Mike Pettine
 Central Bucks West H.S., Doylestown
Mike Pettine has coached Central Bucks West High School to many victories, 326 of them
to be exact, but the 14-13 win over Erie's Cathedral Prep in December was perhaps the
sweetest. Certainly, it was the most dramatic.
It was CB West's 45th win in a row and it gave the school its third consecutive Class
AAAA state championship. That alone made it memorable. But the way in which it was
accomplished spoke volumes about the CB West program and what Mike Pettine has instilled
in his players over the past 33 years.
The Bucks trailed Cathedral Prep 13-7 with less than three minutes to play. The team
had lost its three top rushers, including Dustin Picciotti, an All-State standout, with
injuries. Yet the Bucks refused to quit. Andrew Elsing blocked a punt, picked up the ball
and carried it into the endzone to tie the game and Bob Tumelty added the extra point to
give the Bucks the victory.
"I knew these kids wouldn't give up, they played their hearts out," said
Pettine, who is the recepient of the Maxwell Football Club's Tri-State Coach of the Year
Award, an honor presented annually to the area's outstanding college or high school coach.
"To lose all those players, to get behind, to hang in there and come back to win,
against a very good team...whew, that's awesome. That's why they're CB West," said
Mike Pettine, Jr., who played for his father in high school and now coaches rival North
Penn.
It is a remarkable success story for a public high school that is smaller than most in
the Suburban One league (enrollment 1,200). Central Bucks West, located in Doylestown, at
the junction of Routes 611 and 202, just north of Philadelphia, has recorded 13 perfect
football seasons under the direction of Pettine, a former running back at Villanova.
Wrote Bill Lyon in the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Let it also be on the record that
the Bucks do all of this dominating without so much as a whiff of arrogance. Their coach
would never allow it."
"If I had to point to one thing that makes the program go, it's the man on top,
" said Len Ventresca, one of four brothers to play for Pettine at CB West. "He
has the knack for turning average kids into overachievers. Mike drills you and drills you
until (the team) is like a machine.
"We had drills where we'd have to go the length of the field without making a
mistake. One missed snap count, one wrong turn and we'd have to go back and start over. We
hated it, but it did pay off. We never jumped offsides, we never beat ourselves with
stupid mistakes.
"Mike taught us a lot about mental toughness. Look at the guys who have gone
through the program. Most of them have done well. Doctors, lawyers, accountants, teachers.
They know what it takes to be successful."
"I can't remember an easy day, not one in three years," said Greg Moylan, who
quarterbacked the Bucks to the state title in 1991. "We'd practice for three hours,
then have meetings. If you're lazy or any kind of a slacker, you'll never play football at
CB West. But guys like that won't help you win anyway. You need guys who will pay the
price. At West, that's everybody." |
