Meet the new boss
Jeff McAnallen, Jeff Campbell and Gary Pinkerton share a common bond.
All are high school head football coaches for the first time this season. None is new to his job.
McAnallen takes over at Butler after spending 10 years as a line coach at North Hills. But the Golden Tornado program is hardly a stranger to him.
McAnallen graduated from Butler in 1990 and was a lineman on Tornado football teams that reached the WPIALplayoffs. He has known many of his assistant coaches for years and began working in the Butler School District in the spring.
"I feel like we've got a pretty good head start,"McAnallen said. "Nobody on this staff is an offensive coach. Nobody is a defensive coach. We're all football coaches.
"It's a group thing. We have to do it together."
After being a part of a successful football program at North Hills, McAnallen hopes to bring that winning formula with him to Butler.
"Rush for more than 200 yards and hold the opponent to less than 200 total yards," he said. "Do that and you'll win a lot of football games."
Being a first-time head coach in the WPIAL's Northern Five doesn't bother him because he's been a part of the league for so long.
North Allegheny, North Hills, Shaler, Seneca Valley — McAnallen knows those programs as well as anybody.
"I've coached against these guys for a long time and I've worked with one of the best (Jack McCurry)," he said. "If I'm not ready to coach a team in this league now, I doubt I ever will be."
Campbell and Pinkerton feel the same way about their respective situations.Campbell, defensive coordinator at Moniteau for the past six years, takes over as head coach of the Warriors. Pinkerton, an assistant coach at A-CValley the past two years, is the Falcons' new head coach.Neither is a stranger to the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference."I know these kids and I know the program,"Campbell said. "The biggest adjustment is the administrative duties you're responsible for as head coach."Physical forms, equipment requests, making sure you have all the equipment you need and it's distributed properly — that's all new to me."Campbell coached with current Union mentor Tom Kidder during Kidder's years as Moniteau head coach. He is good friends with Karns City coach Ed Conto."I've learned a lot from those guys and they've been very helpful to me,"Campbell said.Even after Steve Wilson resigned as Warriors coach, Campbell never planned to apply for the position."I never had aspirations to be a head coach,"he said. "I loved being a defensive coordinator. A bunch of the kids approached me and encouraged me to apply."There were 15 to 20 of them who openly said they wanted me as their coach. That meant a lot."
Pinkerton has been an assistant high school football coach for 18 years. In terms of X's and O's, he said the game isn't all that different in the head coach's shoes."I've always been involved in game-planning and strategies,"he said. "Working with a budget, filling out papers, doing the administrative stuff is a whole new animal for me."Another factor for Pinkerton was the timing of his hiring. He was not named as Randy Lemmon's replacement until May."Most head football coaches are hired during the winter,"Pinkerton said. "We've been playing catch-up in a lot of areas."We brought back most of the (assistants) who were there before. I added one new individual to the varsity staff, one to the junior high staff. Besides that, I just restructured the staff with different assignments."I have confidence in the people I've coached with and we know the league. We know what to expect and what the level of play is. Now it's up to us to reach that level,"Pinkerton added.
