McKeesport coach forges his own trail
The coaching adage goes never take over for a legend at any level, whether it’s high school, college or pro. It’s better to be the coach, after the coach, after the legend.
But by George, Matt Miller is thriving after taking over for a legend at McKeesport.
Miller took over as McKeesport’s coach in 2016, succeeding the retired George Smith, who finished his career as one of the 20 winningest coaches in WPIAL history with a record of 226-112-5, two WPIAL titles and two state championships. The school named its field after Smith a few years ago. Although Miller hasn’t won a WPIAL championship, he is proving to be in the upper echelon of WPIAL coaches.
Miller’s feet fit snugly into Smith’s shoes, going 49-16 (.753 winning percentage) in his six seasons. McKeesport went to the WPIAL Class 5A final in his first season and went to the semifinals two other times. This year’s team is 8-1 and fresh off a victory against perennial power Thomas Jefferson for the second consecutive year. McKeesport plays Belle Vernon for the Big Eight Conference title Friday — and also possibly the No. 1 seed for the WPIAL Class 4A playoffs.
Miller, 48, wasn’t timid about taking over for Smith. Miller is a 1992 McKeesport graduate who played under Smith.
“It’s definitely a job I wanted,” said Miller, a history teacher at McKeesport High. “I’m a McKeesport guy, my dad coached and played here, so McKeesport football is something that’s important to me. I understand pressure was a part of it and it wasn’t going to be easy. But coach Smith has made it as easy as possible.”
Smith didn’t start his career with as much success as Miller. The Tigers were .500 (29-29-1) in Smith’s first six years from 1982-87. Miller, who was an assistant under Smith, kept many of Smith’s assistants when he took over. Tom Smith (George’s brother), John Harper and Troy Blackwell are still McKeesport assistants who also coached under George Smith.
And Miller has no problem with Smith still hanging around the program. He’s not a curious George. He simply likes to come around.
“He comes to practice once or twice a week and sits up in the stands and just watches,” Miller said. “I’ll talk random phone calls from him. He still comes to games and watches from the corner of the end zone. I’ll talk to him all the time.”
Maybe that would bother the new coach to have the legend hovering over the program. But Miller is confident in himself. Miller still uses many facets of the flexbone triple-option offense that Smith used for years to help make McKeesport successful.
“We go shotgun and run a little bit of spread offense, but our bread and butter is still the flexbone triple option,” Miller said. “It might continue to be effective because less and less people know a lot about it. It’s an older offense people aren’t familiar with.”
You could see Miller stick around for a while, too. His son, Matt Jr., is a seventh grade quarterback for the seventh and eighth grade team.
“It’s weird because every year
we expect to be good,” Miller said. “Every year, we expect to live up to the tradition. Now it’s a matter of getting over the hump and beating one of these top teams, and finishing it off.”
Super soph Birch
Gateway quarterback Brad Birch leads the WPIAL in passing yardage with 2,072 yards, holding a slight lead over Greensburg Salem senior Hayden Teska (2,046 yards).
If Birch goes on and wins the passing title, he would join a select group of sophomore quarterbacks. Since the Post-Gazette began keeping WPIAL statistical leaders in 1979, only three sophomores have led the league in passing during the regular season. Armstrong’s Cadin Olsen did it last year. The others were South Fayette’s Brett Brumbaugh in 2012 and Penn-Trafford’s Tony Zimmerman in 1993.
Going for 200
Steel Valley running back Nijhay Burt is the WPIAL’s leading scorer with 178 points. He needs 22 in Friday’s showdown against Serra to become only the 10th WPIAL player since 1945 to score 200 points in the regular season.
The record for points in a season is 254 by Armstrong’s Zane Dudek in 2016. He had 42 touchdowns and two points on an extra point.
New drought
Leechburg qualified for the WPIAL playoffs, ending the current longest postseason drought in the league. Leechburg’s last playoff appearance was 1988.
That means Brownsville will have the longest playoff drought, last making the playoffs in 2000. But Brownsville is leaving the WPIAL for football only after this season. That means next year, Carlynton will have the longest playoff drought, last making the postseason in 2001. Carlynton is still alive for a playoff spot this year, but has little chance to make it because it must beat undefeated Sto-Rox Friday to have a chance.
Unusual AD
Danny Holzer was hired as Upper St. Clair’s interim athletic director Monday night, with the possibility of becoming the permanent AD in the future. Holzer is the highly successful boys basketball coach at Upper St. Clair who has a record of 442-207 and three WPIAL titles. He takes over for Kevin Deitrick, who resigned two weeks ago.
Seeing a basketball coach become AD in the WPIAL is unusual. You see a football coach become AD much more often. In fact, Holzer is one of only seven boys basketball coaches in the WPIAL who are athletic directors. The others are Indiana’s Greg Lezanic, Laurel’s Ken Locke, Lincoln Park’s Mike Bariski, Quaker Valley’s Mike Mastroianni, Sewickley Academy’s Win Palmer and West Mifflin’s Scott Stephenson.