Lehighton's new football coach has coached at Whitehall and Catty

FROM KEITH GROLLER

Tom McCarroll was approved as Lehighton's new football coach last week and the 34-year-old Marian Catholic and Colgate University graduate has spent the last five years as an assistant coach in the Lehigh Valley.

McCarroll got his coaching start at Marian, but was on Tony Trisciani's staff at Whitehall for two years and spent the last three with Tom Falzone at Catasauqua.

"I've been exposed to a lot of different leagues and actually when it comes to the area the Mountain Valley Conference is the only league or conference I haven't coached in," McCarroll said.

McCarroll lives in Lehighton and has been teaching in Reading, but will become a special education teacher at Whitehall very shortly.

He is excited about his first head coaching position.

"Lehighton is a place where football has been important for a very long time," McCarroll said. "There's a good tradition in Lehighton and going back through the years, they've been in the playoffs. There's an opportunity there; there's support there and it's exciting to be the next guy in line. I am excited to be a part of it and want to do what I can to get Lehighton back on track."

McCarroll was a defensive back at Colgate, but has coached on the offensive side of the ball in high school.

"I've learned so much by working for three great head coaches and I have to give them so much credit," McCarroll said. "Stan Dakosty [Marian's longtime coach] is just a class act and showed me how a program should be run. And then Coach Trisciani was just a stickler for detail at Whitehall and really taught X's and O's and the great concepts behind them.

"Coach Falzone has such great energy and enthusiasm that's contagious and the kids really want to play for him. They'll do anything for him. So, I've been really lucky to be with these three guys who each bring different, positive facets to coaching. I'm going to try to take a little bit from each of them and implement my own program and put my own stamp on Lehighton football."

The Indians are coming off a 4-6 season in which five of the losses came by seven points or less. Lehighton is going to graduate 24 or 25 seniors, according to McCarroll, who said he still has some positions to fill on his coaching.

McCarroll is the third new head coach in the Mountain Valley Conference, joining the new guys in charge at both Allen and Dieruff who will play their first seasons in the MVC next fall.

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