Spencer, Russick leading alma maters

Randy Spencer and Paul Russick have a deep understanding of the Wyoming Area-Pittston Area football rivalry.

The two men who will coach the Warriors and Patriots in this year’s game played in the rivalry series long before they got to serve as head coaches at their alma mater.

Both have found uncommon success leading their programs.

Spencer, now in his 17^th season as head of the only coaching staff he was ever a part, guided Wyoming Area to the 2019 Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class 3A title, the only state championship by any District 2 team in the past 29 years. He brought a 122-66 record into the weekend.

Russick built a coaching resume that landed him a shot at coaching Pittston Area for the first time this year. The debut has produced just the second championship team in 22 years, and the first on the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 level, for the Patriots.

Spencer, a 1988 graduate, was a running back and strong safety. A team captain as a senior, he was selected to play in the UNICO Senior All-Star Game. Spencer played one year each at Bloomsburg University and Wilkes University.

Spencer’s career work is in program direction and administration in juvenile justice and alternative education. He works for the Luzerne Intermediate Unit.

Russick, a 2007 graduate, was a two-year starter and an all-star offensive lineman at Pittston Area. He went on to Susquehanna University where he made 31 straight starts in the offensive line. After being hired to coach the football team, he also landed his current position as a high school science teacher at Pittston Area.

Before coaching at Pittston Area, Russick was also an assistant at Dickinson College and on the high school level in North Carolina. He served as head coach at Honesdale and is 30-30 in six seasons as head coach.

Each coach took part in a Question-and-Answer session with Tom Robinson, who covers the two teams for the Sunday Dispatch.

Here are those questions and their responses:

Tom Robinson: In your playing days at Wyoming Area did you picture yourself coaching?

Randy Spencer: No.

TR: In your playing days at Pittston Area did you picture yourself coaching the team one day?

Paul Russick: Maybe not during my playing days, but once I was over it, it was always kind of in the back of my head once I got into coaching as something I would like to do. It’s almost a dream.

TR: Do you have someone you consider a coaching mentor, someone who helped shape your current coaching philosophies?

RS: For 16 years, I was fortunate to serve as an assistant under coach Paul Marranca. His career as a Hall of Fame head coach and a long tenure with our program along with assistant coach (Jack) Henzes at Dunmore and some time at Nanticoke, he was certainly the most influential and the reason why I’ve had the opportunity in terms of my head coaching career.

PR: It’s almost everyone that you find yourself coaching under. Coach (Lon) Hazlet was head coach my junior and senior year at Pittston Area. I have a very close relationship with him to the point where I convinced him to come out of retirement and come back and coach this year. I also spent a long time with my college head coach, Steve Briggs, four years as a player, three years as a coach, and with a lot of guys who were on that staff. As I went through different parts of my own coaching career, you pick up things and have people you still connect with.

TR: What makes the Pittston Area-Wyoming Area football rivalry special?

RS: I think it has evolved in a sense, because of our communities becoming blended over the years, from more of a contentious rivalry to more of a family-type rivalry. By no means has that made it any less competitive, but I think the evolution and the blending of our communities, having families that lived and played at one district and transitioned to the other and having their kids play for the other. That blending over the years has only added, deepened and enriched the rivalry and only added to its tradition and making it more special.

PR: There’s nothing quite like it. Sometimes I don’t want to say it, but I have been in a lot of different places. You always want to go back and compare the rivalries at those places to this one. I don’t know if it’s the proximity or whatever it is, but you have two small areas and the tradition. It’s a really cool experience. It was for me as a player and as a student at Pittston Area. I’m expecting it to feel very similar as a coach here as well. From growing up in the area, it is something that has always been a big deal. The kids take it as a big deal and it has continued the tradition it has.

TR: Do you have a biggest single memory from the series?

RS: There are so many great memories and moments. One that sticks out and is still prolific was the district title game back in ’03 after a highly competitive regular-season game in Week 10 that Pittston came out on top. Then, we fought our way through the playoffs and wound up playing in the district championship at Scranton Memorial Stadium. Another great game, in front of another great crowd for the district title and winning that game on a fake field goal call at the end was one of the many great memories of the rivalry for me.

PR: I don’t know. As a sophomore, that was the only year in my three-year high school career that I won. As a junior and senior, we played them really tough and it was one of those things where record doesn’t mean anything and what you’ve done to that point means nothing. Going back, looking at one, specific memory, no. Growing up, I was at every game from when I was 7-8 years old to when I was a player. I remember a pretty cool one when I was a freshman and there as a fan, Jack Stankowski threw a touchdown at Wyoming Area to beat them. I’m related to Kevin Shotwell, who won the ’99 Falcone Award, and I was on the field with him as a waterboy. That was probably the coolest experience for me growing up.

TR: What does it mean to you to spend your whole career at Wyoming Area?

RS: I just feel coaching has been a calling for me. It was not something I initially aspired to do. It was something that life moved me toward and I’ve been blessed with the experiences I’ve had as a player, as a young coach and now as a head coach for so many years. For me, it’s been about our school community, our program, our coaching staff which has been like a family to me. On Coach Marranca’s staff that’s the way it always was. We’re hopeful that it has continued in that spirit and I know how I feel about it. I just feel blessed and honored. I feel so appreciative to have these experiences to be involved in this program and share all the special moments with our players, our staff and our entire Wyoming Area community.

TR: How important was it to you to make it back to Pittston Area and be in this position?

PR: I felt like every step of my coaching career led me to the point and prepared me for this position. It obviously means a whole lot to me to be back leading this program in this community. The success this year has only enhanced all that. For someone who played for the Duryea Wildcats growing up and played a lot of the West Pittston and Exeter teams as a young kid, to make my way back here, it’s extremely big for me.

TR: You led your alma mater to a state championship. Is it possible to sum up what that accomplishment means to you?

RS: That’s a tough question. As much as that is, from an outside perspective, the pinnacle, obviously it’s a great memory and a tremendous experience. But, honestly, it’s all the moments. It’s great to have been a part of it. It’s obviously special for our program and our district. But our program is tradition rich and we stand on the backs and shoulders of so many Warrior greats that put us in the position right up until today to have a program where our players can come in and hopefully take away from the program the values and what we all feel are so important in terms of what you take with you into life. That state championship run and all the memories and relationships it created, are all up there very high, but really the value is there in the everyday and the time we got to spend. The relationships that we have with the players and the moments and experiences we share with them are all equally important and valuable to me.

TR: Your first season as Pittston Area coach includes a division championship. What does that accomplishment means to you?

PR: It’s a little surreal. When you get the job, you think of goals and where you want to be as a program. Goal Number One is always to win the first game. You win the first game, then you have a real hard defeat, but you see a lot of potential in Week 2 vs. North Pocono. Now, here we are at six in a row and it’s been great to see our players. We’ve talked about it a whole bunch, but these seniors, this being their third coach in three years and thinking about how that must have been for them, and seeing them all stick together and how hard they play each Friday night. You’re starting to see the younger guys get better each week as well. I felt pretty good coming into the year, but you don’t really know until the lights come on. That’s what we said at the beginning of the year. They continue to find ways to win and continue to find ways to get better each week.

TR: Each week this season, you were preparing for other teams, but as you made your way through the season, you get a little chance to look ahead, what traits were you able to observe in your rival that you will be facing Friday night?

RS: First and foremost, experienced, talented. Coach Russick and his staff have done a great job of coming in and putting those players in a position where they can be successful week in and week out. They’ve been able to play at a high level, improve throughout the season and build momentum to where they secured the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 championship for their first time in many years. You see experience; you see talent; you see a team executing week in and week out and raising its level. We congratulate them and wish them all the best going forward. It’s only very healthy for our rivalry to play meaningful football games within the rivalry with great energy on both sides and at the highest level of competition.

PR: I think what has made Wyoming Area what it has been for so many years now is just the consistency part. Coach Spencer has been there for quite a while now and is part of that whole system and tree with what he has done. It’s something that you want to emulate. They’re going to be the Wyoming Area that you always expect. They’re going to be good up front; they’re going to be physical; they’re going to want to run the football. On defense, they’re going to find ways to make plays, using those same things, being physical and being consistent. That’s been the biggest thing about those guys. Every week you know what you’re going to get. They believe in what they do. That’s something they’ve been able to achieve for so long. They are a resource I have used in the past and even being here, you want them to win. You want to get to the end of the season where we’re at right now or close to it.

TR: Complete this sentence. When the 2025 Wyoming Area Warriors are at their best, we are …

RS: … not unlike any other team, we’re at our best when we’re fully committed and they’re playing with and for each other. In those moments that are adverse, they stay tight and they find a way to push through and stay the course and get through to the finish line. That’s really where we’ve been this year and, any other year, that’s what gives good teams the opportunity to win in big moments and go on great runs.

TR: Complete this sentence. When the 2025 Pittston Area Patriots are at our best, we are …

PR: … physical on both sides of the ball. We’re forcing turnovers; we’re limiting our mistakes offensively; we’re finding ways to win every play; and we’re kind of hoping the scoreboard takes care of itself at the end.