Neil Gordon was pushed out the door at Penn Hills, but another school has put out the welcome mat for the veteran football coach.

Gordon has been hired as the new offensive coordinator at Shaler under head coach Jacque DeMatteo. The move comes two months after the Penn Hills school board decided not to rehire Gordon, saying it wanted to go in a different direction despite Gordon's 21 highly successful years at the school. He had a 156-72-2 record at Penn Hills and would've had one of the top teams in WPIAL Class AAAA this season.

"I had to make a choice whether to stay out of coaching completely this season or take this job. I decided to go with this and I'm excited about it," Gordon said. "Jacque seems like a good guy, and I give Jacque a lot of credit for feeling confident enough in me to ask me."

DeMatteo reached out to Gordon after learning of Gordon's plight at Penn Hills. DeMatteo recently contacted Gordon to tell him how much he respected what he did at Penn Hills.

"Then I said to him, 'Hey, if you'd be interested, we have a position open at our school,' " DeMatteo said. "Fortunately, he was interested and he's going to come on board."

DeMatteo used to handle Shaler's offense, but he will now take over the defense because defensive coordinator Dennis Dudley can only coach part time.

"I've always respected Neil and what he's done for kids and the coaching world. He must have done something right all those years," DeMatteo said. "We're excited and I know the kids are excited about him. I guess when you get to a certain point in your coaching career and in life, you have that 'it' factor. He must have 'it' because the kids really seem to be attentive to him.

"Anytime we can enhance our program, whether it's bringing in coaches or upgrading facilities, we're going to do it."

Gordon said he wouldn't mind being a head coach again someday.

"I want to keep my nose in coaching, keep sharp and I'm going to give all my efforts to Jacque and Shaler," Gordon said. "So that if the right opportunity would come along somewhere in the future, I'll be ready to go."