Jul 30, 2025
HOLLIDAYSBURG — Bishop McCort graduated just two seniors from its high school football team last year and was already expected to be among the contenders in the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference due to simply that and the leap the Crushers took last season.
But this offseason, there may have been more talk about McCort than any other program in the LHAC, and not all of it is related to play on the field.
The school, which recently served a period where its high school wrestling team and individual wrestlers were not eligible for postseason play, was hoping to add three former Johnstown and three former Windber players to its team this season.
After hearings with District 5 and 6, one Johnstown player and two of the Windber players were ruled eligible with appeal hearings scheduled.
“A lot of that talk has galvanized this football team,” said Bishop McCort coach Tom Smith on Tuesday at LHAC Media Day at Hollidaysburg Area High School’s Tiger Stadium. “It’s helped this football team. We have people that want to come to this school. I’m not going to shy away from that. In fact, I’m proud of that.”
Smith’s team is also in a co-op with Bishop Carroll.
“We’re going to have between 56 and 60 kids on our football team,” Smith said. “Seven are from Bishop Carroll. We’re always encouraging them to feed us new players, and that’s great. We all try to promote it together. As we continue to grow our program here, it will attract more kids from there.”
Though Smith is hoping more players continue to take advantage of the co-op, he said internally that is something that is the responsibility of Bishop Carroll’s administration.
“A lot of that happens within their building,” Smith said. “They handle that out there. I try not to get into their building as far as that goes. They have to promote their programs from within their school, but we promote ours from within our school. It’s open to everybody.”
The school being open to everyone has turned some heads in the district, but Smith embraces it.
“We’re proud of the fact that people are attracted to our school. We offer so many things that are different — we have a four-day school week at our school that a lot of people don’t know about,” Smith said. “We have a partnership with Conemaugh Hospital. There’s a lot of reasons why people come to Bishop McCort. We have a 100 percent graduation rate, and last year 100 percent of our students went on to a four-year college. That’s pretty attractive to people. We use it as motivation.”
Smith is a 1989 graduate of Bishop McCort and is also the principal at the school.
“When these kids put that jersey on and it says ‘Bishop McCort,’ they love it. I’m a McCort graduate myself, and I wore that jersey and love it,” Smith said. “We love who we are, and if there are people out there that don’t like the way things are at our school, then that’s up to them. We love our school, what it is about and we’re going to continue to make our school better and attract people to our school.”
LHAC tiebreakers
Heading into the final week of the LHAC season, which is used for crossover games between teams in similar standing from the East and West regions, three teams — Bishop Guilfoyle Academy, Penn Cambria and Clearfield — were unbeaten last season.
Penn Cambria ended up beating BG in a game that went down to the wire for the league championship, but Clearfield also finished the LHAC slate unbeaten but with no opportunity to play for the championship after losing out in a tiebreaker.
“It definitely could happen again where three teams go undefeated,” Clearfield coach Myles Caragein said. “It kind of sucked that we were left out in the dark from that game, but the kids had a bigger goal which was the playoffs and kept moving forward. The rules are rules, and we understood the tiebreaker.”
Tyrone coach John Franco played all three teams last year.
“I honestly felt that Clearfield was the best of the three teams,” Franco said. “It was a shame that they didn’t get a chance to play for the title. On the other hand, they are also a lot bigger than everyone. I think it’s a tribute to the strength of the conference last year that some smaller schools were pretty even with them. That’s one of the things that are going to happen any time you go with a point system.
“There’s always that point where it doesn’t seem fair. College football dealt with that for years. We’re not immune to that situation. As soon as you start assigning points to high school teams based on their level of enrollment, problems are going to find you. It didn’t surprise me that happened last year, but I was surprised Clearfield got left out last year.”
Claysburg Bisons
Bedford, which has only four scheduled home games this season, will play all four at Claysburg-Kimmel while its field is renovated.
“We had the opportunity to play there last year (and defeated Steelton-Highspire in the state playoffs),” Bedford coach Kevin Steele said. “We already introduced ourselves to playing there, and it worked out well for us. Hopefully it’s a good luck charm for us.”
Steele said he’s not overly concerned with having to travel even to play a home game and said plans are in place for Bedford staff to work the games at Claysburg.
“It’s a football field,” Steele said. “There are lines on it. They are the same dimensions. We’ll treat every game just like we always do and go get ready and play football. There are a couple logistical issues with having homecoming and senior night on a different field and all of those issues, but we have a plan to manage all those things. Kudos to (Claysburg-Kimmel athletic director) Corey Reffner and Coach (Chuck) Kassick from Claysburg. Their whole administration has been fantastic. It worked out well that the weeks we needed a field to play on, they were away those evenings. We’re excited for the opportunity to play at a beautiful facility.”
The Bedford seniors seemed at peace with not playing at home.
“We upset teams on the road last year,” Bedford senior Drew Evans said. “Home or away, it doesn’t matter. Our fans will absolutely follow us to Claysburg. We want to see growth with our team and hold each other accountable and improve. If we do that, our record will reflect that.”
Classmate Bryce Wertz agreed.
“Things like that happen sometimes,” Wertz said. “I don’t think that will stop us from having a great season.”
Next season, Bedford will play six home games.
“It’s always nice to play on your own home field, and to have six of them next year in a new facility and all the bells and whistles that will go into that facility is exciting,” Steele said. “That’s the positive side of the whole situation.”
Passing in Westmont?
First lights and Friday night games, now a high-powered pass game at Westmont Hilltop?
Not quite yet, but that could be in the cards soon under new coach Josh Rearick.
“I think sometimes the offense took a bad rap,” Rearick said. “Coach (Pat) Barron had a heck of a run with five or six straight playoff appearances and played for a district title. You can win with any offensive set in high school football if you can execute it, but I do think there’s always excitement for modern day football and what you see on TV. There’s a little more flash there as opposed to 30 or 40 years ago. It just so happens that I played wide receiver in college, and my brother played quarterback. We grew up in a passing mindset throwing the ball to each other in the backyard, and so I probably want to do that a little more along with running the ball.”
The Hilltoppers have been known for years to be the team that grinded the ball and limited opponent possessions, but Rearick wants to add versatility.
“As far as the passing game, that’s where the biggest challenge is,” Rearick said. “They were strictly under center with tighter splits. Instead of your traditional two-foot split, they had 6-to-12-inch splits. Pass protection wasn’t really a thing, so that was a challenge for the linemen. Getting our quarterbacks to run defense and figure out what defense it was and just teaching our wide receivers everything from a stance to a start and basic routes has been a challenge. In a lot of ways, it was like you were beginning with junior high kids. You really had to install the system and focus on the fundamentals. The kids really didn’t know anything in that regard, but we got to work right away and handled those fundamentals.”
Still, it’s unlikely Westmont will be throwing the ball 40 times in a game anytime soon.
“One of my biggest challenges this year will be trying not to do too much,” Rearick said. “We need to do on the field what we can execute, which will probably mean a limited playbook from things I would like to do. But that’s OK. If you can execute a handful of plays in high school football and turn around and play good defense, I think you can be a good team. That’s what we’re going to aim to do.”
Restoring Johnstown
One of the biggest schools in the LHAC, Johnstown, has also been one of the most disappointing on the high school football field over the past decade.
But the coach that had the Trojans playing with the best teams in the conference prior to that period, Tony Penna Jr., is back on the sideline this year.
“We had 6 a.m. workouts this summer and were getting 20 kids every day,” Penna said. “People said it would never work, but they will do what you ask them to do. They always rise the bar. I have loved all the places I have coached, no disrespect to those places, but these kids here always rise to the occasion and what football means to them — it’s an easy fight. It’s us against the world, and they are easy to fight for.”
Penna most recently coached at Conemaugh Township but said his time away from Johnstown helped draw him back.
“I learned to appreciate the Johnstown kids,” Penna said. “I have loved everywhere I coached, and there have been some great kids. But these kids here, they just dare to believe in you. There’s a lot of people who have not believed in them, but they are so cooperative. They are much more open for structure than anyone would believe. I think that is a common misperception.”
Gwen Paden and Pam Rohrer won the First Flight Gross Score division in the Park Hills Ladies Golf …
YORK HAVEN — Anthony Macri, fresh off his win at Eldora is on a roll, and he stomped on the Outlaws again on …
Paul Lilly’s Daily Trivia What MLB player was the fastest to hit 350 home runs in history? TV/Radio …
Copyright © 2025 Central Pennsylvania Newspapers, LLC | https://www.altoonamirror.com | 301 Cayuga Ave., Altoona, PA 16602 | 814-946-7411
