This column was originally published in the Nov. 24 edition of The Mercury.

This week has always been regarded as the final week of the high school football season. Except for a few teams and their seemingly endless schedules that ran into December back in the 1920s and 1930s; the St. Pius X and Pottsgrove playoff runs in 2001 and 2007, respectively; and a handful or so weather-related postponements, no area teams have played beyond Thanksgiving.

Well, this season sure is different.

Pottsgrove and St. Pius X made it a little different, or officially extended it beyond this Thursday’s holiday football feast, last weekend. Pottsgrove did it by beating the odds (and everyone’s predictions but their own) with a win over Bayard Rustin to move into Saturday night’s District 1-Class AAA championship down at Coatesville. St. Pius X did it by beating the odds (and all but erasing for good the horrors of its recent past) with a win over Calvary Christian to move into Saturday night’s opening round of the PIAA-Class A playoffs way up at Williams Valley.

Imagine that…

The program with the best won-loss record this decade (Pottsgrove) and the program with the worst win-loss record this decade (St. Pius X) both playing football three days before we flip the calendar over to the month that portly ol’ fella up at the North Pole thinks is all about him.

And if not for a mistake here and there – the mental and physical gaffes that may have been uncharacteristic of their play this season but are nonetheless part of every game played – Daniel Boone and Owen J. Roberts would have teamed up with Pottsgrove and St. Pius X to make it a foursome this weekend.

But not enough can be said for what the Falcons and Lions accomplished last Friday night.

Yes, Pottsgrove has frequented the postseason in recent years, six times now since 2000. But the Falcons’ first three treks were brief with hideous endings, or lopsided losses down at Strath Haven. Three years ago, they were on a two-game run before another setback to Garnet Valley. And last year, they came up short again to eventual district champion Rustin.

This season, when they opened practice back in August, the Falcons may have kept everything in focus, in perspective for three months … but they also dared to look ahead, to peek into a rematch, as they say, with Rustin. They got it, of course, and despite hearing and reading how there was simply no way they could get the best of a team that was virtually intact and a whole lot better than the team that beat them a year ago, the Falcons pounced on the pessimism, never once allowing it in their huddle.

Pottsgrove won a lot of big games under former head coach Ken Harclerode, and it’s won its share of big games the past 20 years under Rick Pennypacker. But it never played a bigger game than last Friday night, never played better on any previous Friday night or Saturday afternoon … never won a bigger game.

And while most may be tired of hearing how the heart and soul of a team can sometimes outweigh the mass and outperform the talent of another, or just refuse to believe it… Well, there was never a better see-it-to-believe-it than Pottsgrove’s 21-14 win. Rustin was much, much bigger than the Falcons, and had just as many if not more play-makers and game-breakers as the Falcons. But no yardstick or first-down chain can measure motivation, or the passion to rise up and overcome. Yes, the Falcons have Terrell Chestnut, Preston Hamlette, Maika Polamalu and Kayvon Greene, the play-makers and game-breakers. But they also have a lot of movers and shakers, an anonymous bunch – energized best perhaps by T.J. Demetrio, the munchkin in the middle of their defense – that has pushed them to step up and above everyone else thus far.

Believing, and not looking back, is what carried St. Pius X to the District 1/12-Class A title last Friday night and into the state playoffs this Saturday night.

It’s been a long, long seven seasons since the Lions won an actual handful of games between August and November let alone appeared in the postseason. Actually eight years if you go back to 2001, when they swept the Pioneer Athletic Conference title, the then mythical District 1-Class AA championship, and played all the way through to the PIAA Eastern Final.

But since that long postseason run, the program had gone through three coaches and a pair of interim coaches before George Parkinson anchored his football feet on the Pius sideline in 2006. Parkinson didn’t quit, didn’t run off, when the losses continued to mount. Neither did a small group of unknown and untested freshmen, still a small group but now skilled seniors who have carried Pius – one of the area’s most successful programs for more than 30 years – back to respectability.

Except for the players, Parkinson and their devout but depleted following, no one thought this season would be much different than the previous five or six. Few are likely to forget it, whenever it ends, even after they shut down Mich Stadium for good on Thursday, and close the doors to the school for good next spring.

TURKEY DAY

Pottsgrove will play at St. Pius X on Thursday morning as scheduled in their PAC-10 finale, completing the card that also features Owen J. Roberts at Pottstown, Spring-Ford at Phoenixville, and Upper Perkiomen at Boyertown. Pottsgrove, of course, needs a win for its second straight outright league championship.

Interboro, which will meet the Falcons in the District 1-Class AAA final, has cancelled its Thanksgiving game with Ridley, which is entertaining Downingtown East on Friday night in a District 1-Class AAAA semifinal.

FLAG TIME

When Pottsgrove answered Rustin’s long touchdown run with a well-executed touchdown drive of its own – and scoring the first points of the season against Rustin’s first-team defense – flags began flying … most in Rustin’s direction.

The undefeated, unchallenged and state-ranked Golden Knights were hit with three unsportsmanlike penalties in the first half and three more in the second half – including back-to-back 15-yarders (actually one was only eight yards because of being half the distance to the goal line) when the Falcons were taking a knee in the final minute of the game. The Falcons got caught up in it, too … just once. After their one unsportsmanlike and an illegal block before the break, though, they were hit with just one motion penalty the entire second half.

* * *

There was a very controversial ending to Downingtown East’s 49-48 thriller over Penncrest in last weekend’s District 1-Class AAAA quarterfinal.

East, which fell behind 48-41 with just 37 seconds remaining, drove 56 yards for a touchdown and decisive two-point conversion with no time left. But what had a lot of fans fired up – Penncrest fans, that is – was East quarterback Trey Lauletta’s pass with nine seconds remaining. Facing a third-and-three on the 37-yard line, Lauletta appeared to have been sacked as he threw the ball away. Officials ruled it an incomplete pass, not a sack which would’ve allowed the clock to run out. So Lauletta responded with a short toss for a first down, then a 30-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Kroft as time ran out. Drew Harris then ran in the two-point conversion for the win.

Blown call or not, fans – or whoever the nameless critics are on the web – were absolutely pathetic … none worse than a woman who wrote she had been following her sons and grandsons through every level of football for 30 years. Her response? “Like I said to my grandson, ‘You can beat a team but you can’t beat the refs.’” Let’s hope her grandson didn’t take those words of idiocy to heart.

A man, who claimed to be a referee himself, said it was the “worst display of refereeing I (had) ever seen” and asked others to call the PIAA. A referee calling out other referees publicly? Doubt it, unless he’s one of those fellas who never dared to take the PIAA officials test (or did and failed it), and never blew his whistle in anything but a youth football game.

Shame we’re not all perfect, eh?

CALL IT A CAREER

Daniel Boone quarterback Jon Monteiro and wideout Kelly Saylor closed out their spectacular high school football careers last Friday night following their 24-20 loss to unbeaten and state-ranked Manheim Central in the District 3-Class AAA playoffs.

Monteiro, who was 20 of 43 for 194 yards and two touchdowns in the setback, didn’t even play two full seasons after missing his entire sophomore year due to an injury and a couple of games the last two years with injuries. But he still finished with a slew of records and among the Top Five in a number of area career passing categories.

He set area records for consecutive games of 100 or more yards passing (17) and consecutive games of at least one touchdown pass (19); most games with three or more touchdown passes (12); and most games with at least four touchdown passes (four). He owns the record for most yards passing in a game (475). On the area’s career passing charts, Monteiro finishes third in completions (345), fifth in attempts (597), third in yardage (5,098), and third in touchdowns (62).

Saylor, who didn’t catch a pass as a sophomore, closes third in career receptions (105) and fourth in career receiving yardage (1,441). Former St. Pius X standout LeRyan Dallas – who is now fourth in catches (102) and remains third in yardage (1,462) – was Saylor’s receivers coach the past two seasons at Daniel Boone.

* * *

The Blazers made their fourth straight appearance in the District 3-AAA playoffs this year and finished 9-3, their sixth straight season of eight or more wins and seventh straight winning season – one shy of the school record set from 1964 through 1971. Head coach Dave Bodolus, who has orchestrated the turnaround, is now 58-24 guiding the Blazers’ program in 2003.

This column was originally published in the Nov. 3 edition of the Mercury.

LOWER POTTSGROVE — When George Parkinson stepped on the sidelines as the head coach at St. Pius X three years ago, he inherited a program that was drowning in one off-field storm after another. The disturbance included two head coaches and two interim head coaches in the previous three seasons, irregularity that led to unpredictability, or four Pioneer Athletic Conference victories and just six wins overall in that short but unsettling stretch.

But neither the persistent Parkinson nor the persevering group of freshmen he first teamed up with back in 2006 subscribed to or surrendered to the commotion, not even through three more overcast seasons that produced just four wins.

And last Saturday afternoon, despite overcast skies and an annoying drizzle here and there, Parkinson and the Lions brought some of that longed-for sunshine to the program with a 47-7 rout of visiting Methacton.

It was the Lions’ fourth win in the PAC-10, doubling the program’s total from the previous five seasons; their sixth win overall, equaling the program’s total from the previous five seasons; assured them of no worse than a .500 season for the first time in seven years; and clinched a spot in the postseason for the first time in seven years.

So yes, Parkinson and the mud-caked Lions had every reason to smile, and every right to hoot and holler with their devoted fans in the puddles that bordered the home-side of Mich Stadium.

“You know, I always thought we could win even when we were losing all those games,” Parkinson said. “I guess that’s just my nature.”

Unquestionably the character, or the spirit, of the Lions themselves, too.

“Some guys left (the program), but the guys who stayed with us believed in the team, believed in our program,” Parkinson explained. “They never quit. It shows that if you keep believing and keep working hard good things happen. I feel we’ve been blessed.”

A lot of players did depart after Parkinson’s arrival, perhaps because of the instability, because of the mounting losses.

But a determined dozen opted to stay. They were Mike Furey, Matt Kendra, George Lockbaum, Mike

Matthews, Matt Mehallick, Rich Molinaro, Cole Parkinson, Kevin Pence, Tyler Pollick, Matt Raymond, Josh Rogers and Martin Shields … all of whom aren’t just closing out their careers, but closing out the long and storied football history at Pius, which is closing its doors for good in the spring and joining Kennedy-Kenrick at Pope John Paul II High School next September.

“I’m not too surprised by what’s happening,” coach Parkinson said. “A lot of (the seniors) played as freshmen, started since they were sophomores, and were able to get a lot of experience. They’ve worked hard, become bigger and faster, and that certainly goes a long way.

“The last few years have been tough for them, but they’ve kept banging every week. They’ve seen what they can do. I’ve seen a lot of frowns turn into smiles … and that’s awesome.”

The Lions had a collective grin after opening up with three straight wins, the last in that streak coming against Phoenixville. Losses to Boyertown and Perkiomen Valley the following two weeks didn’t stall their drive, either, and that was evident when they came from well back late in their game with Pottstown to pull out a 34-28 win over Pottstown.

“Phoenixville was our first real test,” Parkinson said. “That was a real big win for us. And even though we lost to Boyertown, who really out-sized us, I thought we played decent. But I think if there was a turning point it may have been coming back like we did to beat Pottstown. The kids showed a lot of character.”

The kind of character – the spirit – that may have been smothered, if not entirely concealed to most, throughout the previous three seasons.

“Our seniors have been a great example for our younger players,” Parkinson said. “They’ve hung in there, worked hard, believed in what we’ve been doing… It’s been a joy.”

* * *

Pius has clinched District 1’s second berth in the Class AA Sub-Regional playoffs, which kick off next weekend. Calvary Christian (7-1) locked up the top spot, with District 12’s Del Val Charter (7-2) and School of the Future (5-4) grabbing the remaining two in the four-team field.

According to a district official, neither Morrisville nor Bristol can make up the points difference in their games this weekend to pass Pius – regardless of how the Lions fare against Upper Perkiomen this Friday night. Morrisville (5-4) travels to winless Conrad Science (Del.), while Bristol (5-3) visits Lower Moreland (6-3).

In Class A, five District 1 teams compete with six District 12 teams for the four sub-regional playoff berths. The top point-producing team from each district receives an automatic berth, with the next two highest point-producing teams completing the bracket.

AROUND THE DISTRICT

Think there’s a lot on the line this weekend? But aside of the playoff spots – and positioning – there are three great match-ups Friday night. Interboro’s unbeaten season is on the line against Glen Mills (6-3), who has lost to Downingtown West, Pennsbury and Dunbar (D.C.) – three rivals with identical 8-1 records. And two expected thrillers over in Suburban One feature Neshaminy (8-1) at Pennsbury and Council Rock South (7-2) visiting Council Rock South (6-3).

PRIVATE MATTERS

The Mid-Atlantic Prep League title will be on the line Friday afternoon when The Hill School hosts Hun School. Hill is 3-0 (6-1 overall), and still has its year-ending battle with Lawrenceville remaining, but Hun is 4-0 (4-3) and can clinch the championship with a win in its final outing of the season. … If Hill closes with two wins it would give head coach Marty Vollmuth and the Rams the program’s winningest season in 22 years, or since going unbeaten (9-0) in 1987.

Perkiomen School is also 6-1, and defeating visiting St. Andrew’s (Del.) on Friday would give head coach Kevin Manferdini and the Indians the program’s winningest season in 31 years, or since their 8-1 run back in 1978.

POINTING THE WAY

Pottsgrove’s 62-20 win over Upper Perkiomen last Friday night set a school record for points scored in a game, erasing the Falcons’ mark set in a 61-0 shutout of Great Valley back in 2001. The 82 points put up by both teams were the seventh-most scored in PAC-10 game. … Just three weeks earlier, Upper Perkiomen came up short in a 56-28 shootout with Owen J. Roberts in the fifth-highest scoring game in the league’s 24-year history. … St Pius’ 47 points Saturday were the most a Lions team had scored since putting up 49 against Spring-Ford back in 2002.

RYAN’S EXPRESS

Owen J. Roberts junior Ryan Brumfield is approaching a few records with two PAC-10 games and a minimum of three games overall remaining on this season’s schedule.

In league play, Brumfield has 1,482 yards and 23 touchdowns rushing and 146 total points. Those numbers put him within reach of the rushing mark (1,876, by Spring-Ford’s Ralph O’Neil); the rushing touchdowns mark (29, by Spring-Ford’s Joe Haley); and the scoring mark (196 points, by Pottsgrove’s Brent Steinmetz).

Brumfield may need a few more big games to erase The Mercury area’s single-season rushing mark, though. He enters Friday’s game against Perkiomen Valley with 1,822 yards, or 1,006 behind the standard set by St. Pius’ Zack Pierce. He is, however, within reach of the single-season scoring record, needing 42 more to equal the mark of 224.points set by O’Neil.

SIDELINERS

Daniel Boone quarterback Jon Monteiro failed to throw a touchdown pass last Friday night, ending his Mercury-area record streak of 19 straight games with at least one scoring toss. … Pottsgrove quarterback Terrell Chestnut, who went over 3,000 yards in career total offense last week, needs 101 yards rushing to become just the second area quarterback to run for more than 2,000 career yards.

This column originally ran Oct. 23 in The Mercury.

BUCKTOWN -- Some teams have their way with others. It just doesn’t seem to matter who’s better, or who’s good and who’s not so good, and forget about the won-loss column.

Fortunately, time erases most trends. And, as new players come and go, so do the memories (the best as well as the worst of times, that is).

But there are a few fellas, coaches in this instance, who may want to weave a little bit of that history into the ol’ pre-game preachings tonight.

No one more, perhaps, than St. Pius X head coach George Parkinson.

Yes, the Lions are 3-2 in the Pioneer Athletic Conference and 5-2 overall. Yes, they’ve already won more league games than the five teams before them did. Yes, those five overall wins are the most by any Lions team in seven years. And, yes, they’re about a first down or two behind Calvary Christian – actually a mere 1.2 points behind – in the District 1/12-Class A playoff points standings.

But as good as it’s been for the Lions so far this season, they’re fully aware they can ill-afford another loss if they hope to retain a lane in both those PAC-10 and postseason races.

And there’s no bigger challenge, at least for now, than Owen J. Roberts … the same Owen J. Roberts that has more than once in the past defied the odds (and logic) in match-ups with Pius.

The Wildcats (4-1, 6-1 overall) are just a game behind unbeaten Pottsgrove in the PAC-10 and situated right smack in the middle of the District 1-Class AAA playoff points standings themselves. In other

words, they’re pretty darn good themselves. And their track record against the Lions is, well, rather impressive – or disheartening to the Pius faithful.

For one, the Wildcats have not lost to Pius since getting blanked 27-0 back in 1995. That’s 13 straight wins, if you’re counting. Moreover, they’ve won 18 of the last 21 meetings since joining the league back in 1988. And if you care to go back to when they started playing one another in the Ches-Mont League, OJR has had the upper-hand in 26 of the 32 games (with one ending in a tie).

Former St. Pius head coach Dave Bodolus was almost speechless after a couple of upset losses to OJR, as was Ray Gionta following his one and only game against OJR.

Bodolus had a difficult time explaining what happened in 1999 after his heavily favored Lions were thumped 38-14 by OJR, the lone blemish in their PAC-10 championship season. He had an equally difficult time explaining what happened two years later when the heavily favored Lions came up short in a 32-29 thriller with the Wildcats before regrouping and playing their way to the PIAA-Class AA state semifinals. And Gionta wasn’t exactly a chatty one in 2002 after a 19-14 setback to the Wildcats with a team that would make its way into the postseason as well.

Obviously, Parkinson and his Lions would like nothing more than a win tonight to end the mystique – or whatever they call it – and hit the breaks on their 13-game skid.

They’re all still working on the respect factor. Some critics are quick to point out their five wins have come against teams who are a combined 7-28, and the only two teams with winning records on their schedule thus far have beaten them.

That may be a bit unfair, especially if you chat with OJR head coach Tom Barr, who sat in on Pius’ win over Spring-Ford last Saturday and had nothing but very good things to say about the Lions.

And when made aware of OJR’s long rule over Pius … “I don’t want to hear about that,” Barr said.

Neither do the Lions, who’d like nothing more than to bring a little magic of their own to the field tonight.

ONE AT A TIME

Three other PAC-10 teams, as well as Daniel Boone up in the I-C League, cannot afford to look past this weekend’s games.

OJR cannot take Pius lightly, of course, not with what is on the line and not with longtime rival Boyertown up next. Depending on where your allegiance lies, the OJR-Boyertown series has been one of the best for more than 50 years, even back when it was North Coventry battlin’ the Bears.

Upper Perkiomen has to take Phoenixville very seriously and not look ahead to next Friday night’s visit to Pottsgrove. Yes, Phoenixville may have started 0-for-5, but both the training room and sick-bay are almost empty now and the Phantoms’ improved health has certainly showed the past two weeks with back-to-back shutouts.

Pottsgrove, like Upper Perkiomen, is at Methacton on Saturday. The Falcons stack up as the favorite in every imaginable category. But hunger, the hunger to end disappointment and reverse one’s woeful ways, is one incredible intangible that you can’t measure with those first-down chains. Plus this is Week Eight – and if you knew your PAC-10 history you’d know it’s the week that has produced more surprises and upsets than any other week of the league season.

Up in the I-C, Daniel Boone travels to Pottsville and hopes to make it four in a row over the Crimson Tide. The Blazers can then focus on Muhlenberg – who they have lost to 19 straight times – in a bid to tackle the Section One title.

*

The Hill School sure can’t look ahead to next week’s game with defending Mid-Atlantic Prep League champion Blair Academy. The Rams take a long bus ride to Wyoming Seminary on Saturday, and a win could put them in a very enviable spot to avenge last year’s lone MAPL setback (to Blair) and run off with a championship. And with quarterback Jack Detmar a “probable” return to the lineup, the Rams will have a considerably better passing threat to go with their productive run game.

OH O.C.

When Abdul Smith graduated a year ago and went off to Rutgers, a lot of people thought Perkiomen School’s program would switch off. Not so.

One big reason has been the play of O.C Hightower, who has run for three touchdowns, pulled in five touchdown passes, and scored five other times – an area-high – on kickoff or punt returns and off defensive turnovers.

The 5-foot-9, 165-pound Hightower, who along with teammate Bruce Brittingham give the Indians as good as one-two punch as any other in the Philadelphia region’s private school sector, have Perkiomen on pace for its winningest season in 31 years.

ONE MORE TIME

Tireless Jim Algeo and his Lansdale Catholic football teams pulled off a few big wins and big upsets during their 22 years in the Pioneer Athletic Conference. All of them may pale in comparison to last Monday afternoon’s 36-27 victory over Bishop McDevitt.

The Crusaders were winless in six games this season, thanks in part to a young and inexperienced lineup, and were ailing a bit with a few starters either less than a 100 percent or out of the lineup entirely. Bishop McDevitt, on the other hand, was undefeated.

Surprise, surprise … and what a great gift for Algeo, who celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary two days earlier.

*

Algeo’s son, Dan Algeo – the head coach at Cardinal O’Hara – may want to steal one of those upset formulas from dad. His Lions are 7-0, but will meet Philadelphia Catholic League Class AAAA power St. Joseph’s Prep (5-1) on Saturday night. The Hawks’ lone loss this season was to North Penn back on Sept. 19.

Jim Mich had a lot to think about when he sat behind the wheel of the family car and took off from his parents’ home in Easton for the long drive to Pottstown, a town he had never been to before, and over to St. Pius X, a high school he had never heard of before.

It was a rollercoaster-like ride of emotions that morning back in June of 1959.

It wasn’t easy balancing the pain of his father’s recent death with the joy of graduating on time from then East Stroudsburg State Teachers College just a few weeks earlier. It wasn’t any easier suppressing the excitement and settling the nerves on the way to his first job interview, either.

So imagine, if at all possible, how Mich reacted when the priest told him he was Pius’ new football coach after he had thought he was only applying for a spot on the staff as an assistant. Or what may have been racing through the 21-year-old’s mind after strolling out of the principal’s office and seeing a group of men building a football stadium adjacent to the school – a particular project the Archdiocese of Philadelphia did not permit.

“What a day that was,” Mich recalled.

It was a day very few of the St. Pius X faithful are likely to forget.

The Lions kicked off their program a year earlier under Marion Zarenkiewicz, but most graduates – especially those who put on the pads and cleats – feel 1959, with Jim Mich and that brand new stadium, was the birth of Pius football.

Sadly, this season – which marks the 50th anniversary of Mich’s arrival and the Lions’ first roar in that new stadium – will be its last.

Next year, St. Pius will team up with Kennedy-Kenrick and move into the new Pope John Paul II High School in Upper Providence Township.

The Lions will play their final game on the field – fittingly known as Mich Stadium since being renamed in his honor in 1976 – on Thanksgiving morning against longtime rival Pottsgrove.

* * *

When summer practices began in 1959, it was a toss-up as to who was louder – the energized Mich hooting and hollering at his players during practices in the high school parking lot, or the men hammering away while putting the finishing touches on the nearby football stadium.

“I just remember feeling great that we were going to have our own place to play,” Mich said. “Having our own field meant something to us. We were going to have our own locker rooms, our own showers, our own coaches room.

“Back then the Archdiocese (of Philadelphia) didn’t allow stadiums to be built on school property. But our athletic association financed the whole thing, and they didn’t care what the archdiocese allowed or didn’t allow. They were amazing.”

The Pius A.A. didn’t just find the money, but the manpower, too. Some of the movers and shakers in the organization were Bob “Chuz” Calvario and Elmer “Chump” Pollock, and a handful of others – Des Coffey, Joe Psota, Harry Schaeffer, Jim Smale and Tony Veach – all of whom have since passed but have never been forgotten.

Calvario, a trainer for the Lions from the beginning and a local businessman, was very instrumental in fundraising for all of Pius’ athletic programs and arguably one of the school’s most vocal supporters before, during and after his sons were standout athletes. And much the same could be said for Pollock, who was the public address announcer for Pottstown High School football games for more than 50 years – and for Pius’ first season of home games when they were played on the Trojans’ field.

But the athletic association was quite proud of their new stadium, which sat up to 1,400 fans on the concrete and steel home-side stands built high enough at its lowest point to provide a clear view of the playing field.

“I think we were all proud of what we had there,” Mich said.

Especially after winning their home debut – 6-0 over the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf – on Saturday, Oct. 3, 1959.

Located in Germantown, PSD was the third oldest school in the U.S. and well known for its football program for more than three decades at the time.

After a scoreless first half, the Lions got excellent field position when co-captain Mickey Sombers returned a PSD punt 24 yards to PSD’s 32-yard line. Art Hatmaker ran for 10 yards on first down, Skip Peterman took another handoff for six yards and, following an incomplete pass, Hatmaker bolted around the left side to the five-yard line. Peterman sneaked to the one, and that’s when co-captain David “Horse” Lees took it into the end zone for the game’s lone score.

The Pius defense that blanked PSD that afternoon featured Paul Bobinsky, Ed Chieffo, Dennis Dzuryachko, Tom Lapinski, Lees, Phil Maddaliano, Joe Narieka, Ted Pawlowski, Tom Rapchinski, Sombers and Joe Wambach. Lapinski went on to become the captain at the University of Delaware and was the head coach at Swarthmore College; Maddaliano played at Temple; Pawlowski played at South Carolina; Rapchinski would captain his team at Millersville; and Wambach became a radio personality in Cincinnati.

The Lions would finish their first season under Mich and in their new stadium with a 5-4 record.

“We really liked having that new stadium,” Mich said. “As a coach, you always wanted your own field, but not everyone had that back then. That was the way football was in those days.”

Knowing exactly “where” to play on it was important, too, as Mich explained.

“You always wanted a good playing surface, but I don’t think we ever had that,” he said before adding a laugh. “There was a lot of shale in the ground on our field, but again that was football in the day. I can always remember never wanting to run to the left side, because that’s where the field was always wet. We always ran right because it was like a rock on that side with all the shale in it.

“Sure, we got some complaints once in a while because the field wasn’t necessarily in as good as shape as lot of the other public school fields. But that’s what we had … and we were proud of what we had.”

* * *

On April 24, 1976, Msgr. Joseph Murray – the principal at Pius – renamed the field Mich Stadium in honor of the young fella who was now 39 years old with a whole lot of wins under his belt … and an immeasurable amount of respect from Pius players and fans as well as coaches from around the Philadelphia Suburban Catholic and Ches-Mont leagues.

“I was embarrassed to some degree,” Mich admitted. “It was a nice honor, a wonderful honor, especially for someone my age. I had just hoped I was deserving of such an honor.”

Mich would continue plotting Pius’ game plans and strolling the sidelines through 1984. He won or shared three Philadelphia Suburban Catholic League championships; guided the Lions to a very impressive 72-32-1 record in 11 seasons as an independent; and was very instrumental in helping his school – despite two prior rejections – get into the Ches-Mont League in 1978. When he bid farewell to the program, and to Mich Stadium, he owned a 159-89-11 career mark.

Mich would later serve as an assistant coach for 10 years at Kutztown University.

But rarely – and usually when his schedule didn’t allow it – did he ever miss a St. Pius X football game on the home turf.

And there were plenty of memorable games, for Mich as well as for the coaches who have followed him – namely Bill Rogers, Dave Bodolus, Ray Gionta, Ed McCann, Madison Morton, Bob Wagner and, now going into his fourth and final season at Pius, George Parkinson.

“That was our field, and we took a lot of pride in playing and playing well on that field every time we went out there,” said Bodolus, a standout himself at Pius and now the head coach at Daniel Boone.

* * *

Mich Stadium underwent renovations in 2005, thanks in part to Johnny Jones, part of the football program in the early 1980s, and Dave Psota, a longtime assistant under Mich. Among the improvements were new fencing, new seating, a new press box and a total reseeding of the playing surface.

“I guess we really needed some of those things for a long time,” Mich said. “But it was a football stadium, our football stadium … and we proud of it from the very beginning. It’s kind of sad right now, knowing the field and the school won’t be there when we move (to Pope John Paul II).

“It’s going to be tough for me, too, because all three of my children went there, and my one granddaughter will be graduating with the last class next spring. Heck, my whole adult life has been spent at Pius, and around that football field. I don’t think we’re ever going to have the same feeling for that new school like we did for Pius.”