ALBION — Curwensville native Terry Verrelli joined an exclusive fraternity of Pennsylvania high school football coaches Friday night when his undefeated, state-ranked Wilmington team shut out host Northwestern 19-0 to put an exclamation point on its District 10 Region 3 Class AA League championship.
The Greyhounds\’ ninth win of the season was No. 200 for Verrelli, a 1965 Curwensville Joint High School graduate who is in his 28th season as the head coach at Wilmington. His overall record is 200-98-3.
An unofficial list still being researched by Pennsylvania Football News co-editor Rich Vetock shows only 63 coaches have reached that milestone, including six who picked up some of their wins at schools in other states.
Verrelli is the 25th member of the 200-Win Club to have coached his entire career at one school.
His 1987 and 1988 teams won WPIAL Class A titles, the 1988 squad losing 26-11 to Bethlehem Catholic in the first PIAA state championship game. After moving into District 10, Wilmington won two Class AAA championships and four Class AA crowns. The Greyhounds were Class AA runners-up on three occasions.
Verrelli was named WPIAL Coach of the Year after Wilmington\’s two championship seasons and has been selected District 10 Coach of the Year three times and Western Pennsylvania Football Coaches Association Coach of the Year four times.
The Greyhounds, who are ranked No. 5 in Class AA by SPORTSfever Magazine and No. 6 by the Pennsylvania Football News and The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, completed the first year of the District 10 Region 3 Class AA League at 6-0. They will host Moniteau next Friday in their final regular season game before entering the district playoffs as the top seed.