McGuffey reaching new heights
After 33 years at five different stops as a head coach and with three district titles to his name, there isn’t much left for McGuffey’s Ed Dalton to accomplish.
Dalton won a district title in just his fourth year as a coach at Purchase Line High School in Indiana County in 1990, then moved on to Mount Pleasant for two years before winning back-to-back district titles at Altoona in 1996 and 1997. He then took over as the head coach at Trinity in 1999 before taking the job at McGuffey prior to the 2012 season.
After all these years, though, Dalton is still chasing one more title — the one ultimate goal that has eluded him.
“I’ve won three district championships and had the chance to go to the state playoffs, but I’ve never won a WPIAL title,” Dalton said. “I’ve been to the semifinals several times, but I’ve always wanted to get to that level.”
Of all the teams he has coached to this point, Dalton pointed to his 1993 Mount Pleasant team as the one that came closest to winning a WPIAL title. That year, the Vikings rolled into the semifinals undefeated and as the No. 1 seed, only to lose to — who else? — McGuffey.
Two players from that 1993 Highlanders team now coach on Dalton’s staff. In his eight years at McGuffey, Dalton has consistently elevated the Highlanders, slowly but surely, year after year, all leading up to last year’s 8-3 season. McGuffey only lost to 10-win teams Charleroi, Washington and South Side Beaver and remained competitive in every contest.
There were plenty of positives for Dalton to take away from last season. All offseason, though, he stressed the importance of “taking the next step” to his players.
Which brings us to the 2019 season, in which Dalton’s Highlanders find themselves with an 8-0 record and ranked No. 4 in the WPIAL in Class 2A with two games left in the regular season. Going into the playoffs on a high note will be no easy task, though, let alone finishing out the season undefeated.
Friday night, McGuffey travels to Avonworth to take on the No. 3 Antelopes (8-0) in a marquee non-conference showdown. The Highlanders then wrap up their regular season next week by hosting No. 1 Washington (8-0) with the Century Conference title on the line in what should be one of the biggest home games in school history.
McGuffey’s schedule hasn’t been a cakewalk to this point, either. The Highlanders beat Class 1A No. 2 Clairton, 42-27, in Week 1, then handed Southmoreland its first defeat, 55-28, on Sept. 27 before handling one-loss Charleroi, 28-14, last Friday.
“Really, it’s kind of like we’re playing playoff games,” Dalton said. “We’re getting used to the environment, we’re getting our young guys to play a little bit who maybe didn’t play last year, and they’re getting used to it. And these teams are as good as any teams in the PIAA or WPIAL.”
For as much as Dalton would love to capture at least one WPIAL championship before it’s all said and done, and as much as he knows this could be his best chance to achieve that goal, he insists winning a WPIAL title isn’t the only motivating factor for him. When he does eventually decide to call it a career, the existence or absence of a WPIAL title on his resume won’t play a part in his decision.
“I guess that would be great, but I don’t think that’s a game changer,” Dalton said. “I think watching kids get better and being able to compete — I’ve been lucky, out of the 33 years, I’ve had maybe three or four bad teams that you consider bad in the whole time. So I’ve been blessed.”
For now, Dalton is eagerly awaiting his team’s first chance to host a playoff game since his arrival at McGuffey, as the Highlanders have already secured a home game for their firstround playoff matchup. He isn’t concerned with the results of the next two games against Avonworth and Washington. He knows that win or lose, his team will likely have to face at least one of those teams again in the postseason in order to reach their goals.
At this point, he said, McGuffey is “playing with house money.”
“We’re 8-0 right now. We’ve played at the level of every team we’ve played,” Dalton said. “What we’ve said all year is, ‘Whatever you dream, you can become.’ So why not us?”