If there’s one thing Clairton coach Wayne Wade knows a thing or two about, it’s defense.
The defensive coordinator on the Bears’ legendary teams that set a state record and received national headlines with a 66-game win streak from 2009-13, Wade is a firm believer in the stance that defense wins championships — and he has two fists full of WPIAL championship rings to prove it. Since taking over as head coach at his alma mater in 2014, Wade has guided Clairton to four additional WPIAL titles to go along with the six he won as defensive coordinator. He also helped the Bears end a 35-year title drought as a star player in 1989, giving him 11 WPIAL titles to his credit — not to mention four PIAA championships as defensive coordinator as well.
That being said, not even Wade has seen a defense as suffocating as the one taking the field for Class 1A No. 2 Clairton on Friday nights this fall.
“Because we have so many kids returning, I told them during camp, ‘We have a chance to be like the 2010 team,’ who had nine or 10 shutouts,” Wade said. “This team has a chance to be like that team, or possibly be even better. I think this defense this year may surpass them.”
Through the first four games in 2024, the Bears are giving up an average of only 1.8 points per game — the lowest mark in the WPIAL — and they have allowed only seven points all season. Those points, mind you, were scored on a fumble return by Steel Valley’s defense in Clairton’s season-opening 30-7 win against the Ironmen as part of the KDKA Kickoff Classic at the Wolvarena. That means that through 192 minutes of football so far this season, the Bears’ defense has yet to give up a single point.
“I don’t know if it’s ever been done,” Wade said. “We’ve tried to do some homework on it, to see if there’s ever been a defense that hadn’t given up a touchdown in the regular season. We don’t know if that’s the case or not. We’re still looking.”
Making matters even more impressive is the level of competition Clairton has faced. Steel Valley entered the season as the No. 1 team in Class 2A, and although the Ironmen have stumbled to a 1-3 start, many believe they still have what it takes to make a deep playoff run. Since that season-opening win, the Bears have rattled off three consecutive shutouts against Serra Catholic, Shady Side Academy and Greensburg Central Catholic by a combined score of 140-0.
To put that into perspective, Greensburg Central scored 80 points combined in its first two games, while Shady Side has scored 110 points in three other games this season.
“Nobody really had us as the team in [Class] 1A to beat,” Wade said. “We really played well in the summer during our 7-on-7 stuff. Our linemen worked hard in the weight room. All of that is just paying off now. We have eight or nine kids returning on both sides of the ball, and we felt like we had the team last year to win it. We pretty much got our whole team back, and we’re bigger, stronger and faster.”
To see Clairton playing like the powerhouse program of the previous decade shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anybody who followed the Bears in recent years. After reaching last year’s WPIAL semifinals and finishing with an overall record of 10-3, Clairton graduated only two seniors while returning 11 all-conference players.
Still, few could have foreshadowed this level of defensive dominance by the Bears.
“I think people see us as one of those programs that are supposed to be there every single year,” Wade said. “That expectation and that bar has been set here at Clairton. … Everybody expects us to go come out and be that team. I think we have one of those teams this year.”
Junior Dion Pompey is an all-conference inside linebacker who serves as one of Clairton’s trusted leaders on defense, while linemen Tahvaz Armstrong, La’Zavier Samuel and Khalil Williams provide a solid foundation in the trenches. On the back end, Drahcir Jones and Taris Wooding are both all-conference defensive backs, and both also shine on the offensive side of the ball — Jones at running back and Wooding at wideout. Through four games, Jones leads the team with 539 yards rushing and six TDs on 55 carries, while Wooding has a team-high 13 receptions for 196 yards and a pair of scores.
Despite the abundance of talent possessed by the Bears on both sides of the ball, though, they have only one player with a Division I scholarship offer — senior Zae-mear Correll, a 6-foot-4, 185-pound wide receiver who holds an offer from Monmouth. You won’t find any blue-chip recruits like Tyler Boyd or Lamont Wade in this bunch, but this might be the deepest and most balanced team Wade has coached during his 11-year stint at the helm.
Speaking of Boyd, the newly minted WPIAL Hall of Famer is now in his ninth NFL season and first with the Tennessee Titans — and soon, Clairton will honor his legacy by playing its home games in a stadium named after him. Having long played its games at Neil C. Brown Stadium, the Bears have been forced to play their home games at Thomas Jefferson High School this season while their home field undergoes renovations.
On Monday night, the Clairton City School Board announced its plan to change the name of the school’s home field to Tyler Boyd Stadium when it reopens in 2025.
“He’s a WPIAL Hall of Famer,” Wade said. “He had a great career at Pitt, he’s doing great in the NFL, so why not?”
Jeannette trending toward return to prominence
When discussing the premier small-school programs in the WPIAL, Clairton is one of the first to come to mind, but you can’t have the conversation without mentioning Jeannette — at least, not until recently you couldn’t.
Dealing with alarmingly thin numbers after a mass exodus of players, the Jayhawks fell on hard times during a 1-9 season in 2021. Longtime coach Roy Hall retired after the season, leaving Jeannette in search of a new leader to help restore the once-proud program’s rich tradition.
Enter former Jayhawks quarterback Tom Paulone, who took over as head coach at his alma mater prior to the 2022 season. Ever since, Jeannette has quietly been on the upswing — and the Jayhawks may finally be ready to re-enter the upper echelon of Class 1A title contenders.
In his debut season in 2022, Paulone helped steer Jeannette back to the postseason, although an overall record of 3-8 was still far below the program’s lofty standards. Things improved significantly in year two, with the Jayhawks finishing 7-4 overall, although another first-round playoff exit still left something to be desired.
Now in year three, Paulone has Jeannette off to its first 4-0 start since 2019 while averaging 36.7 ppg on the season. And although the Jayhawks haven’t faced the toughest schedule so far this year, things are about to get much spicier starting this week.
This Friday, Jeannette will host an Eastern Conference clash of unbeatens against Leechburg, which is off to its first 4-0 start since 1981. Then, next week, the Jayhawks travel to Thomas Jefferson to take on Clairton.
Westinghouse leaving trail of wreckage in its wake
After a season-opening 28-26 defeat against WPIAL Class 3A No. 3 Beaver, many wondered if Westinghouse was still the same unstoppable force that had terrorized teams throughout the city and state for the better part of the past five years.
Three weeks later, the Bulldogs’ City League counterparts appear to have their answer.
During a three-game winning streak against Linsly, W.Va., Brashear and Perry, Westinghouse has outscored its opponents by a combined score of 184-0. First, the Bulldogs shut out Linsly, 52-0, on Aug. 29, followed by a 64-0 beatdown against the Bulls on Sept. 6. Last Thursday, Westinghouse continued to up the score with a 68-0 rout against the Commodores.
Now, with a trip to Butler on the horizon on Friday night, the Bulldogs find themselves with the No. 1 scoring offense in the area among all WPIAL and City League teams at an average of 52.5 ppg. On the other side of the ball, their defense is allowing 7 ppg after three consecutive shutouts, ranking No. 4 among all WPIAL and City League teams.
Steve is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at srotstein@unionprogress.com.
