Thomas Jefferson: Jaguars looking to defend WPIAL title

by Ray Fisher Sports Editor

August 29, 2007

Thomas Jefferson's varsity football team will be hard pressed to duplicate the performance of last year's team.

However, don't ever count out a Bill Cherpak-coached football squad.

"We could be good," said Cherpak, the all-time winningest football coach at TJ. "We're coming together. I'm pleased with how camp has gone.

   "This group of kids knows how to practice. We just have to see how that translates into games."

The Jaguars posted a 14-1 overall record last season, winning their second WPIAL Class AAA title in three years and advancing to the PIAAsemifinal round.

The Jaguars defeated Blackhawk, 34-15, in the 2006 WPIAL title game.

The Jaguars' overall numbers were gaudy.

TJ outscored the opposition, 516-130, averaging 34.4 points per game offensively and allowing 8.7 points per game defensively.

Defensively, the Jaguars posted five shutouts and surrendered just one touchdown to 10 opponents.

Many of the statistical, and team, leaders were seniors last season, in-cluding offensive stars Dom DeCicco, Dan Giegerich and Chris Drager.

DeCicco, a Pitt recruit, passed for 1,132 yards and 17 touchdowns from his quarterback post a year ago.

He accounted for 2,196 yards and 32 touchdowns in total offense.

Drager, a Virginia Tech recruit, led the Jaguars in receiving with 29 catches for 563 yards and 12 touchdowns. He averaged 19.4 yards per reception.

Giegerich, a Gannon recruit, rush-ed for 693 yards and 14 TDs and scored 108 points in an injury-riddled season.

The Jaguars' team leader this season rates as one of the best players in the state and in school history.

Lucas Nix is a 6-6, 298-pound offensive and defensive lineman and an all-state selection last year.

He will join his brother Nate in the University of Pittsburgh football program next year. He also was chosen to play in the U.S. Army All-Amer-ican Game in San Antonio, Texas, to be held in early January 2008.

As Giegerich recovered from an injury last season, a new TJ star was unveiled.

Brian Baldrige stepped in as a sophomore running back and did it in sensational style.

Baldrige, who has been timed at 4.6 in the 40-yard dash, rushed for 1,317 yards and 18 touchdowns, led the team in scoring with 114 points and also had nine receptions for 129 yards.

He's back for his junior season, and the TJ coaches are expecting another banner season from him.

"Absolutely," said Cherpak. "He's definitely a kid who can make big plays. One of the strengths of our team is our offensive line, which bodes well for him.

"The challenge is the endurance part of it. He's not a big kid, but he can run. He loves (running on) the turf. He's kind of a smaller version of (former TJ star) Jon Drager."

Another player expected to maintain the Jaguars' winning tradition and bolster the attack both offensively and defensively is senior Trevor Wild-man, at wide receiver and defensive back.

Wildman's forte last season was defense. He turned in his biggest performance of the year in TJ's biggest game of the year, sparking the local squad to its WPIAL championship game win over Blackhawk.

Wildman had two key interceptions against the Cougars. "He's our shutdown corner," said Cherpak.

Several other starters are back for the Jaguars this season, including senior wideout Zach DeCicco, junior tight end Brock DeCicco, senior fullback Nate Bota, junior linebacker Matt Hufford -- who led the Jaguars defensively with seven solo tackles in the WPIAL title game and was the team's leading tackler on the year -- and senior linemen Cory Smith and Dave Bishoff.

"Our offensive and defensive lines are the strengths of our team. Those guys all move pretty well," Cherpak said.

Nix, Smith and Bishoff are joined in the trenches on the offensive line by juniors Rob McCall, Pat Eger and Sean Kundrat.

The defensive line will be anchored by Nix and McCall on the inside and by the combination of Brock DeCicco, Smith, junior Mike Boyd and senior Drew Albrecht on the outside.

"Michael Boyd is doing a nice job on both sides of the line," Cherpak said.

The Jaguars' will be led offensively by a new face at quarterback -- junior Tyler Wehner, son of current Pirates broadcaster and former major leaguer John Wehner.

"Tyler's had a good camp. He's earned some respect, which is what he had to do," said Cherpak. "He's a great athlete and he has a great arm. He's an accurate passer."

Wehner is joined in the offensive backfield by Baldrige, at halfback, and Bota, at fullback, with Brock DeCicco at tight end.

Wildman and Zach DeCicco will share the wide receiving duties with senior Sam Scheidter and sophomore Jim Giansante, among others.

"We have a lot of depth," said Cher-pak. "We have four or five really good running backs."

Traditionally, TJ has employed a strong linebacking corps as the heart of its defensive unit.

This year is no different, as Hufford, Bishoff, Bota and Giansante will line up at linebacker.

Behind them in the secondary will be Wildman, Zach DeCicco and sophomore Ed Hasis.

A total of 12 members of last year's championship team earned Big Seven all-conference honors, including seven first-team selections.

Four of the 12 are back -- Nix, on the defensive line; Wildman, at defensive back; Zach DeCicco, at wide re-ceiver; and Baldrige, at running back.

Brock DeCicco, a 6-5, 205-pound junior, appears to be the next Division I prospect for the Jaguars, joining an impressive list of recent D-I recruits in Nate Nix (Pitt), Chris Drager (Vir-ginia Tech), Dom DeCicco (Pitt) and Lucas Nix (Pitt).

TJ will open its season with three consecutive home games, against Belle Vernon, West Allegheny and conference foe Elizabeth Forward

Cherpak has record befitting a legend

Friday, November 16, 2007

By Mike White, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Bill Cherpak used to help run Anderson Funeral Home in Munhall. After graduating from Pitt in 1989, he went to a mortuary school for two years. For almost 15 years after that, he did everything from handling funerals to embalming the deceased.

It seems odd to see that funeral home job on Cherpak's resume. Just because the guy has given such life to the Thomas Jefferson High School football program.

Call Cherpak, 40, one of the greatest coaches in recent WPIAL history and it wouldn't be an overstatement. In the past 10 years, Cherpak's record is 107-20 (.843 winning percentage). In that time, he has more wins than any other coach in the WPIAL, with Aliquippa's Mike Zmijanac next at 105-17.

Tonight, Cherpak and Thomas Jefferson play Pine-Richland in a WPIAL Class AAA semifinal. A win puts Thomas Jefferson into the championship game for the fifth year in a row. In the history of the WPIAL, only two schools have made it to the championship game five consecutive years. Upper St. Clair did it under Jim Render from 1991-95 and Braddock six times under Chuck Klausing from 1954-59, although there was no championship game in 1955. Braddock was awarded the title.

Cherpak is now Thomas Jefferson's coach and athletic director, the latter job he took in 2004, giving up the funeral business. He is a free-spirited man who always wears shorts on the sideline, no matter the temperature. He is known for his fiery pregame speeches ("You have to bleep out some of the words," Cherpak said with a laugh).

He is demanding of his players, yet lets them have great freedom. For example, Thomas Jefferson brings its own stereo system to away games and blasts music in the locker room.

"We can have our fun with him," said star lineman Lucas Nix, a Pitt recruit. "But everyone knows you better work hard and understand that come Friday nights, it's business. You show up, win and get out."

Cherpak said: "It doesn't matter to me if they have six earrings or long hair. The thing I like to do is let them be themselves."

At first, Cherpak didn't want to be interviewed for this story because he knew it was going to be about him. He relented, but earlier this week at the small athletic office at Thomas Jefferson, Cherpak seemed a little uneasy when the questions were about him.

"I hate talking about myself," he said. "Here's the way I look at it. If I would leave here now, there is still going to be T.J. football and someone will do something here. For these players, this is probably one of the better things that's going to happen to them. I'd like them to reap the benefits and be recognized. Not me."

Cherpak is trying to be humble, but he has made an impression at the South Hills area school. On the side of Old Clairton Road, which leads to Thomas Jefferson High, there are homemade signs for the Jaguars' football team. One pretty much says it all: "Tradition Never Graduates."

"For a while, we couldn't get past the WPIAL semifinals and I wasn't sure if we ever would," Cherpak said. "Then we got over the hump in 2003 and everything kind of changed. Now, getting to the semifinals doesn't even matter. People call here before the season and want to know when the state championships are in Hershey and when the [WPIAL championship] game is at Heinz Field. I don't think that's a bad thing because the kids know the expectations. But it could be bad if you let the pressure get to you."

Cherpak grew up in Munhall, the youngest of three children. He was a star lineman at Steel Valley in 1982 when the Ironmen won a WPIAL title under George Novak, now at Woodland Hills.

After Pitt, his life was a dead issue, literally. He had no plans to coach but was instead getting ready for mortuary school. But Thomas Jefferson football coach Jack Garrity knew Cherpak from his Steel Valley days and asked Cherpak if he could help players in the weight room and also be an assistant coach.

Cherpak stayed at Thomas Jefferson for a few years under Garrity, and the Jaguars went 27-6 from 1991-93. Cherpak then coached at Woodland Hills under Novak in 1994; Thomas Jefferson went 2-8 that year.

Cherpak got the Thomas Jefferson job the next year, went 8-3 his first season and the Jaguars have been clawing opponents ever since. Cherpak's overall record in 13 years is 132-28.

"One of the things we've tried to do is create a whole program, and not just focus on one good group coming through," Cherpak said. "Plus, we've had so many brothers come through here and I think they all want to live up to what the other teams did."

Cherpak credits Novak and former Pitt offensive line coach Joe Moore as having the greatest impacts on him. Cherpak's name has come up in recent years as a possible assistant coach at Pitt. He admits he has thought about moving on to the college ranks.

"I don't want to leave just to leave," he said. "I didn't want to leave because there was more to do here."

But he already has done plenty.