At Shenango, experience is the best teacher

By Kayleen Cubbal

New Castle News

Don Costa laughed when the question was posed to him at a Shenango High football practice.

“One of the kids asked if I was playing football in 1926,” the Wildcats assistant said, adding with a chuckle. “I told him, yes, in fact, I was ... but I was only a junior that year.”

Indeed, playing football in 1926 would make Costa over 100 years old, which is a bit of a stretch.

At age 77, though, Costa undoubtedly is the dean of local assistants as a member of a veteran Shenango staff that, in just two years, has managed to turn around the Wildcats’ program.

Last week’s 23-8 Big Seven Conference victory over South Side Beaver improved Shenango’s record to 4-1 in the conference, 4-2 overall, and launched them into the playoffs for the first time since 2006.

At the center of it all is the coaching staff assembled by second-year coach Mike Commesso. It is a group which boasts two former head coaches and an unbelievable 160 years experience between its members, headed by Costa, who has coached for a total of 40 years since starring at Ellwood City Lincoln High and the University of Notre Dame.

Mike Commesso has 20 years experience under his belt, while his dad, former Mohawk High head coach Lew Commesso, has 22 years experience and Dave Commesso, the brother of Mike and son of Lew, has eight years to his credit.

Also on the varsity staff are Harold Taylor with 30 years coaching experience, Jim Ferrucci with 25 and Greg Toney with 15.

“It’s pretty great as a head coach to have all this experience backing you up. To have the caliber of assistants I was lucky enough to get to join me is pretty amazing,” Mike Commesso said.

And rather than feel threatened by it, Mike Commesso embraces it. The former Mohawk High and Geneva College star said after getting the Wildcats job, he did sales jobs on both Costa, then an assistant at Geneva, and his dad, Lew, who retired from coaching 12 years ago.

“I had heard through a mutual friend that Don wanted to switch gears and maybe get out of the college game,” Commesso said. “So I told him, ‘hey, come to Shenango, I’d love to have you.’

“As for my dad, I really had to talk him into it,” he added. “At first he agreed to help out as a volunteer, give me some advice if I needed it. But once he started coming around, it was obvious he was enjoying himself and he agreed to come on board.”

Lew Commesso, 65, coached at Mohawk from 1997-2002, taking the Warriors to their first playoff appearance in 1999. He resigned because of long hours he was working for the U.S. Postal Service combined with health problems that led to open heart surgery.

Both Mike and Dave coached for Lew at Mohawk and he decided to return the favor.

“At first, I didn’t know if I wanted to get into it again,” he said. “I have been enjoying my free time and I knew coaching would be a big commitment. But it gave me a chance to see my two boys every day and who as a dad would pass that up?

“At first it was a little tough. I like being in control and after being a head coach, it was an adjustment to be an assistant again — especially taking orders from my son. But it didn’t take me long to realize how much I missed working with kids. And I learned quickly to separate being the dad and being a coach.”

Since this year’s Shenango juniors captured the county ninth-grade title two years ago, the talent potential was there. The Wildcats, though, struggled though a 2-7 season with the new coaching staff last year.

“Last year was tough,” he said. “We were putting in a new offense and new defense and kids were getting to know us and know the new system. But Mike does a great job with the teaching part and the kids stuck with it. This year’s juniors won at every level and they expect to win and that is huge. It makes the teaching process a lot easier.”

Lew Commesso said that the kids soak up the stories told by the elder statesmen, especially those by Costa about his years at Notre Dame.

“This guy played at Notre Dame with Paul Hornung who won the Heisman Trophy — I like to hear his stories myself,” Commesso said. “The bottom line is that kids know if you’re genuine. You’re not going to pull the wool over their eyes. They want to be there because they know we want to be there.”

Costa, a lifelong administrator and coach who headed the football program at Ellwood City Lincoln from 1966-70, said he thought of retiring from coaching several years before he joined the Shenango staff, “but one thing or the other always stopped me.”

He said he knew of Mike Commesso’s reputation from his days as an assistant at Hopewell High, but it was mutual friend Jason Wargo, a line coach at Geneva, who actually connected the two.

“I still live in Ellwood City, so Shenango was a close drive for me and from the moment I got there, I could see that Shenango was a great place with good people and I liked the staff immensely.

“Mike is outstanding with his handling of the kids. He makes them work hard, but he is big on academics and that is very important to me. It just turned out to be a good fit for me.”

Costa said he doesn’t know how long he will remain in the coaching arena, but he is content for now. He remains close with his children, including son Dave, a firefighter in Pittsburgh who played professionally with the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers and with Toronto and Calgary in the Canadian Football League.

“I’ve got seven grandchildren and I like to spend time with them, so I’m taking it one year at a time,” Costa said. “But I sure am having fun where I am now.”