News is breaking that Easton is hiring Matt Senneca as their next head football coach, pending School Board approval at Tuesday's meeting. Senneca resigned in November after four year stint as the head coach at Whitehall, and has a state championship ring from his time as the quarterbacks coach at Liberty.
Senneca is woven into the fabric of Lehigh Valley football. His father, Sam Senneca, was an outstanding defensive tackle for Nazareth and NC State, then was the longtime coach at Freedom High School before teaming with Jim Morgans at Allentown Central Catholic for their run of dominance in the 1990s. The end of the elder Senneca's coaching career included Matt's three year reign at quarterback, where he went 32-6 as a starter, made a state final 4 and had a pair of D11 titles. He was an AP All State pick in 1997 and quarterbacked Pennsylvania in the Big 33 game. He was Tom Lemming's #20 quarterback nationally in the class of 1998 and signed with Penn State. Senneca was Penn State's starter as a redshirt junior, starting the opener and seven other games that year, but ultimately lost out on the QB1 role to Zack Mills.
Senneca came back to Lehigh Valley and joined Tim Moncman's staff at Liberty in 2002, first as the quarterbacks coach then adding offensive coordinator to his plate. Senneca mentored the Hurricane QBs from 2002-2009, an unprecedented run at Liberty that included state finals trips in 2005 and 2006 and a state title in 2008. That run was of course led by AP Player of the Year quarterbacks Dan Persa and Anthony Gonzalez, who both Senneca's star pupils. Following Moncman's resignation at Liberty, Senneca joined Jim Morgans's staff at Parkland, where he was the quarterbacks coach, then as the wide receivers coach at Moravian.
Senneca's first head coaching job came at Wilson. He took over the Warriors after the first 0-10 season and a three year stretch of 5-25. However, Senneca did not get the ship righted in two seasons, and left with a 3-17 record. He resigned at Wilson to go back and work for Harold Fairclough, where he was the offensive coordinator for the first two conference championships in school history, and they went 28-8 with Senneca running the offense. He replaced Brian Gilbert as the Whitehall head coach in 2018.
Senneca took over a Whitehall team that went 2-8 the season before he arrived. Things bottomed out in his first year, going 0-10 in 2019. But in 2020, the Zephyrs won the D11 5A classification during the COVID shortened season. They took a step back in 2021, going 4-7 and were picked dead last in the East Penn Conference last fall. But the Zephyrs surprised everybody, beating D11 6A champs Parkland and 4A champs Allentown Central Catholic during the regular season, and then outscored their opponents 77-30 on their way to their second 5A title in three years. They followed that up with a 34-13 state playoff win over Delaware Valley before bowing out against Imhotep Charter. Senneca finished 17-26 at Whitehall, with a pair of D11 titles and the only state playoff win in school history. In November, Senneca announced that he was resigning his position at Whitehall to spend more time with his family.
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There's a lot to Senneca here. He's been incredibly successful as a coordinator - he's coached for probably the three best coaches in the Lehigh Valley this century and been a key cog in the success for all three. He's obviously developed a network of football knowledge and been in meeting rooms and on the field with great football minds both as a coach and as a player. He had a disastrous stint at Wilson, but as a 31 year old head coach, he's openly said he wasn't ready for the job. The Whitehall run is tough to read. Whitehall is the smallest public school in the EPC South and the only one that doesn't compete in 6A. A pair of state playoff trips there is no small feat - because having a strong enough regular season to get a district bid is not guaranteed given the enrollment discrepancies at Whitehall.
Taking a team expected to finish dead last and winning a state playoff game this year was a bid deal for his stock as a head coach in my eyes. He's still just 42 and has a lot more coaching in front of him than behind him. And at Easton, he should never ben at a talent disadvantage locally with the numbers, feeders, and tradition at Easton, unlike what he had at both Wilson and Whitehall. He's definitely got to rebuild culture - this is a vastly different program than what Steve Shiffert left in 2016. First order of business will be restoring some of the lost toughness and discipline that they were long known for. His reputation as a quarterback developer, and what he can do with X's and O's as far as the spread-run stuff he's done since Liberty will be welcomed at Easton - it's something they've never had. He'll need to find a DC who has vision and substance on that side of the ball. I think his dad is finally retired after spending time with him at Whitehall, and Kyle Beller has been interviewing for other head coaching jobs, so he'll be looking for somebody new. My bet is on somebody from the Moncman or Morgans tree that he's worked with. I doubt he retains much of the former staff - I'd guess Kevin Morton stays in some capacity on offense, and maybe a Jeff Staton or Bob Stroble as an alum with serious outside Easton football experience. But it's going to be a new day, which is what the program needs.
My initial reaction is if they couldn't or didn't make Moncman or Fairclough happen, Senneca was the best name on the board in the Valley. I know he hasn't fully hit his stride as a head coach, but it seems like all the pieces are there, and he's never been in a situation this good, no matter how dire 3-8 was last year for the Rovers. Given the amount of sophomores that played last year, I'd say the immediate expectation is they are vastly improved in 2023 and are right back in the thick of things by 2024. They are now eight years past their last D11 final and twelve years past their last state playoff appearance. Expectations will be for that to change quickly if Senneca lives up to his pedigree.
