Mecca of Coaches

For a region of the United States from Erie over to Johnstown and down to Uniontown and inclusive of Pittsburgh, Western Pennsylvania has become a cradle of football coaches. This area has a population of approximately 4Million people. That is no comparison to the state of California which has 38Million+ people. Right now, This region has 3 Head Coaches in the NFL out of the possibility of 32. They are Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis who is from McDonald PA and played at Fort Cherry High School and went on to play collegiately at Idaho State U. Lewis worked his way up from Linebacker coach at Idaho State to Linebacker coach for the Steelers in the early 1990's to Defensive coordinator of the Redskins to Head Coach of the Bengals. Ironically, Coach Marty Schottenheimer was Head Coach of the Chargers when Marvin Lewis was head coach of the Bengals and they both are from McDonald, PA. The chances of 2 out of 32 Head NFL coaches being from McDonald, PA is almost unheard of but it happened and what a tribute to the town west of Pittsburgh. Next is K.C. Chiefs Head Coach Todd Haley who is from the Upper St. Clair part of Pittsburgh. Todd was a golfer at Upper St.Clair HS but was always around his father Dick Haley who was an NFL Player Personal guy and was director of Player Personal for the Steelers when Todd was growing up. An unbelievable irony to this is that Dick Haley was also born and raised in McDonald, PA. Haley worked his way up in the NFL rapidly and landed in Kansas City last season. Last is Green Bay's Head Coach Mike McCarthy who is from the Greenfield part of Pittsburgh. Mike McCarthy attended Bishop Boyle in Homestead which no longer is in existence. Later he went to an NAIA school in Kansas named Baker University where he played TE. Then followed along with super hard work a meteoric rise for home grown Mike McCarthy from Fort Hays State to Pitt to Offensive Coordinator of the Saints and 49ers then Head Coach of the Packers. What is it for a region of 4 million people to produce so many Head NFL Coaches. The list goes on and on with the likes of Mike Ditka, Jim Haslett, Bill Cowher, Frank Ganz, Dave Wannstedt, Chuck Knox, and I am sure there are many more. There is a great love of the game of football in the Western PA. region.