Coach of the Year: Duke Johncour, Avonworth

Avonworth won the school’s third WPIAL championship in 2024 before losing in heartbreak fashion in the state championship game in overtime to Northwestern Lehigh. That loss may have been the driving force behind a dominant 2025 season. Duke Johncour and the Antelopes won the tough Class 3A Western Hills Conference and finished the regular season 10-0 before beating Freeport and North Catholic to reach the finals. They beat previously undefeated Imani Christian to capture back-to-back WPIAL crowns, then knocked off Penn Cambria in the state semifinals before getting sweet revenge on Northwestern Lehigh for the program’s first PIAA title.

Class 2A

Coach of the Year: Tim Storino, Seton LaSalle

The journey to a WPIAL championship was not quite an overnight success for Tim Storino at Seton LaSalle, but it was close. The former Vincentian Academy head coach took over the downtrodden Rebels in 2022 and the team was winless. They improved to 5-5 the following year and went undefeated and before reaching the district finals in 2024. This season, Seton LaSalle lost to North Catholic in Week Zero, and then won 11 straight games to make a return trip to the WPIAL Class 2A finals. There, the Rebels trailed by two touchdowns in the third quarter before they came back to beat Steel Valley, 21-14, capturing the program’s first district crown in 21 years.

Class A

Coach of the Year: Wayne Wade, Clairton

A return to glory and the WPIAL finals in 2024 ended in heartbreak for Clairton as it lost in an epic district title game to Fort Cherry. The 2025 campaign didn’t get off to a great start as the team opened up the newly renovated Tyler Boyd Stadium with a loss to Class 3A power Imani Christian. That would be the only loss of the season for the Bears. Head coach Wayne Wade watched as his vaunted defense shut out nine consecutive opponents on their way to getting back to Acrisure Stadium, where the Bears held on to edge Laurel for a 15th WPIAL championship. In the PIAA playoffs, Clairton dominated Greenville and Bishop Guilfoyle Academy to claim a district record fifth state crown.

City League

Coach of the Year: Lou Berry, University Prep

The District 8 football playground had been ruled by a fiery Bulldog for the last three years. Westinghouse ran the roost by not only dominating the City League on its way to three straight district championships; the Bulldogs became the first City League team in three decades to play in the PIAA finals and did it two straight years. That all changed in 2025 thanks to Lou Berry’s Wildcats. Following two season-opening losses, University Prep won seven straight games, including two wins over Westinghouse, the second coming in the City League title game, 26-0.

Tags: Aliquippa, Avonworth, Clairton, Norwin, Peters Township, Seton La Salle, University Prep