Fantastic! Great for the state of Illinois. Now lets recruiting in Western PA as well:

Tribune picks top-10 current WPIAL football coaches By Jerry DiPaola, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Other coaches who were candidates to make this list:

Clair Altemus, Pine-Richland

Greg Botta, Franklin Regional

Tom Loughran, South Park

Gene Matsook, Rochester

Jeff Metheny, Bethel Park

Tom Nola, Clairton

Ray Reitz, Latrobe

Terry Smith, Gateway

Terry Totten, Central Catholic

Mike Zmijanic, Aliquippa

They're the men at the top. The players come and go, but coaches like these become the face of the program. The coaches who achieve such elevated stature evolve into far more than that. Bronze statues of them are often sculpted at the entrances to the football stadiums where their victories became legend. Today, we present 10 veteran coaches -- all still coaching -- who won't be forgotten:

1. Jack McCurry, North Hills

There were head football coaches at North Hills before McCurry -- it's just hard to imagine it. McCurry, entering his 32nd season with a 261-97-6 record, plays to win the game, even when there is high risk involved. That's what he did in the 1986 WPIAL title game against Gateway at Three Rivers Stadium. He decided to go for a two-point conversion late in a game that North Hills trailed, 7-6. The gamble failed. But he had shared the 1982 and '85 championships with Ringgold and Gateway, and he wanted one of his own. He got it in 1987, when his first-team defense didn't give up a point, North Hills was ranked No. 1 in the nation by USA Today and McCurry was National Coach of the Year. State supremacy? He did that, too, in 1993.

2. George Novak, Woodland Hills

Five Woodland Hills graduates play in the NFL, and they all called Novak "coach." He is the only coach in school history (24 years), thanks to an ability to blend players from different communities into a smooth-running program. Woodland Hills is the defending WPIAL Class AAAA champion, and Novak (242-118-1) has won six WPIAL titles. But he's 0-3 in PIAA title games. The guess is he will keep trying until he gets it right.

3. Jim Render, Upper St. Clair

He's infamous for rants against officials and famous for winning games -- 335, with five WPIAL and two PIAA titles in 41 years at Carrollton (Ohio), Uniontown and Upper St. Clair. He stands up for his players like no other coach, once scolding a reporter who inferred that his kicker was a soccer player who happened to kick for the football team. "He's a football player," Render said, sternly but proudly. He has won his two state championships -- in 1989 and 2006 -- a testament to his stubborn durability.

4. Bob Palko, West Allegheny

Please don't suggest Bob Palko is a successful coach just because his son, Tyler, was a great high school quarterback. Yes, he won three WPIAL titles with Tyler behind center, but he won two others when Tyler was either too young (1997) or too old (2009) for high school. Like Render, he's as much survivor as victor, winning 130 games in 15 years.

5. Neil Gordon, Shaler

There was much quizzical head-scratching going on when Penn Hills decided after the 2007 season that it no longer wanted Gordon as its head coach. His critics, however, should get annual Christmas cards from Shaler supporters because Penn Hills' loss is Shaler's gain. Gordon won a WPIAL and state title in 1995 at Penn Hills and has turned Shaler into a force in the Quad North, with back-to-back trips to the playoffs.

6. Joe Hamilton, Blackhawk

If you ask Hamilton to point to the most memorable of his 323 victories in 43 years, he comes up with a game from 1966 -- his first year at Midland -- when he defeated East Liverpool (Ohio), 21-14. The schools were rivals because the players' families worked at the Crucible steel mill in Midland, but East Liverpool had won every game between the two since 1942. He also coached at New Brighton and Hempfield, but he has been the man in charge at Blackhawk since 1976, winning four WPIAL championships and reaching the state title game three times yet never winning.

7. Chuck Wagner, Springdale

Wagner will turn 76 at the end of this season, but he said there's no expiration date on his career. "I can't see myself losing any desire to continue to be a head coach," he said. Wagner was named head coach at Oakmont High School in 1961 and spent a quarter-century in that district, including 15 years at Riverview (Oakmont/Verona merger). He was at Fox Chapel for three seasons and has been the head coach at Springdale for the past 17. In 45 seasons (he took some time off twice for family concerns), he has a 252-197-11 record. He won WPIAL titles at Oakmont (1965) and Springdale (2003). The latter was especially gratifying. "Every (playoff) game we won was an upset," he said.

8. Muzzy Colosimo, Greensburg Central Catholic

He has won 124 games in 15 years at GCC while helping many players -- not just his own -- get into college. Still, he enters this season with a target on his back after winning his first WPIAL championship and finishing second in the state in 2009. "When you are a private school, you always have a target on your back," he said. Colosimo has his critics, but when you call him on his cell phone, you hear the Notre Dame fight song before he picks up. Now, that's a football coach.

9. Jim Rankin, Butler

Mark the date Sept. 10 in red on your calendar. That's the date Rankin comes to North Allegheny's Newman Stadium -- as coach of the other team. That night, North Allegheny will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its only state champion -- coached by Rankin. Through 26 years as coach at Ellwood City and North Allegheny, Rankin won 181 games, but he resigned after the 2004 season and moved from Carnegie Mellon to Jeannette to Latrobe as a supremely over-qualified assistant coach -- until the Butler job became vacant this year. Now, the challenge is to turn one of the least successful Class AAAA programs into a winner.

10. Bill Cherpak, Thomas Jefferson

If your criteria is simple achievement, Cherpak belongs on the Mt. Rushmore of WPIAL coaches. He has guided his team to three Class AAA PIAA championships and four WPIAL titles in the past six years. He has made the WPIAL semifinals his personal playground, with appearances in each of the past 12 seasons -- - losing the first five and winning the next six before falling to West Allegheny last season.