To teach his own
A decade after winning a state title together, Lehigh Valley rival coaches (EMMAUS’ HAROLD FAIRCLOUGH AND CENTRAL CATHOLIC’S TIM MCGORRY) are trying to build another champion. They face off Saturday night.
Perhaps no other sport creates bonds the way football does.
Even on teams that struggle for wins, the journey is what resonates years later and friendships remain long after scores and records are forgotten.
And when you are part of a squad that wins a state championship, you’re forever linked. The links formed are often stronger than steel. That applies to coaches as well as players.
Harold Fairclough was the head coach of Allentown Central Catholic’s 2010 Class 3A state championship team. Tim McGorry was a co-offensive coordinator with Andy Millen on Fairclough’s staff that year.
A decade after the 2010 Vikings won the Lehigh Valley Conference and District 11 championships, then posted state playoff wins over Abington Heights, Clearfield, Archbishop Wood and Bishop McDevitt to cap a 16-0 season, Fairclough and McGorry are still wearing green and gold.
However, Fairclough is now the head coach at Emmaus and McGorry is in his second season in charge of Central Catholic.
Their teams meet Saturday night at J. Birney Crum Stadium in one of the marquee matchups of Week 3 of the abbreviated Eastern Pennsylvania Conference season.
Both teams have a lot to prove.
The Green Hornets are 2-0 but their wins were over scuffling Allen and Dieruff programs.
The Vikings are 2-1 but also beat the Canaries along with a victory over a Whitehall program also trying to gain traction.
The Emmaus-CCHS game will feature plenty of offensive firepower as Central quarterback Matt Rauscher, running back Jayden Williams and receiver Jack McGorry figure to move the ball on one side while the Green Hornets will counter with QB Jake Fotta, running back Brandon Camire and dynamic receiver Jameel Sanders.
The night will also feature a 10-year reunion of sorts for Fairclough, McGorry, and a few others who were a part of the 2010 Vikings.
The list includes former Central assistant Jake Reinhard, now a member of the Emmaus staff, and former CCHS players Jalen Scipio and Angelo Lucci whoare nowon McGorry’s crew. Strength coach Mike Cerimele was also a part of the 2010 staff and remains with CCHS today.
All of them are competitors and once the ball goes into the air, the focus will be on winning, not nostalgia.
But before and after the game, the good vibrations will be there.
“I’ve known Harold since I was 10 or 11 years old and have always respected him,” McGorry said. “My cousin is [Moravian College coach] Jeff Pukszyn, who like me is a grandson of Pete Krah, the guy everybody knew and loved at Central. Jeff and Harold were teammates and great friends. That’s how I met Harold. I was around those guys all the time. The three of us have had a close relationship for a long time now.”
McGorry and Fairclough are not only state championship-winning coaches at CCHS, but each also won PA gold as players — Fairclough as an all-state linebacker in 1993 and McGorry as the starting quarterback in 1998.
“Growing up around the Central program, Harold was always someone you looked up to, No. 1, for how he played the game ... he was a great player,” McGorry said. “No. 2, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with him and learned a lot from him. I look back at what he did when he was here at Central and now at Emmaus and what I learned most from him is to loosen the reins a little bit and trust in your staff. Let them coach a little more. You can’t do this all by yourself.”
McGorry said he and Fairclough were close before the 2010 state championship run, but working together every day for 18 straight weeks during that memorable season strengthened their bonds.
Ten years later, neither man is worried about how to deal with a state powerhouse like Archbishop Woodor Bishop McDevitt.
Instead, they’re trying to navigate through the uncertainty and changes caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Vikings, for example, can’t use their normal practice field near the school off American Parkway because it’s considered a city-owned and Allentown has closed all parks. So, they have had to practice at Mountainville Memorial instead.
“In 2010, we had to go to a lot of different places to practice and we’re doing the same thing now during this situation,” McGorry said. “I saw how Harold handled it and seeing how he did it has been beneficial to me this year.”
“Tim and I talked a lot during the offseason and bounced things off each other in trying to navigate through the unprecedented times we’re all experiencing,” Fairclough said. “A lot has been going on, and we’ve leaned on each other a little bit to get through it.”
Fairclough said McGorry has grown as a coach over the years. He remembers McGorry doing a great job coaching the offensive line in 2010 while Millen worked with the quarterbacks.
“Tim didn’t have much experience with the offensive line at that point, but I told him I trust you and he went out and talked to a bunch of people and educated himself on coaching an offensive line and did a great job for us,” Farlcough said. “With Tim, it’s football 24⁄ 7 and he worked well with the kids and got the most out of them.”
The fact that the 2010 Vikings scored 663 points, averaging 41.4 per game, is a testament to how the entire offense performed.
Fairclough and McGorry worked together again on Pukszyn’s Moravian staff in 2015 before Fairclough returned to the high school sidelines at Emmaus in 2016.
McGorry left Central after the 2011 season and coached at Parkland for one year, Moravian for four and Lehigh for two before returning to his alma mater last year.
Wherever they’ve been, they have stayed in touch and they’ll always get a smile on their face when they think about the 2010 season.
“I’ve tried to stay in touch with everyone on that 2010 staff because that was a great staff with a bunch of great characters,” Fairclough said.
“Wehad so much fun, busting each other at practice every day and going out to dinner and all the stuff we did.”
All that said, both want to win Saturday night.
“Tim’s a tremendous competitor and he wants to beat us and we want to beat them,” Fairclough said.
“We’ll both have our teams ready to go. That will make for a great matchup and a great night of football.”