Who made who?

[Crimson09Crazy]

I think things would be about the same with Salem and Franco....


Talent at Forest Hills....I'd say its pretty good. They all know how to play the game more then most teams.


SO yes its both to the original question...They have excellent coaching, and they have big kids and tough kids and fairly good athletes.

[lakersfan24]

It's tough to speculate. But think of it this way.. if Bailey is at Penn Cambria there is no way he has the success he and FH had together. FH is a football community, not just because coach bailey made it that. FH is full of a lot of working class people who are the prototype for the football athlete. Sometimes, socioeconomics does have something to do with it..

[El-Moldo]

Got to agree with TAE on this one. I don't believe that FH has had super talent over the last 20 years. His forte is teaching TEAM football. He moulds 22 positions into a solid offense and defense which works for the TEAM. As far as talent is concerned, who were the stars of the '94 team which lost the state championship in double overtime to Mt. Carmel? Well, there was QB Justin Myers who re-wrote the record book at Geneva. Brian Endler and John Petrunak, both of whom had nice college careers, were just wet behind the ears 10th graders then. I think Mike Brezovic played at Mansfield for a short while, but WHERE were the rest of the players??? Like Ray Plummer, Eric Fatich, Lance McGough, Bob Petrunak, Mike Magro. WHO was the star player to build around???? There was no Artrell Hawkins, no Bill Benbow, no Chris Burns. Just regular kids who had a great work ethic. Kids who loved to play and did what the coach asked of them. Sure there will always be a Dave Poldiak, a Tim Baumgardner, a Travis Rearick , a Scott Mehall, a Justin Beyer who comes along. But basically you have your everyday kids playing for a coach who gets the best out of his players.

[lakersfan24]

ehh. Good points. I guess FH really has very few D1 prospects. But my point is, the FH football community was HARDLY built just by Bailey. I wouldn't even say it was MOSTLY built by Bailey.

[El-Moldo]

You know how some people think that man arrived through evolution; how the conditions were just right for life to happen. The perfect MIX of alot of things. The right chemicals, in the right soup, at the right temperature, at the right moment, at the perfect instance when lightening struck. FH football is alot like that. A perfect mix of things. You got the right kids, with the right coach, in the right community. You know, I went to the JV game Monday night and the 50-50 winner got over one hundred dollars. FOR A JV GAME!!!! FH always supports their team. They show up anywhere in any weather. It seems that all the right tangibles are there to make FH football what it is. You certainly can't say that Bailey is responsible for FH football, but he is a big ingredient.

[Opinionguy]

Wow. Who built who? I personally think it is pretty amazing that Coach Bailey has been around since the beginnings of Forest Hills football.
Ask some of the people about Don Bailey when he was growing up. Dan Potash has written some great articles about him. The same tough, hard-nosed, attitude displayed by the Forest Hills Football tradition has been Mr. Bailey’s character his whole life. The guy is blue collar. He worked his way up through the system through hard work, and experienced success along the way.
Coach Don Bailey was the perfect man for the job. He took what he knew, where he grew up, the people he grew up with and how he grew up and made that FH’s MO.
To talk State Championships is nonsense. The guy has been to the show, came within one play of winning it. These things just don’t happen. What team should have won it? You could make an argument for 91…that team was unreal. They got inside the 20 twice and came away with no TD’s against the Quips. You can always second guess play calling. 94…we all know the story there. The team that lost to Washington 93 was tough, but got beat handily. 99 where they lost to eventual state champs Tyrone on their last drive?
No way has Bailey won on talent alone. Forget big names…how many of his players have even ever STARTED a college game? I don’t honestly know the answer to that, but I’d say probably less than 30. What’s that, less then ONE college level player (d1, d2. Or d3) per year? No way loaded with talent more so or less so than any other school.
The OG is going with the perfect storm of coach and community. But I’d have to give more credit to the Coach. Mr. Don Bailey and his achievements are remarkable.

[lakersfan24]

That pretty much backed up my point, OP. As close as Bailey got so many times, he blew a LOT of calls in big games. You can be in denial because you love the man, but it is what it is. You can't take anything away from him as a football coach, but Franco would have atleast 1 or 2 championships with those teams, PERIOD. Moldo is correct, the environment was right... but I promise that has far more to do with the type of people in the FH community and less to do with the highschool football coach.

[Crimsoncrush67]

This is a really interesting thread one of the better recent ones. If we want to talk about success at FH we need to both look at success on the football field and on the wrestling mat. I think that there has been some amazing success in both places. Now I have been out of the FH wrestling loop ever since I left North Star, but those are the two sports you always heard about when it came to FH grappling, and football.

While obviously, Bailey can not be credited for wrestling at least directly, he can create a bomb proof team out of what seems to be ordinary tough nose kids. Moldo brought up an interesting point talking about Rearick, here is a kid who could be a solid D2 QB, and was the best player on the team from 2005-2006. A team that crushed my chances of a district title when apparently we had 3 or 4 D1 guys. I would credit Bailey, the players, and the community. There is an outrageous amount of tradition and pride down there in Sidman, and I know for me I always loved playing FH.

[Eaglealum]

Speaking of Rearick, wasn't that him that engineered Mercyhursts' 28-27 upset of IUP Saturday? He threw for over 300 and 3 tds...(Johnny Franco -IUP-had 2 ints, 1 he took back for td and 11 tackles) sorry had to throw that in there.

[Skippy]

I think more at any level COACHING matters most in high school football. Look at the succesfull coaches who have changed schools in this area and have always been successfull. I will name a few:

Jerry Davitch - Turned around a Johnstown program in the WPIAL left had very good years at CT
Ernie Fetzer - Undefeated district championship at VO-TECH you remember this team who after Coach left were lucky to average 1 win a season. Goes to westmont and has success. Goes to Penn Cambria and wins more than not.
Kevin Marabito - District Championships at both FERNDALE and Johnstown.
Gerry Page - Only coached at Laurel valley, but they were always a tough team with usually one of the lowest enrollments if not the lowest in the district. Note to Schools who say we cant compete we dont have enough kids, with good caoching and work ethic winning can be accomplished.
Max Shoemaker - Always had a tough team at Bedford, leaves and Bedford has had some down years. Geos to Chestnut Ridge and does well there.

The point is some coaches can flat out coach and win with not always having the best talent. To say Don Bailey always has had the best athletes is a disservice to his accomplishments. Did Franco win championships because he had Jones and the Gummos? No he knows how to get the most out of his players. For over thirty years Forest Hills did not have better athletes than every other team they played, some years there were exceptional athletes and some years not, but the better coaches always seem to find ways to win. I once heard a man describe a coach as follows:

"That guy can take his and beat yours or take yours and beat his!"

Just my opinion.