Coaches have been targeted in the past
with ease — and not even have to give a reason publicly.
• Former North Hills football coach Jack McCurry, fourth on the WPIAL all-time list for wins, was fired in 2002 but rehired five days later after a public school board meeting that drew 400 people to an auditorium. Former North Hills star LaVar Arrington, who had just been the No. 2 pick in the NFL draft, got a standing ovation when he showed up in the middle of the meeting to support McCurry, wearing his high school letter jacket that was about three sizes too small.
• Chartiers Valley boys basketball coach Tim McConnell, who won 500 games faster than any coach in WPIAL history, was fired in 2007. A school board member who was disgruntled at his son’s playing time was accused of leading the charge to oust McConnell, who was rehired two weeks later by an 8-1 vote.
• Penn Hills fired football coach Neil Gordon in 2008, despite winning 156 games in 21 years.
• At Beaver, Pat Tarquinio won three WPIAL football titles and was the winningest coach in WPIAL history (269-143-11) when the school board forced him to resign in 1999. Other coaches not as well-known have been let go, with a school board member or two leading the charge. Don Yannessa coached Aliquippa from 1972-88, won four WPIAL titles and 142 games at the school before leaving to become athletic director and coach at Baldwin.
Zmijanac was his defensive coordinator. Yannessa said what happened to Zmijanac has been going on for years, even at Aliquippa.
The stadium Aliquippa is named after legendary coach Carl Aschman, but Yannessa remembers Aliquippa’s board trying to fire Aschman in the 1950s. “Jim Render, Jack McCurry … the list is endless, ” Yannessa said. “There were seven people on that Aliquippa board who wanted to humiliate Mike publicly. It was personal, and people have to realize it was personal because they don’t like him, for whatever reason. “Listen, the more years you coach, the more success you have, the more enemies you accumulate. And your enemies hang around — and sometimes they get on school boards.
They’re like the wolves hiding in the weeds in the forest.
You can’t see them, except under the moonlight with their teeth flashing. Then they come out and they’re the ones that get you. They got Mike, but they didn’t get Render and didn’t get McCurry.”
Most of Aliquippa’s school board members aren’t commenting on the reason for removing Zmijanac, except board member Ezra Lowe said Zmijanac doesn’t do enough to get his players into colleges.
This despite the fact that Aliquippa has produced many Division I college players under Zmijanac, two NFL first-round draft picks and numerous others who have played in college. Zmijanac said recently he has met with 42 college coaches already this year about Aliquippa’s players. Sources said Lowe’s dislike for Zmijanac is wellknown, and one of the reasons is because Lowe thought his son, Mike, who played for Zmijanac almost 20 years ago, should have played at a higher college level than Division II Edinboro.
One school board member who voted against Zmijanac is Aileen Gilbert, mother of Sean Gilbert, 1989 Aliquippa graduate and one of the most celebrated players in Aliquippa history.
Aileen Gilbert also is the grandmother of Darrelle Revis, another Aliquippa great. Other board members who voted against Zmijanac have ties to him, including Maurice Cary, who was a volunteer assistant coach under Zmijanac the past few seasons. Ernest Genes is a line coach for Aliquippa, and his wife, Tina Price-Genes, is another board member who voted against Zmijanac, as well as Sandra Gill, whose brother, Greg, played at Aliquippa and also has been a volunteer assistant coach.
Zmijanac admits he at doesn’t understand his ouster and is mystified, but he throws no barbs. He prefers to take the high road. “Don’t feel bad for me,” Zmijanac said. “The single greatest thing that ever happened to me was growing up in Aliquippa.
A small group of people who made a decision are not going to make me be bitter. Not for any reason. I’m actually happy. I’ve had a great coaching career there. I’m not going to let them destroy all the great things that happened to me there, all the tremendous relationships I acquired during those years. They aren’t going to ruin that for me.”