JEFFREY REINHART jreinhart@LNPnews.com
Pending school board approval, Cedar Cliff will name Jim Cantafio its head football coach tonight, the New Era has learned.
The former Conestoga Valley, Wyoming Valley West and Wilson coach will guide the Colts, a Quad-A team, which participates in the rough-and-rugged Mid-Penn Commonwealth Division.
That division includes heavyweights Harrisburg, Cumberland Valley, Altoona, State College and Bishop McDevitt.
Cedar Cliff went 1-7 in the Commonwealth and 2-8 overall last fall under former coach Ron Davis. The victories were against Chambersburg and Shamokin.
Cantafio was recently a finalist for the Ephrata football coaching job, but removed his name from consideration just three days before the school board was to set convene and take a vote.
Ephrata also backed off at the same time, saying in a release that the search committee was not going to present any names for consideration to the school board. But the school board said they would consider voting for any candidates in an executive session that night.
That’s when Cantafio pursued the Cedar Cliff job with a little more vigor.
He’s expected to get school-board approval tonight. Several media outlets in and around Harrisburg have been invited to a question-and-answer session at a restaurant near Cedar Cliff later tonight.
That’s when Cantafio will officially be introduced as the Colts’ next head coach.
Cantafio posted a 125-45-2 record in 15 seasons at CV. He coached the Buckskins’ to six L-L League Section 2 championships, a pair District 3 Triple-A titles, and to a runner-up finish in the state Triple-A title game in 1991.
That CV team was the first from the county to reach a state championship football game.
Cantafio coached eight 33 Big 33 participants, two high school All-Americans, and 11 All-State selections while at CV.
He resigned his post there after the 1994 season and took the coaching job at Wyoming Valley West, where his teams went 27-9 in three seasons. Valley West won the district title in Cantafio’s second year on the job.
Cantafio’s last stop was at Wilson, where the guided the Bulldogs to a 69-19 mark with four section championships and four trips to the District 3 playoffs, including Wilson’s Quad-A championship in 1999.
He resigned his post at Wilson after the 2005 season, and he’ll be back on the sidelines – this time in the Mid-Penn Conference – this fall.
