Central Valley coach Lyons hits milestone
It didn’t get much fanfare, and that’s the way Mark Lyons wanted it. But the Central Valley football coach reached a milestone that should say something loud and clear: Lyons deserves a seat at the table with the most elite current coaches in the WPIAL.
Lyons got his 200th career win two games ago and now has a record of 201-87 at three schools (Monaca, Mount Pleasant and Central Valley). Although Lyons didn’t want attention for reaching 200, it’s undoubtedly a nice feat. But it’s what Lyons has done since taking over Central Valley in 2010 that’s most impressive. If you had the proverbial Mount Rushmore of coaches since 2010, Lyons would have to be on it. Do you think there have been four more successful coaches in the WPIAL who have been around since 2010?
Consider that since 2010, Lyons has a record of 130-29 (.817 percentage). Now that’s a Mark of excellence. The only coach with more wins in that time is Central Catholic’s Terry Totten, who has 136. South Fayette’s Joe Rossi also has 130.
That means Lyons has more wins since 2010 than Thomas Jefferson’s Bill Cherpak and Mt. Lebanon’s Bob Palko, who most certainly belong on that Mount Rushmore.
Lyons also has won five WPIAL titles and two state championships since becoming Central Valley’s coach. The school opened in 2010 when Monaca and Center high schools merged. This year’s team also is riding a 32-game winning streak, fifth longest in WPIAL history.
Lyons most certainly has been blessed with some talented players over the years. Two of them — Jordan Whitehead and Robert Foster — made the NFL. Whitehead is now a defensive back with the New York Jets. Sean FitzSimmons, now at Pitt, was the Post-Gazette Player of the Year in 2021. Those are three headliners. But it’s not like Central Valley is producing FBS players left and right. Lyons wins with his system — and he and his staff simply produce a number of good high school football players.
And plenty of wins.
A start for the ages
Hempfield has been one of the big stories in the WPIAL, getting off to the best start at the school in 51 years. The Spartans are 5-0.
But another big story should be a tiny school in Greene County.
Mapletown of Greene County is the third-smallest school playing WPIAL football, in terms of boys enrollment (only 105 in grades 912). But this is one big season for the Maples. They are 5-0 for the first time since 1968.
That 1968 Mapletown team finished the regular season 8-0, but what happened to the Maples showed how vastly different WPIAL football is today. Back then, there were no playoffs for WPIAL teams. There were only championship games, and teams had to be undefeated to play in the championship. Mapletown was in the smallest classification, which was called Class B at the time. But the Maples were one of four Class B teams that finished the regular season undefeated (Chartiers-Houston, Oakmont and Trafford were the others). The Gardner Points system was used to determine the two teams that played for the title.
Chartiers-Houston and Oakmont had the most Gardner Points, while Mapletown was third and Trafford fourth. Thus, Char-Houston and Oakmont played for the championship while Mapletown, despite an 8-0 record and outscoring teams by 26645, sat home after a perfect regular season. Can you imagine the outcry if a system like that was used today to determine championship participants?
By the way, that 1968 Chartiers-Houston team had junior running back Jerry Patterson, the first WPIAL player to rush for 4,000 career yards.
Already 2,000 yards
It’s considered a big achievement when a running back reaches the 4,000yard mark in his career. Well a Western Pa. runner, who plays outside the WPIAL, is on pace to reach 4,000 yards — in one season (put your eyes back in your head).
Ethen Knox is a 6-foot-1, 175-pound junior from Oil City High School in District 10 who already has 2,007 yards rushing in five games. He has rushed for more than 400 yards in four consecutive games for Oil City, which has a 4-1 record. He had 304 yards in the season opener.
It should be pointed out that Knox carries the ball often. Like, ridiculously often. He averages 35 carries a game and carried 48 times in one game.
Still, his yardage total is beyond impressive, and it’s not like Oil City is some slouch team. Oil City is 4-1 and was ranked No. 3 in the state in Class 3A by Pennlive.com, until losing to Northwestern this past Friday.
There is a chance the WPIAL champ could face Knox in the state playoffs. If Oil City wins District 10, which is a possibility, it would play in the PIAA quarterfinals against a team from either District 5, 6 or 9. The winner of that game will play the WPIAL champ in the PIAA semifinals.
High rankings in hoops
Rivals.com is a nationally-known football and basketball recruiting site that recently came out with its basketball player rankings for the junior and sophomore classes. What’s unusual about the rankings is that three WPIAL players are ranked in the top 75.
In the junior class, North Hills’ 6-foot-8 Royce Parham is ranked No. 63. While in the sophomore class, 6-10 Alier Maluk of Imani Christian is ranked No. 12 in the country and Lincoln Park 63 guard Meleek Thomas No. 13. Rivals has been ranking players since 2003. Never before has the WPIAL had three players in back-toback classes ranked in the top 75. In fact, since 2003, only six players from the WPIAL or City League have been ranked in the top 75, before Parham, Maluk and Thomas. They are: Yough’s Ben McCauley (No. 92 in 2005), Aliquippa’s Herb Pope (No. 31 in 2007), Schenley’s DeJuan Blair (No. 59 in 2007), McKeesport’s Zeke Marshall (No. 43 in 2009), Mars’ Robby Carmody (No. 91 in 2018) and Butler’s Ethan Morton (No. 88 in 2020).
What do the rankings mean for Parham, Maluk and Thomas? In the long run, not much. If you look back at rankings of the top 20 players in the country, many went on to big things. For example, Rivals’ first rankings in 2003 had LeBron James as No. 1 in the country, 2004 had Dwight Howard at No. 1 and 2006 had Kevin Durant at No. 2. But the rankings are also filled with players who didn’t do much after high school.
But one last nugget of info about Parham and Thomas. As was said before, it’s unusual to have WPIAL players ranked so highly in back-to-back classes. And what’s even more unusual is to have two highlyranked players live down the street from each other. Parham and Thomas are a stone’s throw away from each other in Ross Township. Although they are both in the North Hills School District, Thomas goes to Lincoln Park, a charter school. But Thomas’ brother, Jayden, plays for North Hills.