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Bethel Park football coach resigns

By Eleanor Bailey almanac Sports Editor ebailey@thealmanac.Net 3 min read
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Jeff Metheny mastered the implausible as Bethel Park High School football coach, but he has been unable to solve the impossibility of being in two places at once. Hence, he resigned his position on Jan. 22.

For the past two years, Metheny has attempted to coach the Black Hawks and also travel to upstate New York to watch his son, Levi, a 2016 graduate, play linebacker for the University of Albany.

“I just can’t be in two places at once,” Metheny said. “I’ve tried but I’ve found I couldn’t do it. It’s not fair to the kids and in all fairness to my wife, Cindy, it’s the right thing to do because now we can enjoy Levi’s last few years. Before it was too big a distance, an eight-hour trip, and we just couldn’t enjoy it.”

For 33 years, Metheny has enjoyed high school coaching. In between a stint as a graduate assistant at West Virginia, Metheny spent five years at Waynseburg and three seasons at Hampton before arriving at Bethel Park in 1994. During his tenure, Metheny racked up 205 career wins, picking up No. 200 in a 41-20 win against Woodland Hills on Aug. 31, 2018. His all-time record is 205-144, including a 164-104 mark at Bethel Park. Metheny guided the Hawks to the school’s only WPIAL championship and PIAA runner-up showing in 2008. His teams made 18 post-season appearances.

“I’m real proud of what we accomplished here at Bethel Park and I hope to see it continue,” Metheny said.

With 27 juniors returning from last year’s 6-4 playoff team, the Hawks should carry on a winning tradition.

“There’s a lot of really good kids that played a lot and some of them All-Conference coming back and there is a nucleus of great coaches in the building that have done a super job here that if they move quickly and do their due diligence, then they should do well,” Metheny predicted. “It’s a tough day,” he added.

What’s difficult is saying goodbye. Metheny said he will miss the players and the day-to-day routines, such as the weight-room workouts, that he has performed for more than three decades. He will, however, continue in his capacity as a physical education and health teacher at the high school.

“The thing I am going to miss the most is seeing the kids develop and having those relationships with them as well as the camaraderie among the coaches and the support that I have had from the administration. Everybody has been so good to me,” he said.

“I have had so many great players and many others that have gone above and beyond that it has been an amazing. We competed every day and we made the program better. I am proud of the kids we put out there and how they competed on the field but I am even more proud of how we developed them into fine young men.”

All that, however, is temporary. Metheny noted that his is a resignation, not an end to his coaching career.

“I’m not coaching for a couple of years. I will coach again,” he said. “I can’t retire.”

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