OT: the fall of Gateway football
- Thread starter Sean Miller Fan
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So were Uniontown, Mt. Lebanon and others in the 70's. Man, that was many decades ago to be relevant to recent years.
My father used to talk about Westinghouse having been a big deal in the old days when I was at Baldwin in the early 70's, and that seemed ancient to me at that time!
I have a recollection (I grew up in Western PA and came back home for grad school) of the Marino-led Central Catholic squad going up against the Gateway team(s) coached by Antimarino. Their fans said "Who cares about this Marino kid? We've got the ANTI-Marino!"
The PCC people always show up instantly whenever recruiting comes up.
If you're talking early '70s (which coincided with my high school years as well), you are correct. That was a rare down cycle (every school goes through at least one) at Aliquippa. When I was at Temple, we had a player from Aliquippa (he was one of the guys who was trying to talk me into walking on), and we talked about that often. Not sure what the reasons were there, but my own high school (the now-defunct Duquesne) had its worst football period at the same time. In our case, what happened was that a coach who had built a power throughout the 1960s (the late Mike Kopolovich) was forced out by school district politics just prior to the 1970 season. The program went into the dumps almost immediately (school record winless streak, exacerbated by a teacher strike that virtually scuttled an entire season), to a point where there was actually talk of DROPPING FOOTBALL, Finally, after a winless 1975 season, the same school board who had forced Koploovich out begged him to come back and save the program, and he built it back (unbeaten season first year back, WPIAL champs the next year). Unfortunately for me and my playing days, I was class of 1974.
Gateway never won a single WPIAL under him. They won't now either. Not sure what they are falling from, apparently nothing.
Smith cant coach either. Program was a joke the whole time.
I'd say Mt. Lebanon had some pretty good teams from mid 70's well into the 80's.
WPIAL titles in 73, 80, 81, 84, 85 (may have been 83, 84) I think they won in like 76 or 77 too but that one just blanks out of my memory? Beat Joe Montana in 1973 playoffs, I think he either 4 or 6 picks.
The 79-early 80's team was loaded with Div I talent. Ceaser Aldisert LB/TE (Pitt) John Rees & Bob Schilken OL/DL (Pitt) the best pair of DL playing side by side I've ever seen in HS football to this day. QB's Eck (UVA), Reda (WVU), Chris Jelick Qb/P (Pitt) TE John Frank (OhSt/49ers), TE/WR Richard Aldisert (Standford/Died summer senior year), John Ritz OL (VaTech), the DE next to Rees and Schilken went to Purdue, guys that went to VMI, Richmond, etc. Even the mid to later 80's had plenty of guys who went DI.... Kurt Angle was one hell of a HS football player at LB/FB....but we all know he picked another sport.
WPIAL titles in 73, 80, 81, 84, 85 (may have been 83, 84) I think they won in like 76 or 77 too but that one just blanks out of my memory? Beat Joe Montana in 1973 playoffs, I think he either 4 or 6 picks.
The 79-early 80's team was loaded with Div I talent. Ceaser Aldisert LB/TE (Pitt) John Rees & Bob Schilken OL/DL (Pitt) the best pair of DL playing side by side I've ever seen in HS football to this day. QB's Eck (UVA), Reda (WVU), Chris Jelick Qb/P (Pitt) TE John Frank (OhSt/49ers), TE/WR Richard Aldisert (Standford/Died summer senior year), John Ritz OL (VaTech), the DE next to Rees and Schilken went to Purdue, guys that went to VMI, Richmond, etc. Even the mid to later 80's had plenty of guys who went DI.... Kurt Angle was one hell of a HS football player at LB/FB....but we all know he picked another sport.
I think they won one when he was playing?!.. Was he the QB when they won in 1986?
They had a big lineman that was pretty damn good too Mike Liviorio who went to Pitt. Wasn't Curtis Bray on that team too? Maybe I'm wrong but I think so. They beat a very good Mt. Lebanon team in WPIAL semi finals at Baldwin in what I remember for some reason as one of the coldest games I was ever at, anytime anywhere....and it would have been well before Thanksgiving but I just remember it being very very very cold.
They had a big lineman that was pretty damn good too Mike Liviorio who went to Pitt. Wasn't Curtis Bray on that team too? Maybe I'm wrong but I think so. They beat a very good Mt. Lebanon team in WPIAL semi finals at Baldwin in what I remember for some reason as one of the coldest games I was ever at, anytime anywhere....and it would have been well before Thanksgiving but I just remember it being very very very cold.
Smith won a lot of games and got a lot of underprivileged kids into college. You can't take those two things away from him regardless of how selfish his actions were.
yeah, those MT. Lebo teams started to shift the balance of power south and away from the big red machine of Penn Hills. Schilken I think went on to Med school....I know this is going to sound really bad, but he cared more about academics than football and was pretty much a reserve in the Foge era.
Hated to see Frank go to O$U, but that goes to show that even in the glory years it wasn't possible to keep them all at home.
Veering a bit off topic now, but didn't Frank also go to medical school?
I remember that is why he retired from football in his prime but not sure if he ever did or not. Was a really good TE.
While that's true, the other side of the coin is hundreds of kids , their fathers, coaches, and programs who decided to play by the rules , and were thereby not as competitive, and thereby did not get to experience the excitement of a potential playoff game or trophy that may or may not have happened if others had not decided to be unethical. I'm not saying that the kids that win the state championships don't deserve it , but I've been around too many of these "advantaged" programs to realize that other programs didn't have a chance. A certain single A program from the coal region had kids moving in with "friends and family" all over the place and still do however they were bumped up to double A for a couple of years. Another coal region AA program used to have a fair number of parents redshirt their kids in middle school . It was basically an accepted practice up here years ago.....Just sayin' that there is another way to look at it.
Back in the 70's and 80's New Castle was the winningest high school football team in America, now football is so so but now New Castle is a basketball power 2014 AAAA state champions
Gateway was irrelevant for a decade or more before Smith & his son Justin King got there. One of those early teams had a key transfer from Central. In 2007 there was a well-publicized case of a QB/ WR transferring from West Miflin to Gateway for his SR year. He was initially ruled ineligible by the WPIAL but soon cleared by the PIAA. He ended up being a Big 33 selectee & MAC recruit. A few years later they had a Gronk type transfer, ACC recruit.
As Pitt fans found out, the highest rated and most touted Gateway guys aside from King were somewhat less spectacular than the hype that preceded them, although the lessor hyped D1 guys perhaps fared better. Smith seemed to have the Rivals.com types in his back pocket. Playing for Gateway was seemingly good for a extra star on your ranking. Tyler Boyd presumably would have been the #1 ranked recruit in the nation if he had played at Gateway during the Smith heyday.
In about 5 years they went from WPIAL mediocrity to #3 in the nation. That ain't coaching. And while population shifts are indeed real they're not enough to explain the drastic rise & fall. Gateway was most certainly a destination program.
As Pitt fans found out, the highest rated and most touted Gateway guys aside from King were somewhat less spectacular than the hype that preceded them, although the lessor hyped D1 guys perhaps fared better. Smith seemed to have the Rivals.com types in his back pocket. Playing for Gateway was seemingly good for a extra star on your ranking. Tyler Boyd presumably would have been the #1 ranked recruit in the nation if he had played at Gateway during the Smith heyday.
In about 5 years they went from WPIAL mediocrity to #3 in the nation. That ain't coaching. And while population shifts are indeed real they're not enough to explain the drastic rise & fall. Gateway was most certainly a destination program.
What happened to my post? Yesterday why was it deleted? When I said in the 70's and 80's New Castle was the winningest high school football team in America and now New Castle is now a basketball power. Winning 2014 AAAA state championship
New Castle had the most WPIAL Championships for a long time, up to 11 in 1998, but they have since been passed by Alliquippa (14). Now that I caught up on the last 30 years...
Those 80's lebo teams were pretty good.. I remember watching a great Lebo vs. NH game at 3 rivers on tv.. Growing up in Bethel, I saw a lot of good lebo then USC teams.. Was on the receiving end of some very good usc teams as well. My sr year, Art Walker was my position coach and he'd tell me some good stories about those lebo teams, his dad coached them.
Actually one was when Bethel played Lebo in a playoff game, the lebo students were spitting on and throwing stuff on the bethel players pre game until the bethel parents actually game down from the stands and made a human rope on both sides from the locker room to the field for the bethel players. Pretty cool story hearing someone tell it who was there..
Actually one was when Bethel played Lebo in a playoff game, the lebo students were spitting on and throwing stuff on the bethel players pre game until the bethel parents actually game down from the stands and made a human rope on both sides from the locker room to the field for the bethel players. Pretty cool story hearing someone tell it who was there..
The loss of Westinghouse to Cranberry has affected Monroeville and thus Gateway in a lot of ways.
Schilken was just not big enough, he was about 230/240 pounds. He started a lot of games but was never a star. Yes he went to medical school, as did Frank, retired early from 49er's.
Side Note: While frank was at Ohio State, Craig Dunaway was the TE for Michigan and was from Upper St. Clair..... how weird that TE's from neighboring schools in Pittsburgh were the starting TE's for the two best teams in the big ten. and that is when the big ten basically was those two teams.
Side Note: While frank was at Ohio State, Craig Dunaway was the TE for Michigan and was from Upper St. Clair..... how weird that TE's from neighboring schools in Pittsburgh were the starting TE's for the two best teams in the big ten. and that is when the big ten basically was those two teams.
