2011 Small School Coach of the Year: Bruce Harbach, Lancaster Catholic

Written by: David Mika on Thursday, December 29th, 2011. Follow David Mika on Twitter.

Bruce Harbach finished his 10th season as the head coach of the Crusaders winning his second PIAA state championship in three years.

His overall record is 105-24.

These seniors were sophomores the last time they won a state title.

“It means so much for the kids and so much for the program,” Harbach continued. “It’s especially important for the seniors who have played their last game for us and will never wear the purple and gold again. We wanted them to go out in style with that championship and we got it for them.”

Lancaster Catholic joined the 2008 Steelton-Highspire team as the only other District 3 school to post a 16-0 season.

“This is the last check mark,” said Harbach, who celebrated his 105th career victory. “It’s absolutely mission accomplished.”

They broke the school record of 15 wins that was previously held in 2009. The new record is 16.

Under Harbach they have won the last seven L-L League Section Three championships in a row and three of the last four District three “AA” championships. The Crusaders have appeared in the District three AA playoffs eight straight years.

Harbach was an assistant coach for 25 years, coaching at the college level at schools like West Chester and Albright College. He graduated from Wilson High School and assistant coached there too.

Next year his team will be moving up to 3A and play in the section one, Lancaster/Lebanon League.

Stats provided by Jeff Reinhart and quotes by Josh Funk

Follow EasternPAFootball.com on Twitter @EPAFootball

---

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Δ

5 Responses to “2011 Small School Coach of the Year: Bruce Harbach, Lancaster Catholic”

1. Football Fairy says:
   April 19th, 2012 at 6:13 pm

   P. Sausmann – if your line of thought about private schools having the best players were true, there would be private school champions every year in every class…. there still has to be amazing coaching to mold the players into champs!!

2. Paul Sausmann says:
   January 2nd, 2012 at 1:14 pm

   Oh I’d also like to add Tom Nola from Clairton and Paul Picirilli from Sharpsville to the list of coaches that deserve that Coach of the Year title.

3. Paul Sausmann says:
   January 2nd, 2012 at 1:10 pm

   wow, not sure how this coach can be chosen for coach of the year when there are five other PUBLIC school coaches that did more with less. Its sad people actually think winning a state title at the AA level with a county wide all-star team is impressive. LOL. Here are five true Coaches of the Year at the small school level that did enough this season to earn that Coach of the Year title.

   Jim Roth – SCA
   John Franco – Tyrone
   Mike Zmijanic – Aliquippa
   Paul Reduzzi – Pen Argyl
   Bill Brest – Hickory

4. SoCo Fan says:
   December 30th, 2011 at 12:45 am

   I like Roth but solid selection

5. Kyle says:
   December 29th, 2011 at 12:42 pm

   Congrats to Coach Harbach…another impressive championship season, curious to see how they do in AAA next year