Thanks to Observer-Reporter staff writer F. Dale Lolley and reader mailman, we learned that former Peters Township football standout Doug Fife is alive, well and working a sweet gig in Ohio.
This week, the Varsity Letters issued an All Points Bulletin for former Burgettstown head football coach Rich Druga.
The Blue Devils' head coach for three years, Druga's last year at Burgettstown came in 2000. A year later, Burgettstown made the playoffs. Druga then landed the head coaching job at Ambridge High School where he spent two years. He also spent time on the staff at West Allegheny.
Anyone knowing Druga's whereabouts is urged to contact the Varsity Letters.
7 comments:
Rich Druga is a teacher at West Allegheny and I don't believe he
is coaching anywhere. His brother
Mark is on the football staff at
Burgettstown
Rich is also coaching at West Alleheny as well.
There have only been 2 winning seasons at Burgettstown since the mid 80's...2000 w/Rich Druga (6-4) and 2007 w/Matt Taylor (7-3). There have also been 4 different Head Coaches during that time (Rege Onderick, Rich Druga, Russ Dysert, Matt Taylor).
Rich was beginning to build a good program at Burgettstown, until he took the job at Ambridge.
Rich always had great discipline with his teams and that's what good programs have.
If you really look at his head coaching stints, he left Burgettstown and Ambridge in a lot better shape than when he took them over. Burgettstown went to the playoffs the year after Rich left, and then went way down hill from there, before last year's 7-3 team.
Even at Ambridge, when the 'great' Don Yanessa took over when Rich left, he had back-to-back playoff seasons, and then the floor fell in.
New coaches just don't take over a program and succeed if they have to reshape the toughness and discipline of a football team.
Rich didn't get much credit for what he did for his 3 years at Burgettstown or 2 years at Ambridge. But looking back on the kind of shape he left both programs in, he definitely should have.
Thanks for the input everyone.
Rich e-mailed me yesterday when he heard we issued an APB for him. He's working at West A, married and living the good life.
I really enjoyed reading the last post.
You forgot about 1995, when the Blue Devils went 6-4 overall and 5-2 in the conference. Back then, only two teams per conference went to the playoffs.
The 1994 team went 5-5 overall and 3-4 in the conference and the 1996 team went 5-5 overall and 3-4 in the conference.
That was a decent three-year period for Burgettstown football.
So, there actually has been three winning seasons since the mid-1980's.
I mixed up the years. My comment should read......
You forgot about 1994, when the Blue Devils went 6-4 overall and 5-2 in the conference. Back then, only two teams per conference went to the playoffs.
The 1993 team went 5-5 overall and 3-4 in the conference and the 1995 team went 5-5 overall and 3-4 in the conference.
That was a decent three-year period for Burgettstown football.
So, there actually has been three winning seasons since the mid-1980's.
Coach Druga is teaching American Government. He is an awesome teacher. He also coached his jv football team at West Allegheny to an undefeated parkway conference season.
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