Late November Friday Night Lights…

Berwick – Clearfield PIAA Clash at Malinak Stadium

by John Lipez

BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP – Motorists be forewarned: the Mill Hall area will be inundated Friday evening not just with Black Friday shoppers but more than a few thousand football fans traveling to Central Mountain High School.

Central Mountain’s Don Malinak Stadium has been tabbed by the PIAA to host a state Class AAA quarterfinal featuring two 13-0 mid-state powers in Clearfield from District 9 and Berwick from District 2.

Game time is 7 p.m. Friday and Central Mountain athletic director Steve Turchetta is looking for a huge crowd at the five-year-old facility.

Turchetta said Berwick sold its PIAA pre-game allocation of 500 tickets on Monday and an official at the Columbia County school said look for 3,000 Berwick fans to descend on the Lock Haven area on Friday; Clearfield likewise expects a large following.

Turchetta said the game should be a plus for the local economy and area restaurants should brace for the deluge.

He said the game came about when PIAA Executive Director Bob Lombardi called last Friday morning and asked if the school would make Malinak Stadium available should both Clearfield and Berwick win that night. They did and Lombardi called back Friday at 10 p.m. and booked the stadium, located roughly midway between the two schools.

Turchetta said the PIAA will pay the Keystone Central School District $700 for use of the facility and will also pick up the tab for game personnel.

A local officiating crew, headed by Todd Desmond from Beech Creek, will referee the game and the stadium’s longstanding home chain gang, led by Joe “Satch” Sanders, will work the sideline sticks.

School officials suggest football fans traveling from Lock Haven might want to use Lusk Run Road to avoid the crush of traffic coming in by way of Routes 150 and 220.

District officials said a local pre-sale of game tickets was to be held on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week at the Central Mountain High School athletic office, $6 for adults and $3 for students. All gate tickets will be priced at $6.

Gates are to open at 5:45 p.m. Friday.

While the Wildcats have never hosted a playoff game for their own team there, the site has been used at least once a year in recent years for PIAA postseason contests.

 

For folks who will be visiting Malinak Stadium for the first time, we offer this brief historical perspective written at the time of the opening of the stadium in 2009:

BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP – Central Mountain High School has its first on-site athletic stadium and the shiny new structure will be dedicated at 6:45 p.m. this Friday, prior to the first contest on the new artificial surface, the Wildcat football team hosting Williamsport.

And in that pre-game ceremony the new $3.5 million facility will be named in honor of long-time Lock Haven High School football coach Don Malinak, the result of a fundraising effort by many of his former players.

Malinak’s history started early, on the fields of play back home in Steelton, an aptly named steel town adjacent to Harrisburg. There he followed four older brothers and was a multiple sport standout, but it was football where he made his mark and learned what he later considered his benchmark of coaching: fundamentals and conditioning from legendary coach Joe Shevock.

Graduating in 1950, he was pursued by schools as diverse as Kansas, North Carolina and Navy. But the locals encouraged him to stay close to home so he went to Penn State the same year that new head coach Rip Engle, with a skinny assistant named Joe Paterno, took over the Nittany Lion program.

Malinak was an outstanding two-way end at Penn State, serving as captain and participating in postseason all-star games. He was in the process of pursuing an opportunity with the Pittsburgh Steelers when he was drafted in 1954 and spent nearly two years in the service; he knew he wanted a career in football and an assistant coaching job opened at what was then Captain Jack High School in Mount Union.

He logged two years there, by chance playing Lock Haven High, winning the first year, losing the second. Then the Lock Haven job became vacant when a former Steelton coach, Nels Hoffman, was not returned as Bobcat coach.

Malinak was interviewed by school district superintendent J. F. Puderbaugh and some school board members, he recalls, and was hired as head coach for $300 a year to go with his $2,800 teaching salary. And he was able to bring with him one Captain Jack assistant, Bernie Myers, a standout western Pennsylvania athlete and a relatively recent graduate of the former Lock Haven State Teachers College.

It took little time for Malinak to install his “fundamentals and conditioning” scheme at Lock Haven. After his initial squad in 1957 got off to a slow start it was able to finish 3-3-2, then went to 6-3 in 1958 and 9-1 in 1959, a breakthrough year marred only by a season-ending loss at Philipsburg on a cold November night.

It was in 1959 the Bobcats established themselves with a 6-0 win over Lewistown. The game was played before a record 5,116 fans at what was then known as Spring Street Stadium. The triumph ended Lewistown’s 24-game winning streak. Future Penn State standouts Bud Yost and Bill Bowes were key components through Malinak’s early glory years.

Undefeated 10-0 seasons followed in 1960 and 1961, with plenty of great years to follow, including 7-1-2 in 1962, 8-1-1 in 1964 and 9-0-1 in 1965. The string of success included 8-2 in ‘66 and 7-3 in 1967.

There were some fine years after that (and a few down years), including the Joe and Steve Geise era when the ‘Cats went 6-4 in 1971, then 7-3 and 9-1 in succeeding years. Then the Burd boys, Rick and Mike, made a great pitch-catch combination, abetted by running back Larry Cox, from ‘75 through ‘78 going 6-4, 9-2, 10-1 and 7-4. The Malinak era ended then with four straight winning seasons before a 2-and -9 finale in 1983.

Add it all up and it is 27 years, a 176-90-9 mark, including three of the school’s nine undefeated teams and, most importantly, always the respect of his players and his peers.

The respect of his players was evident when so many turned out in November of 2007 at the final game at Painter Memorial Stadium (ultimately the genesis of planning to name the new stadium in his honor). And the respect of his peers represented by his induction into the Pennsylvania State Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1999.

But Malinak will be the first to tell you it was about a lot more than wins and losses. He said he always tried to be a positive influence in the lives of the young men he coached, proud of what he did to get so many of his players college scholarships, proud of the impact he had on so many, saying how rewarding it is hear from those who have made something of themselves in society.

Just as they were at the Painter Stadium farewell two years ago, you can bet a lot of them will be in attendance at Friday’s dedication of Don Malinak Stadium at Central Mountain High School.