We are starting a new series of coach interviews. We are asking all coaches the same questions.
Today we sat down with Harold Fairclough of Allentown Central Catholic and asked him some questions about himself and his career coaching football.
During his career as a player at Allentown Central Catholic, Harold Fairclough experienced the thrill of winning a PIAA championship. He has also won a PIAA title as a coach, too.
Fairclough’s Vikings became the 12th PIAA affiliate to post a season record of 16-0 since 2004, and just the second District 11 team to reach that mark, joining the 2006 Wilson Area Warriors. Fairclough’s Vikings have won 28 of their last 30 games and consecutive District 11 AAA championships.
Let’s get started!
Q. Why did you decide to coach High School Football?
A. The coaches I had in High School had a big impact on my life. I wanted to do the same for other kids. I like working with kids and hope to be a mentor for kids.
Q. How many years have you coached at your school?
A. Going into my 10th year, four as an assistant and six as a head coach.
Q. Do you have any interest in coaching at a higher level?
A. If it was the right opportunity, possibly yes. But right now I’m happy being a high school football coach.
Q. Growing up was there an athlete or coach you particularly admired and patterned your self after?
A. I liked Bill Parcells and Brian Billick from the Ravens. I patterned my coaching style from Jim Morgans, which was my high school coach. I have the same philosophy and mentality as him.
Q. What do you feel is the most important thing or things that you can teach your athletes?
A. Self discipline, making commitments, following through and overall being the best person you can be.
Q. You won a state championship as a player and coach. Compare the two?
A. As a player it was a lot of fun. I mean going out and practicing every day with your friends. The whole ride and process was fun. You just had to worry about what you could control individually.
As a coach it was still fun, but there is a lot more stress involved. Trying to get a whole team prepared and coaches as well. You have to get everybody on the same page. But I think it’s more satisfying because of all the time and effort you put into it. To win a state championship, you see all the hard work pay off. There are some comparable parts but I think its two different experiences.
Q. How important is strength training and nutrition in your program?
A. I can’t tell you how valuable it is, especially for us being a small school. We’re pretty much a 2A team playing a 4A conference. We take care of ourselves during the off-season. A few years ago we changed things and got away from the traditional power lifting. We decided to start training our athletes with velocity sports performance. That really made a big difference in the last few years. It’s important to get in four days a week and bust your tail, stay in shape and build that strength.
As for nutrition you have to understand how to take care of your body. We always tell our kids, take care of your body and it will take care of you. Because of this training we saw a number of injuries reduce.
Q. What kind of offense and defense do you like to run?
A. The offense we run is the spread offense. We have been extremely successful the last two years with it. Defensively we run a 3-5-3. It’s tough for offense to block.
Q. Who is the best football player you ever coached against?
A. The three that jump into my mind, one player is Juan Gaddy of Easton Area. As a coach Austin Scott of Parkland and Dan Persa of Bethlehem Liberty.
Q. Who is the best team you ever coached against?
A. As a player the 1993 Berwick Area team. As a coach they all have been pretty good. But I can point back to the Bishop McDevitt game last year, Archbishop Wood team and some of the Liberty teams in the mid-2000’s.
Q. Do you want your athletes to play other sports?
A. We are such a small school and again we have to share athletes. Many kids play two sports and some play three sports. When you get a kid that plays three sports it’s hard to get him in the weight room and develop his body. I don’t mind if they play other sports. It a sign they are athletic.
Q. Do you think 16 games is too much for high school teams?
A. It’s a lot. It’s definitely a grind and last year we played 16 games. By the time you get deep into the playoffs, guys are dropping left and right. We lost our starting linebacker core last season. When I played it was 14 or 15 games.
Q. What type of a game schedule would you most like to see?
A. I like the schedule we have now. We are allowed to play one out of conference game, which exposes our kids to other districts. It also exposes our conference and I think we have one of the best conferences in Pennsylvania. Our conference is tough and it’s a grind. Once we get to the playoffs we are battle tested.
Q. What are your goals/challenges for the 2011 season and what do you have coming back as a team?
A. It’s not too different from last year. We tried to focus on ourselves and we worried about what we can control. We had a big target on our backs last year and this year is even bigger. We are going to grind it out one day at a time and try and win each day. Our goal is to improve on a daily basis on all three phases of the game. It’s not to win the conference, its not to win districts, its not to win a state championship. It’s to get better and stay focused on what we can control. If we can do that all those other things will fall in place. If we get caught up looking down the road then we won’t make it out of our conference. We try and keep it simple and the kids bought in to it last year.
We have six starters on offense and defense coming back. We have a ton of talent at the skill level. The challenge is to get them ready and have them compete on a regular basis.
Q. Final Question. Do you have a pre-game ritual?
A. The players and I like to eat the same thing on game day. We go to the same diner and eat two pancakes, bacon and two eggs. That get’s tough after 16 weeks eating the same thing. We go to mass for the football team, eat and watch the same highlight video every week. The video captures the history of Central football. The kids love it and it gets them fired up!
