4 • TRIB TOTAL MEDIA
TIM SWEENEY
Coach: Tim Sweeney
2019 record: 5-6, 4-3 in
Class 5A Allegheny Eight
Conference
All-time record: 334-392-26
SCHEDULE
Date Opponent Time
9.11 at Mt. Lebanon* ppd
9.18 at North Allegheny* 7:30
9.25 Canon-McMillan* 7
10.2 at Norwin* 7
10.9 Hempfield* 7
10.16 at Seneca Valley* 7:30
10.23 Central Catholic* 7
*CONFERENCE GAME
STATISTICAL LEADERS
Passing: Mason Stahl*
78-164, 1,062 yards, 8 TDs
Rushing: Angelo Priore*
143-893 yards, 8 TDs
Receiving: Naseer Penn*
24-525 yards, 8 TDs
*GRADUATED
FAST FACTS
• Baldwin reached the playoffs
last year for the first time
since a 56-10 loss to Central
Catholic in the 2013 Class
AAAA first round.
• The last time the Highlanders
won a WPIAL playoff
game was nearly 30 years ago
in 1991.
• Baldwin returns to the
league’s highest classification
for the first time since 2015
when the Highlanders finished
0-7 in the Class AAAA
Southeastern Conference and
1-8 overall with their lone win
coming over Butler.
• As Tim Sweeney prepares
for his first season as head
coach at Baldwin, it was 31
years ago when Don Yanessa
left Aliquippa to take over the
Highlanders program that had
won only two games in 1986,
’87 and ‘88 combined.
BALDWIN GETS NEW
COACH, NEW CLASS
Changing addresses and moving from one
football program to another can be taxing
and tough. The adjustment period between
coaching staff and players can last well into
the first season.
Preparing for the first season at a new school
with the limitations of a pandemic makes a
difficult transition so much tougher.
But nobody is lining up to make excuses at
Baldwin, especially not new head coach Tim
Sweeney.
“Everyone in the country has challenges that
can either be taken head on where all of us
benefit from perseverance, or we can sit around
and bellyache to the point where we develop a
victim mentality,” he said. “We are doing our
best to embrace the challenges that we face.”
Before the 2019 WPIAL football season, there
were plenty of big-time coaching changes
around the district. This offseason’s biggest
move may have been Sweeney leaving Derry
to take over a Baldwin program that enjoyed
its best season in years last fall.
In six years at his alma mater, Sweeney
helped take a moribund Derry program and
turned it into a legitimate power in Class 3A
with four straight postseason berths highlighted
by a trip to Heinz Field to play in the 2018
WPIAL championship game. The Trojans fell
to Aliquippa, 42-19.
“Coach Sweeney has been nothing but great,”
Baldwin senior receiver Connor Lavelle said.
“The virus has definitely held us back, but
we’ve made the best of our situation.”
Even though social distancing has been a way
of life for most of 2020, the one thing Sweeney
has tried to do is get to know each of his players.
“Getting to know the players and working
hard to develop every single one of them to
reach their individual potential,” he said.
Sweeney might not be bothered by social
distancing, but he is not a fan of social media
as he pointed out what concerns him about
preparing for 2020.
“(I don’t like) players’ reliance on cell phones
and texts as a preferred means of communication
and their misuse of social media to their
own detriment,” he said.
The Highlanders finished 5-6 last fall but
qualified for the playoffs for the first time since
2013 playing in the tough Class 5A Allegheny
Eight Conference.
So how many starters return from a solid
season for the purple and white?
“There are no starters right now on the Baldwin
football team,” Sweeney said. “Everyone
has a clean slate, and we do not talk in terms of
starters or substitutes in as much as challenging
each player to aspire to make what they feel
is a significant contribution to our program.”
Sweeney made it clear that good players aren’t
just about first downs, touchdowns, blocks
and tackles.
“Such a contribution is not always performance
on a football field on Friday evenings,”
he said. “It can be doing well with their schoolwork,
being kind by saying please and thank
you. It can be their conduct in school and doing
good deeds in the Baldwin community.”
One big building block for the Highlanders
is two-way lineman Dorien Ford. The 6-foot-4,
295-pound senior is ranked as the No. 10 senior
in the state by Rivals.com and is among the top
defensive linemen in the country.
Pitt, Penn State and West Virginia are among
the dozens of schools that have offered scholarships.
In building a program, Sweeney realizes
athletes are needed. He pointed out two players
who play other sports at Baldwin and sent out
a help-wanted plea.
“Keith Mincin is an outstanding wrestler
who will be a freshman on the squad who
wants to play football,” Sweeney said. “We
need wrestlers at Baldwin playing football, and
we need more Baldwin football players on the
wrestling team.
“Joey Moeller kicked last year for us and is
an outstanding soccer player. Baldwin soccer
players need to know that we need them on the
football team, and they can focus 100 percent
on their soccer practices and games and at
the same time contribute to the football program.”
A new coach isn’t the only adjustment Baldwin
players are facing this fall. After reaching
the 5A playoffs last year, Baldwin has moved up
in classification and will be part of the eightteam
Class 6A.
However, Sweeney wants to make sure his
team’s focus isn’t on the opponents.
“Our focus is and needs to remain on Baldwin
football and what we are trying to do,” he said.
“The arrow is pointing in the direction that
the players and coaching staff want to take
the program.”
Lavelle believes that arrow is pointing in a
golden direction.
“I’m looking forward to spending one last
year with my brothers and finishing the season
with the results we expect, a WPIAL championship,”
he said.
by DON REBEL
CLASS 6A • BALDWIN DORIEN FORD