Mancuso was two-sport star at Connellsville
Joe Mancuso had great guidance as a young athlete, and he took the life lessons he learned and used them as a coach and educator.
Mancuso was a two-sport athlete at Connellsville High School, playing football and basketball.
He was a quarterback and defensive back for some very good Falcon football squads in the mid-1980s.
Connellsville posted a record of 9-2 in Mancuso蘑菇视频 junior season in 1982. The Falcons lost to Gateway, 13-7, and were defeated by North Hills in the WPIAL playoffs, 14-0.
鈥淭hat was a very good team,鈥� Mancuso said. 鈥淲e had athletes at all different positions and I think that year we had besides Charlie Swink, we had West Turner who went on to play at West Virginia, Dave Shuck went on to play football at Pitt and Turner and Swink I think were two Big 33 linebackers. We had two good running backs in Martell Betters and Mike Edwards. We had two or three wide outs and a good group of lineman, three or four of them went on to play college football. On the offensive side of the ball we were very talented and we were equally talented on defense. Some of my classmates Mark Blackstone and John Coleman went on to play college football.
鈥淲e were stacked that year with talent. Unfortunately, we ran into a North Hills team that went on to win the WPIAL championship. They shut us down that night.鈥�
The 5-foot-11, 180-pound Mancuso split the quarterback duties in 1982 with Swink. Mancuso tossed three touchdown passes that season and had one rushing touchdown.
鈥淚 think some of the things I did well as a quarterback complimented some of the things that Swink did well,鈥� Mancuso opined. 鈥淭hat situation worked well. My strength was more of an option style game, and I think Swink was good in the pass game and managing the offense.鈥�
In Mancuso蘑菇视频 senior year in 1983 the Falcons went 6-3-2 and lost a tough game to Mt. Lebanon 16-15 in the WPIAL playoffs. Mancuso suffered a left shoulder injury at Shaler in the third game of the season and missed a few games. He did have one touchdown strike, a 73 yard pass to Arnold Walker in a 20-7 win over Penn Hills.
鈥淥ne of the Mt. Lebanon scores was on a fluke play throw back to the quarterback,鈥� Mancuso recalled. 鈥淲e came back and we just couldn鈥檛 recover the onside kick. That was a tough one because through that period we could not win a first-round playoff game.鈥�
Mancuso had a great relationship with his old head coach, Dan Spanish.
鈥淚 had a wonderful relationship with Coach Spanish,鈥� Mancuso stated. 鈥淎s his quarterback, I spent a lot of time with him watching film. He was very detail oriented we huddled every Thursday to go over the play chart. When I graduated from college I was on his staff at Connellsville for a year.鈥�
Mancuso also played basketball at Connellsville for coach Hal Weightman on Falcon teams that went 21-5 in 1981-82 with a loss to Latrobe in the WPIAL playoffs, 59-47. In 1982-83, they were 21-3, and beat Penn Trafford, 52-48, in the WPIAL playoffs and then fell to Bethel Park, 90-80. In Mancuso蘑菇视频 senior year, 1983-84, the Falcons posted a record of 17-6 and lost to Moon in the WPIAL playoffs, 63-62.
In his career at Connellsville, Mancuso tallied 502 career points.
鈥淲e had athletes,鈥� Mancuso said. 鈥淢ost of the guys were either two sport or three sports athletes. Nobody was built for one particular sport, we had athletes and played well as a team.鈥�
Beating Laurel Highlands and Uniontown were basketball highlights for Mancuso.
鈥淢y junior year we beat Uniontown,鈥� Mancuso said. 鈥淏eating Laurel Highlands was a highlight, I think there were about six seconds left and I hit a shot, I remember Coach Weightman saying he was trying to get a timeout and put his hands down when the shot went in and in the second game against LH, my senior year, I scored 22 points.鈥�
When Mancuso graduated from Connellsville in 1984, he wound up going to Edinboro.
鈥淚 received interest on defense my senior year on defense from some bigger schools,鈥� Mancuso explained. 鈥淯nfortunately, the injury hurt me a little bit. Edinboro at the time ran the winged T, which fit into my skill set. However, after my first year at Edinboro, Coach Denny Creehan left and they brought in Coach Steve Szabo, and he used more of a drop back passing game and I was switched to fullback. I hurt my right shoulder as a sophomore. It蘑菇视频 pretty tough to play fullback with two bum shoulders and Coach Szabo asked me to be a student coach, and for three years I was a student coach.鈥�
Mancuso graduated in 1989 from Edinboro, and then spent one year as an assistant at Connellsville. He then taught, and was the head coach at Boiling Springs High school for seven years.
鈥淯nfortunately, I moved into program that had not had a lot of success, they were 4-36 the four years prior to my arrival,鈥� Mancuso offered. 鈥淭he first thing was building up numbers and building a program and we focused on that. We didn鈥檛 have as much success as I would have liked. On year five I became assistant principal and then I had a decision to make to move into school administration. I was four years as assistant principal and 15 years as the high school principal at Boiling Springs. I am now I am completing my third year as assistant superintendent of the South Middleton School District.鈥�
Mancuso earned his doctorate degree from Widener University in 2013.
Mancuso, 50, resides in Boiling Springs with his wife of 26 years, Susan. They have two children, Evan and Brinn.
鈥淚 enjoy the leadership role,鈥� Mancuso said. 鈥淎long the way people have mentored me and I鈥檓 glad to have an impact in school administration.鈥�
George Von Benko蘑菇视频 鈥淢emory Lane鈥� column appears in the Monday editions of the 蘑菇视频. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.