In the past month, four longtime WPIAL football coaches have retired. The most recent to step down was Penn-Trafford's Art Tragesser, who coached 24 years at Jeannette and Penn-Trafford.

Also retiring in recent weeks were Ambridge's Don Yannessa, Moon's Mark Capuano and Plum's Bill Rometo. All three had coached at least 20 years.

The departures of Tragesser, Yannessa, Capuano and Rometo mean the void of veteran coaches in the WPIAL will be even bigger next year. These days, you don't see as many coaches sticking around for a couple decades as they had done years ago.

Consider this: Of the coaches left in the WPIAL, 35 have been a head coach for five years or less. Sixty-two have been a head coach for less than 10 years. That means about half of the WPIAL coaches will have been on the job less than a decade.

With Tragesser, Yannessa, Capuano and Rometo retiring, the WPIAL now has only 16 coaches who have been on the job 20 years or more.

"I never really knew the numbers would be like that," Tragesser said. "That's surprising."

He said there are some outside influences these days that make coaching different than it was 40 years ago.

"It's different now with parents," Tragesser said. "They sometimes have unrealistic goals for their kids. "That has to be part of the reason why coaches don't stick around as long. There is a tremendous amount of pressure put on the kids and coaches these days to be successful."

But don't get the idea that Tragesser didn't love his coaching days. He was an assistant and head coach for 40 years, and had a 156-85-3 record as a head coach. He was Jeannette's coach from 1985 through 1995 and had a 73-33-3 record. He was Penn-Trafford's coach from 1996 through 2008 and had an 83-52 record.

He guided Jeannette to a WPIAL championship game appearance once and Penn-Trafford once.

"One of the reasons I coached for 40 years is because I loved it," Tragesser said. "No. 2 was my family always supported me. My wife was a saint. I can't tell you how many times I missed some family things because of coaching. It's something you really have to love if you want to do it for a long time."

Aliquippa football coach Mike Zmijanac won his third WPIAL championship Saturday when the Quips defeated Beaver Falls, 8-6, in the Class AA title game. But really, it's his sixth WPIAL championship.

Zmijanac is one of the few coaches who have won championships in two different sports. As Aliquippa's basketball coach, he won three WPIAL championships, in 1998, 2000 and 2003. He gave up the basketball job a few years ago.

Zmijanac also has two PIAA titles to his credit -- one in basketball and one in football.

Considering the eight titles overall, don't you think he has to go down as one of the most successful coaches in WPIAL history?

The attendance for the four WPIAL championship games Saturday at Heinz Field was 18,525, a smaller crowd than usual since the league started playing all four games at one site in 1986. But there was a reason for this year's attendance.

"I'm sure the weather hurt," WPIAL executive director Tim O'Malley said referring to the unseasonably cold day with the temperature in the mid-20s. "In that kind of weather, you get your people from each of the schools, but not your normal football guy who has nothing to do with the schools."

The WPIAL always hopes to draw at least 20,000 for the games. Last year's attendance was 24,500; two years ago it was 24,614. The record for the four title games is 39,031, set in 2001. That was the first year Heinz Field was open.

Basketball players get the most attention during the NCAA's week long early-signing period in November. But players in some other sports can also sign with colleges during that time.

According to Tony Villiotti of West Penn Baseball Prospects, 18 baseball players from the WPIAL and City League signed with Division I colleges. Duquesne landed three district players : Gus Benusa (P-OF) of Riverview, Nick Berger (OF-1B) of Central Catholic and Richie Navari (P) of Plum.

Pitt signed two players: J.R. Leonardi (P) of Allderdice and Nate Antone (P-OF) of Kiski Area.

Among other WPIAL players who signed with Division I colleges were South Park's Tarran Senay (P-IF-OF) to North Carolina State, North Allegheny's Jon Wilson (OF) to Maryland, Moon's Phil Bondi (SS-P) to Radford, Pine-Richland's Vinnie Nittoli (P-SS-OF) and Mitch Elliott (3B-OF-P), both to Xavier.