Pop Warner program and Lauro will be honored at New Castle
Written: Aug 31, 2012
  By Joe Sager
New Castle News
New Castle’s pipeline is strong.
The Red Hurricane football team has benefited from its feeder system for decades. The program would not have racked up 699 all-time wins without it.
So, New Castle will take time out to honor the 50th anniversary of the city’s Pop Warner youth football program tonight before the high school varsity team takes on Central Valley at Taggart Stadium in a season-opening Parkway Conference clash.
The ’Canes will honor former New Castle head coach Lindy Lauro, who founded the Pop Warner program in 1963, as well as his family. Many current and former players and cheerleaders will be honored on the field in a pregame ceremony. They will greet the ’Canes as they take the field.
“It should just make for an awesome atmosphere. I think it’ll be really neat,” said New Castle head coach Joe Cowart, who participated in the Pop Warner program as a youngster. “As many young kids who participate in that, it’s great to recognize how great that program has been for 50 years. That’s exciting.
“That’s 50 years of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, moms and dads raising money, coaching and donating their time and effort so we can have those leagues. So, it’s nice to give back.”
New Castle athletic director Sam A. Flora participated in the first season of Pop Warner football in ’63. Flora’s East Side Rams, coached by his father, Sam J., won the league’s first two championships.
“I still remember the day Lindy Lauro came to our house and wanted to start a Pop Warner league to feed into the high school program,” he said. “He asked my dad if he wanted to be a coach. He was going to five other people to ask them, too. My dad ended up coaching in that league for 30 years and he won 15 championships.
“When it comes to sports, for me, I remember so many of those things vividly. I remember that first championship game and winning it again the next year. It was really a lot of fun and a lot of those friendships lasted a long time,” he continued. “The players who went through this league are unbelievable. You have successful businessmen, doctors, lawyers — you name it.”
The league started out with six teams: East Side Rams, St. Lucy Cardinals, West Side Packers, South Side Steelers, St. Vitus Trojans and North Hill Redskins. Originally, players in Pop Warner were ages 12-13 with Pee Wees ages 10-11. The program morphed through the years and some Lawrence County teams were added to the league. Now, New Castle’s players in grades 3-6 are split between two teams — Red and Black — and they play against other county squads.
“It’s a nice setup we have, with the Red and Black teams basically coming from the two sides of town,” Cowart said.
Cowart, who played for the East Side Rams before quarterbacking the ’Canes to the 1998 WPIAL Class AAAA championship, is in his first year as head coach of the varsity team. However, like his great-uncle Lauro did before him, he knows the importance of maintaining a strong relationship with the Pop Warner program and many of the assistants on his staff actively coach in or are directly involved with the program.
“We’re all on board with that,” he said. “We’re really trying to implement what we’re doing with the big kids and trying to get those guys to do the same things with the younger programs. We want to get them to develop a good feeling and grasp of the game and teach them fundamentals.”
Even though New Castle’s population has shrunk over the years, interest in football remains sky high.
“We have 156 kids in grades 7-12 involved in our football program this year. That’s a lot,” Flora said. “We had separate 7th and 8th grade teams, but we had to put those two grades together because it was hard just to find a 7th grade team or an 8th grade team to play against. I don’t think football is a dying art in the city. Overall, the enrollments are going down, but the kids are still playing football. It’s the same way with basketball. I think Joe Cowart has a future ahead of him. He knows that this program is very important and you have to teach them the fundamentals early.
“The Pop Warner program really benefited the high school program for a long time and it still does,” he continued. “The Parkway Conference is one of the best conferences in the country and you need feeder systems to be able to compete. Lindy foresaw the future and what the league would do down the road. It’s been great.”
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