Paint is chipped off the old bleachers inside Aliquippa's football stadium. Concrete is cracked and chipped throughout the venue. The visiting team's locker room would be a good setting for a Dracula movie.

The place known as "The Pit" is certainly aging. No wonder some Aliquippa school officials have kicked around the idea of possibly renovating Carl A. Aschman Stadium in the future.

But the team that plays inside the old place needs no remodeling job. No facelift. No touchups.

Aliquippa's football program is absolutely pristine.

The Post-Gazette decided to take all 123 schools in the WPIAL that currently field a football team, crunch their records for the past 25 years, and see who has the best program.

Aliquippa's is second to none.

For certain, this has been the Quips' quarter century.

No program in the history of the WPIAL has enjoyed a more successful 25-year run in terms of championships. Last year, Aliquippa won its 10th title in the past 25 seasons -- and 13th overall, which is a WPIAL record.

"You hear about fraternities in America," said Sherm McBride, 45, an Aliquippa assistant football coach who also played for the Quips. "This has to be one of the best fraternities to be a part of, whether you're a coach or a player."

Besides the winning teams, the Quips also have produced dozens of Division I college players in the past 25 years and three NFL first-round draft picks (Sean Gilbert, Ty Law and Darrelle Revis).

Here is more proof of Aliquippa's 25-year dominance:

• The Quips' record in that time was 253-56-1, and the .818 winning percentage made the Quips the only WPIAL team with a winning percentage above .800. The 253 wins also was the most among WPIAL teams.

• The Quips qualified for the playoffs 23 times, which tied Upper St. Clair for the most postseason appearances.

• Aliquippa's worst record over the past 25 years was 4-6 in 1994. It won at least seven games every other season, and at least 10 games 15 times.

All of this from a school that is the 15th smallest in the WPIAL. In terms of enrollment, Aliquippa would be a middle-of-the-pack team in Class A. But the Quips choose to play "up" in Class AA. From 1984 through 1989, Aliquippa played in Class AAA.

This school year, Aliquippa has 141 boys enrolled in grades 9-12.

"Let's put it this way, if we played all these years in the class where we belong, we'd be on the cover of Sports Illustrated," said Mike Zmijanac, Aliquippa's coach.

But how does a school from an old steel town with a dwindling population keep churning out top teams? The man who got the winning run going was Don Yannessa. When he became coach in the early 1970s, the once-proud program had hit tough times.

But by 1980, Yannessa had Aliquippa in the WPIAL Class AAA championship game. He lost three title games before finally getting a championship in 1984. That team had a star player known to everyone as "Pudgy." Rapheal Abercrombie was 5 feet 5, but rushed for more than 2,000 yards that season and was one of the first runners in WPIAL history to rush for 4,000 in a career. He finished with 4,603.

After the 1984 title, the Quips went on a roll. Yannessa won four championships in the next five years before leaving for Baldwin.

"Aliquippa is no different than Clairton, Duquesne, New Castle or McKeesport," said Yannessa. "They're all steel towns that have the same mentality and love for their sports, and it's so deep-seeded in the community.

"The thing about Aliquippa, too, is there are expectations. You don't get it done here, they talk about you like a dog until the day you die. You don't win, you're like a leper. If you have a 4-6 season here, you're leper-ized and you never come out into the sunshine again for fear of being smitten with a baseball bat."

After Yannessa left, Frank Marocco took over in 1989 and won another WPIAL Class AAA title. The next year, Aliquippa dropped to Class AA.

Marocco won two other titles in 1991 and '96. Zmijanac took over in 1997 and has won three.

Zmijanac, 65, was Yannessa's defensive coordinator on four championship teams. They played golf together a few weeks ago, then went to Yannessa's house, "drank wine and told stories all night," Zmijanac said.

"I want to make this clear. Aliquippa football was always good in the 1940s, '50s and '60s," said Zmijanac, a 1960 Aliquippa graduate. "Then it fell on hard times. Don came along and rejuvenated it. All I'm doing is continuing the program that Don built.

"I think there are two reasons we're successful here. One is, we have good players. Two is, we have [coaches] who know what to do with them. Then, there are all the sons, grandsons, nephews, brothers, cousins of all the guys who played here. That means something because they want to keep going what has been established here."

Zmijanac contends this year's team will not be strong because he has only six seniors. High school football in Pennsylvania starts a week from today, and Aliquippa opens Sept. 5 against Ambridge.

Come playoff time, don't be surprised if the Quips make some noise.

"The community of Aliquippa is a lot different even since the 1980s," Yannessa said. "It was starting to deteriorate then and the deterioration has taken hold dramatically. You can't escape it, even in the dark. It's sad.

"But yet, the spirit is still there."