Hathaway leaving Rockets
SLIPPERY ROCK — Brendan Hathaway, who has led the Slippery Rock High football team to back-to-back 10-0 regular season records, resigned Monday night.
Hathaway is leaving the Rockets to take the head football coaching position at Moon High School.
“I'm from Pittsburgh. My mom and dad live in Pittsburgh,” said Hathaway, a 1997 graduate of Shaler High School. “It's been a lifelong dream of mine to be able to coach where I grew up. I wasn't looking to get out of Slippery Rock. I love the school and the people.”
But the opportunity to move closer to his family and coach at Moon was too good to pass up, even though Hathaway said leaving Slippery Rock was “real tough.”
Hathaway went 37-18 in his five season as the Rockets' coach. Slippery Rock was 0-10 in his first season on the sideline, but quickly evolved into a District 10 power.
The reaction to Hathaway's move from some current and former Slippery Rock football players was bittersweet.
Senior Colten Raabe, who started on the offensive and defensive lines for three years, said Hathaway was a great influence beyond the field.
“I think he's a great guy and a great coach who really cares about his players and does his best to assist them on the field as well as in life,” Raabe said.
Junior running back Ryan Lauster said there was the understandable shock when he heard Hathaway was leaving.
“At first, a bit of disappointment, but also gotta be happy for coach,” Lauster said. “And obviously he meant a lot to me, the players, and the community. He showed us all how hard work can turn a program around, and we'll always be thankful for what he did for Slippery Rock High School football.”
Hathaway inherits a team at Moon that went 4-6 last season and 4-4 in the highly competitive Parkway Conference.
The Tigers lost to Thomas Jefferson, 49-14, in the first round of the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs.
Perennial powers Central Valley, West Allegheny and Montour are in the same conference as Moon.
Hathaway was also approved for a teaching job at Moon. A history teacher at Slippery Rock High, Hathaway will teach English at his new school.
Hathaway came to Slippery Rock from Coudersport and took over a Rockets' program that had seen three coaches in the two years before his arrival.
After a rocky winless first season, the Rockets went 7-4 in Hathaway's second year, including a loss in the first round of the District 10 Class AA playoffs to Meadville.
The Rockets went 9-2 the next season, falling to General McLane in a wild 46-42 first-round playoff game.
Slippery Rock lost to McLane again in the first round of the playoffs the next season, but got its first playoff victory since 2008 last fall with a 62-21 win over Seneca.
Hathaway's major impact on Slippery Rock came through his innovative flexbone offense. The run-heavy, option attack allowed the Rockets to gain more than 13,000 yards rushing as a team the last three seasons.
The seniors who will graduate this spring never lost a home game on Hathaway's watch and won 20 straight region games.
Hathaway said his fondest memory of Slippery Rock is the people.
“The people I taught, whether they were an athlete or not, were unbelievable,” Hathaway said. “The people I worked with were unbelievable. I'm obviously going to miss the kids. It's because of them that the program is in the place it is now, and I have no doubt the kids and the program will continue to be successful.”
