With THREE Shlaer Area High Schools teams making it to the PIAA Championships - 2 boys teams......
Why is it Shaler Football consistently terrible?
Why is it Shaler Football consistently terrible?
3 Shaler Area HS aiming to win PIAA state championships-Why Football so bad?
- Thread starter ShalerTitans
- Start date
First-awesome for Shaler, I am happy for them, lots of good people, nice typical Western Pa community.
Next- fascinating thread here, "Shaler" lots of related topics. First the reason why baseball at Shaler IS good- some talent, that kid from out of state helped- probably a few other kids moved here a few years ago, knowing the program had potential. Also- lots of good baseball opportunities in the Pgh North Hills area for "off season training." -Lots of choices of area Club Teams, from Pgh Diamond Dogs, Beaver Valley, and Shaler Community Travel teams have been decent over the last few years. AND the parents in the community have enough resources, to have their kids do club baseball stuff, and "travel" likely all year- and I am pretty sure a lot of those Shaler kids focus on baseball- maybe "only one sport" athletes?
So, now the connection to Football. Hope you don't take offense, just being honest...
My previous statement- my guess is some of those kids on Shaler HS baseball may be good athletes, who quit football to focus on baseball. Now- for context, I'm a PR guy, but also have followed Western Pa football for 30-40 years. So the next factor is "tradition." Shaler has none. They cannot build the future based upon pride and success from the 70s, or 10 years ago- they have really never played for championships. Aliquippa, Clairton, Penn Hills, Gateway- 30+ years of tradition, players staying, growing up, and teaching what they learned 20 years ago. Now- as a result, with lack of tradition, "football families" do not move there, or settle down in places like Shaler, or Deer Lakes, or Norwin. Obviously this does not account for everything- but does affect things- local families, or families from out of the area who move here, who value sports... softball families? Maybe move to Hempfield. Volleyball families- maybe move to NA? HS football- maybe move to TJ or Gateway or PR?
Next factor- enrollment- due to suburban sprawl. Shaler HS is big, relative to Western PA- I believe for- 10-15 years (?) played the biggest level- PCC, NA, USC, PR, Penn Hills- getting whopped in 4A. A couple good years with Gordon but he did not stay long enough to build tradition. Now 5A not 6A, but still gotta play against bigger and better schools with lots of resources like PR, Gateway and USC. In the last 20 years, Shaler's experience has been very similar to Hempfield, Norwin and Butler. AND... to make things worse- Shaler is "big but shrinking." So they do not have lots of $ in "bigger and stable" places like USC or Lebo, or "growing places" recently like PR or South Fayette.
Next factor- "coaching- quality and consistency." Shaler, to my knowledge has had some quality HCs- a couple good recent ones with Gordon and LeDonne- but I don't think either of them stayed for more than 5 years. This is difficult to accomplish- gotta have support by the community, school admin, and also school board. A "program" stays strong when coaches stay (if even some assistants), and kids who played there, come back and coach when they are older. Heck- I'm sorry but I don't even know the name of the current Shaler HC. I could name the coaches of like 20 schools- but not Shaler- and they play my team- PR!! So that means the kids, the community may not know much about the HC.
Next- factor- facilities- pretty sure Shaler is at-best average- not nice enough to draw a great coach, or new families- and not nice enough to convince kids to stay with football- like maybe a couple of these kids on the HS baseball team. This is "fixable" but again- it costs money and buy-in from admin and the community. Their stadium is kinda cool- but honestly very difficult as a fan- bad parking, would be very difficult to get 5 thousand fans in that field. Again- that is a draw for kids- how exciting is "Friday Night Lights" when you are losing, and there are only 1000 people there- 300 of which are players and the bands!!??
Last- in order to build a program, you gotta have development- that happens in baseball with club Teams- it happens in football with feeder programs and good development in grades 7 -9. sorry but Shaler has neither. You gotta have "numbers" meaning enough kids playing, learning- not all are great by HS- but enough kids play, some develop into good players in HS. And they learn schemes, ideally when they are ages 10-12, that they are gonna use in HS. Shaler youth FB program is kinda sad, sorry. Numbers have been going down in the last 5-10 years, and they never, or rarely win championships, even at ages 8, 9 or 10. and development connects with numbers- lots of families have been concerned about safety- the program has gotta develop and be "modern" meaning good strength and conditioning, and learning skills and techniques- not just SMASHING HEADS at the younger ages, like 8, 9, 10. And parents have gotta have "faith" in the program- for their kids to be safe and taken care of. My guess is this has contributed to decline in numbers and football "enthusiasm" at Shaler. A better youth FB program might be Shaler's most "fixable" problem, but it takes time, commitment, patience- and really, parents who have knowledge and volunteer their time to make it better. You try some new things in 2023, might not benefit HS until 2030!!
Now, lastly, these factors, can and should tie together, for a good "program" meaning the HC working with the Youth FB teams, or the community enjoying the nice facilities, or something, anything, in the community, to get excited for the "tradition" of the FB program.
phew- that was a lot! hope u take no offense, feel free to comment or disagree
There was a time maybe 8-10 years ago that Shaler was 5-0 and ranked in the state. They went on to lose the next 5 and went on that massive 40ish game losing streak. Gordon was the initial coach, then somebody then LeDonne. They seems to be getting better now - at least respectable in 5A.
Shaler was a decent team last year. 5-5 with nice wins over playoff teams Hampton, Franklin Regional and Woodland Hills. They are going to be competitive in the Northeast Conference this year, not a team to take lightly. I like their QB Smetanka, very underrated IMO. DeSabato is an excellent WR, quick and runs precise routes. Orga is a good target and TE London should also be a great option. They had a lot of success throwing the ball last year and should be even better this year. Will it be enough to get them to the playoffs? Doubt it, mainly because they just don't have the kind of line to play 4 quarters with the top teams. But I wouldn't call them terrible.
Funny you mention Norwin, they could be the number 1 team in 5A if half their team wasn’t at PCC
Wehner, Sullivan = Norwin
Speca = South Fayette
Settles = Elizabeth Forward
Yuhas = Steel Valley
Gonzales = Mars
It's easy to build good teams when the entire WPIAL is your recruiting field.
6A: Norwin
5A: South Fayette
4A: Mars
3A: EF
2A: SV
Just thought that was interesting.
you recruited a kid from Venezuela that carried you to a baseball title
do the same for football
hope that helps
Norwin could have been very good in basketball also . Pgh CC and Gateway took 3-4 very good players
