Don Holl

A fall without coaching football had become a very real possibility for Don Holl.

Then New Castle came calling.

Holl, who resigned as Seneca Valley’s head coach in November citing “philosophical differences (with the administration) in how to run a program,” was recently added as the offensive coordinator to head coach Joe Cowart’s staff at Class AAA New Castle.

Holl compiled a 37-25 record and four WPIAL Class AAAA playoff appearances in his six seasons at Seneca Valley. Within his spread offense, the Raiders fielded one of the most potent offensive attacks in the WPIAL, in any class, from 2011-13.

Seneca fell to 2-7 last season. After his resignation, Holl applied for head coach openings at Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic and Blackhawk.

“It just didn’t work out with those schools,” said Holl. “The last fall that I wasn’t coaching football (in some capacity) was 1991, so it’s been a while. But things happen for a reason and I was looking at it as an opportunity to watch my sons play in college. Donny (SV, Class of 2011) has one year left up at Mercyhurst and T.J. (2015) will be a freshman at Colgate.”

But that’s when Cowart began conversing with Holl. The latter’s potential role with the Red Hurricanes was unclear at first, but he was officially brought on as the new architect of the team’s offense in late April.

“I’m still going to have some flexibility on weekends so I can watch some of my sons’ games,” said Holl. “New Castle is a neat place for football and I’m excited about it.”

The Red Hurricanes placed fourth in the rugged Parkway Conference last year, losing a first-round playoff game against Hampton and finishing 4-6 overall.

“Last year, they ran a lot of two-tight end and Power-I stuff,” Holl said. “They have a lot of good athletes coming back, kids who can run and catch and they’re starting to understand the concepts (of the spread).”

A team from the Parkway Conference has won the WPIAL title each of the last six seasons, with Central Valley earning the crown last year. In four of the past six campaigns (2009-10, 2013-14) the championship game has pitted two teams from the conference against each other.

“We played in a very tough conference at Seneca with teams like Central Catholic, North Allegheny and Pine-Richland,” said Holl. “You can’t overstate how good the Parkway is, but anybody who is a competitor wants to be challenged.”

Holl, a resident of Cranberry Township, remains a social studies teacher at Seneca Valley High School.

“I enjoy that aspect of it,” he said. “I like working with my colleagues and the kids are great.”