Ellis voted in by board as Sun Valley’s coach over presumed pick
Denying the recommended choice of Sun Valley High School’s administration, the Penn-Delco Board of School Directors last Wednesday voted in Ernie Ellis to be the next head football coach at the high school.
Current varsity assistant coach Lou D’Alonzo, a longtime coach on the Delaware County high school football scene, was the preferred candidate and was recommended to the school board. Sun Valley conducted a normal interview process after the school parted ways with former head coach Greg “Bubba” Bernhardt following the 2020 season.
Dawn Jones, a board member since 2013, recommended Ellis for the position and motioned to deny D’Alonzo the position. The board proceeded to vote 8-0 against D’Alonzo and in unanimous favor of Ellis, a Sun Valley graduate who previously served as freshman football coach.
One member of the school board, Stephanie Ellis, abstained from voting due to a family conflict of interest. In Wednesday’s meeting, Jones also requested changes to the hiring process for coaching positions moving forward.
Ernie Ellis is well-respected within the community for his decades-long dedication to coaching youth sports. He was inducted into the Aston Sports Hall of Fame in 2020. Attempts to reach Ellis Saturday evening were not immediately successful.
In an emailed statement Saturday, Penn-Delco school board president Leon Armour reiterated coaching hirings were done at the direction of the board.
“While it is the Administration’s position to recommend candidates, it is ultimately the Board’s decision to hire them,” Armour’s statement read. “The Board obviously did not have confidence in the Administration’s recommendation and decided unanimously to go in a different direction.
“Coach Ellis has an extensive history of supporting young athletes that make up the Penn-Delco School District, and we are excited to have him at the helm of our team.”
D’Alonzo has been a math teacher in the school district since 2009. A 2004 Interboro graduate, D’Alonzo has spent the last decade-plus coaching high school football in Delaware County.
Although it’s rare for a school board to go against an administration’s hiring recommendations, especially for athletic positions, Penn-Delco has pulled the move on other occasions.
D’Alonzo had been the top candidate for the head football coaching position in Feb. 2014, a job that ultimately went to Ray Gionta.
The subsequent vote two weeks later was unanimous in favor of Gionta, who previously had been let go from the same position at Marple Newtown. It was believed that the school board targeted Gionta for the job immediately after he left the Marple position.
In July 2014, the board denied the administration’s recommendation that the late Ernie Colantonio remain head coach of the volleyball team. The board re-posted the position and the administration ultimately put forward a new candidate, Melissa Haines, who was hired in a unanimous vote. Parents and students expressed their disdain for the school board’s decision at the time. Colantonio died unexpectedly in 2015.
Two sources with ties to Sun Valley said the board’s actions came as a shock to many. There had been no indication that a new candidate would be recommended by the board and approved so suddenly, minutes after D’Alonzo’s candidacy was denied.
“It stinks,” one source said. “We have seen it before here. They pulled this exact same stuff a few years ago. They did it to Lou in the past and they did it with volleyball. It’s not the right way to do things and it upsets a lot of people. There are a lot of people tied to the school right now that are disgusted. It’s cheap. Nothing against (Ellis), but this shouldn’t have happened.”