 |
 Don Yannessa
wasn’t the first movie actor to be
inducted into the Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame, but he certainly
has one of the best coaching records.
Wib
Estermyer and
Joe Namath beat
him to the silver screen, but Don chalked up an amazing record in
his 16 seasons as head grid coach at Aliquippa High School. Between 1972
and 1988,
Don's Quips won three WPIAL football championships with a
128-43-5 record, which helped Don secure a job as technical
advisor for the 1983 20th Century Fox feature film release, “All
the Right Moves,” in which he also had a small role as a football coach.
(Ironically, all three of Don’s WPIAL Class AAA football
titles came after the film.) In 1984 the Quips topped Mt Pleasant,
20-15, in the title game and blanked rival Ambridge,
13-0, in 1985. After missing the 1986 playoffs, the team captured their third
WPIAL crown in 1987. Aliquippa went all the way to the WPIAL
championship game in 1980, 1982, and 1983 but did not win. Don
played his high school football at Aliquippa as a star tackle for
Coach Carl Aschman,
and after graduation in 1958 played
college football at New Mexico State University as a two way tackle.
While he was a regular at New Mexico State, the Aggies won
consecutive Sun Bowl games in 1959 and 1960. The latter team had an
11-0 record and was considered the best in the school’s history.
After graduating in 1963, Don coached junior high football at
Aliquippa until 1968, when he went to Ambridge as first assistant
coach then returned to Aliquippa as head coach in 1972. |
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