Conversation with Coach – Blane Gold, Redbank Valley
Tagged under: Coaches Corner, District 9, News
Phil Myers | September 5, 2025
His dream in high school was to become a football coach someday. He has one of the highest winning percentages in Pennsylvania for any head football coach that has overseen 70 or more games. One of the biggest influences in his coaching life isn’t even a coach in Pennsylvania, but is a growing legend in Ohio and nationally. In his 6 years as the head man at Redbank Valley, he has won three District 9 titles, finished as district runner-up twice, and been to the state championship game where his team was a play away from winning District Nine’s first state pigskin title. He is Blane Gold, a man who also loves, in addition to football, to get involved in things that are mentally and physically challenging as we will find out.
Coach Gold is the son of Denny and Bonnie Gold. He has a younger brother named Devin who to this day still tempts Coach Gold with Oreo cookies when they see each other because coach can’t resist even though he tries. When asked if he was married, Coach Gold said, “No. It’s just me.”
Dennis Blane Gold is a 2007 graduate of Franklin High School where his passion was football. He played center on offense and defensive end on the other side of the ball. Plus, he was a long snapper specialist which was a key in college as he lettered three years at Grove City. He also played baseball in high school until 9th grade. “I knew football was my niche after 9th grade. It was all football after that,” he stated. He graduated in 2012 from Grove City with a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Studies Education. He also has a Master’s Degree in School Leadership. He currently is an 11th and 12th grade teacher of Social Studies at Redbank Valley.
PM: “How did you get into coaching?”
BG: “So for me, I remember in high school and having all of the coaches I had having such a positive impact on me. It was literally a dream of mine while I was in high school. I remember thinking what am I going to wear on the sidelines. I knew it was something I wanted to get involved with. College really solidified it for me. I really credit my D-Line coach at Grove City, Tommy Wilson, who coached me the same as our all-conference defensive linemen. He had a big impact on me because he took as much effort with me as the group that would be making major plays on Saturday. It impacted my life.”
We backtracked for a minute because there was a high school coach at Franklin who was consistently around Gold when he was in Junior High School. “Tiger LaVerde refereed all of our football games. He’s been a big influence on me and I’ve taken a lot of ideas from him. Honestly, to this day I still talk to Tiger. We both coach small school football, so there’s a lot of ideas, a lot of similar situations.”
For those of you who don’t know, Tiger LaVerde coached three years at Franklin and because the school district wouldn’t hire him as a teacher, he left for Kirtland, Ohio High School where he could coach and teach at the same school. It is where he still is today and where he turned a floundering small school program into one of the best in Ohio and the nation. In 19 years, his record at Kirtland is 244-21. That is not a misprint. He has appeared in 13 of the last 14 state championship games winning 7 of them.
Coach Gold continued, “I learned the lesson a lot of high school athletes learn. You’re a big fish in a small pond, and even if you go to the Division III level, you become a small fish in a big pond. I was proud of the fact I was a three-year letterman at Grove City. I played in every game my sophomore, junior, and senior years. But, a lot of that was primarily on special teams. It gave me a chance to give my competitive balance channeled into something good. At the same time, I know from personal experience what an opportunity I have to use it for good and have an impact.”
He reiterated having those good, influential high school coaches followed by his college experience which solidified his desire to become a football coach. “Tiger’s brother was head coach at Oil City. He played at Penn State and went on to play at Mt. Union with those National Championship teams. So, what I ended up doing was commuting to Grove City my last year and a half. I stayed with my parents in Franklin and coached at Oil City.”
PM: “You then went to Redbank and was an assistant under Ed Wasilowski before he retired, right?”
BG: “Yeah, so I did 2 years at Oil City, then I went to Franklin for a year. It was good for me. Franklin was struggling and I learned a lot from that year at Franklin. What you have to do as a head coach to keep the guys disciplined and motivated to finish out the season when you know you are not gonna go to the playoffs. Then got hired at Redbank. I served as an assistant under Ed Wasilowski from the 2014 to the 2018 season. Then 2019 was my first year as the head coach.” Gold’s responsibilities as an assistant coach at all 3 schools mentioned involved coaching the offensive and defensive lines. Plus, at Oil City and Franklin he coached the special teams.
PM: “Under Coach Wasilowski, Redbank had a good program and some good teams. How were you able to kick it up a notch and take the program to an even higher level of play?”
BG: “A couple of things stick out. Number one, a lot of times you see head coaches step away when the talent is gone. I give Coach Wasilowski a lot of credit. He stepped away when he saw that it was going to be a much easier transition for a new head coach because of how much talent was coming up. I give him a ton of credit for that. I talk to first time coaches that are struggling and I have to be honest and tell them I was very blessed in the situation I was in.”
“Then we came in with a renewed philosophy on defense of what we wanted to do. We set the goal to try to be at 17 points or less per game. We’ve always been a high scoring offense. If we put ourselves in a situation where we give up 17 points or less, it is always going to put us in a position to be successful because of how good our offense is. And then we really hit the weight room hard. It’s something I have to give a lot of credit to Tiger LaVerde for. At Kirtland, they lift as a team and enjoy being around each other for 3 hours. We’ve put a focal point on the weight room 12 months a year.”
PM: “That leads me to this question. A couple years you had kids, that were valuable contributors, dismissed from the team. How did you maintain team camaraderie, and especially in 2021, keep the kids focused and eventually reach the state championship game?
BG: “Both (years) had very different endings. In 2021 our teachers had gone on a three-month strike. So, we weren’t in school for the entire football season. These kids weren’t in school until the playoffs started. That game we beat Northern Bedford (21-14) was on Black Friday and we were in school. Unfortunately, our leading rusher had gotten into some trouble one of the previous nights and it wasn’t handled until Friday. That was a very chaotic Friday. Boo Shreckengost stepped in at 5’3” and returned a kick for a touchdown and rushed for a touchdown. He ran for over 100 yards and only had 50 some for the entire season. That didn’t have anything to do with me. That was a kid that basically put the entire team on his shoulders and carried them. I’ve never seen a kid carry a team like he did that night. The next week we beat Bishop Canevin with a big pick six.”
Coach Gold went on to say that not having his regular running back, who also played linebacker on defense, hurt in the state championship game because Bishop Guilfoyle was a big, strong team. Redbank lost 21-14 in a great game. “We deserved to win that game, but we didn’t,” said Gold, “We were disappointed. That’s life. There’s going to be times when you feel like you deserve something but you don’t get it.” Coach Gold was so pleased with all the support the team had from the community and the school. In fact, he alluded to the truth that the game was a battle of two completely different towns. It was New Bethlehem versus Altoona. All in all, the experience, Coach Blane Gold said, “was pretty memorable.”
“Now in 2022, which looking back on that year, I feel like we had a chance to go back-to-back state championship games. But unfortunately, we made some bad decisions as a team.” He talked about some politics, for lack of a better term, that were involved from his standpoint. But the bottom line is they lost multiple players including their QB and a future all-state WR for the year and Redbank was undefeated at the time. They lost 8-7 to Port Allegany at the end of the regular season. Port then won districts and made it to the Western Finals. Redbank was upset in the district semis when Brockway played a great game, especially on defense, and stunned Redbank 7-3.
“It is a great example for our future kids and what does leadership look like from seniors. How do we react when adversity hits? We had adversity those two seasons and each group responded differently. 2023 was sweet because those group of kids that didn’t handle 2022 as best as they could, came back and were able to get redemption. Basically, we were a Matt Sieg (Fort Cherry) touchdown away from possibly making a second appearance in the state championship game in three years.”
PM: “How do you as a coach measure success?”
BG: “Our vision statement is we want to become men of integrity in pursuing District 9 championships. Our mission is to honor our families and community by chasing excellence in the classroom and on the football field. I’m proud of the fact that we’ve built a program where every single year we’ve been able to say that over the past six seasons that we’ve competed for a district championship.”
Coach Gold’s six-year record as head coach at Redbank Valley is 59-14. The winning percentage of .808 is one of the highest in the state for coaching at least 70 games or more.
“In my opinion, it’s an ongoing effort to be a man of integrity and do the right thing. I don’t know that we can ever say we’ve reached a level of perfection in that area. Some people are quick to point out the flaws in some of our players. I like to point out to people these are kids in the process of building a foundation for the rest of their lives. It’s a process in becoming men of integrity, that we can become good brothers, good husbands, and good fathers. At the end of the day, I’m paid to be successful and win football games, but we also want to try, through that pursuit of winning district championships, to help these boys work on the process of becoming men of integrity.”
PM: “What is the hardest thing about coaching?”
BG: “The hardest part or the part I wish I could change is to cut out some of the background stuff and just be able to coach football. For example, when our staff goes to college clinics and you see the head coach is acting like a CEO and they got 27 position coaches, boosters run the fundraising efforts, and coaches get to just coach. When prepping for interviews, my mentor told me being the head coach has very little to do with X’s and O’s. Obviously, I spend a lot of time on X’s and O’s but it pales in comparison to the time I spend on other things. I enjoy the fundraising and I enjoy some of the events we have, but it would be nice to just coach football.”
PM: “So far in your career, what do you find is the most rewarding thing about coaching?”
BG: “The most rewarding thing for me is whenever we beat or exceed the expectations we place on a group of kids. For me, going into that 2021 season, I knew we were going to be good. We got every ounce out of them and then we got a little more. We made it believable that District 9 football teams can compete for state championships.”
Coach Gold also talked about being humble and having less of an ego. He likes to talk with other coaches and ask how he can get better. He told of the time when he called Brandon Phillian, the coach at Wilmington, whom he did not know at the time. Coach Phillian was gracious and invited him to dinner. After supper, Phillian allowed Coach Gold to pick his brain for 3 hours.
PM: “What has been your biggest thrill you have gotten out of coaching?”
BG: “The biggest thrill is it’s really hard to beat when you run out of the tunnel for a state championship game. I felt really blessed. I’m not trying to stir up a hornet’s nest or anything, but I really am blessed that we got to do it at Hershey. As a kid growing up in Pennsylvania, you wanted to go to Hershey. It’s hard to top that experience we had. Beating Bishop Canevin was rewarding too. I mean we were playing against a quarterback that is at West Virginia now.”
PM: “What do you want your legacy to be?”
BG: “I would say for the most part when you look back at the win/loss record, I want it to reflect that we were a program of success over the years. But I would say most importantly, I hope that people would know and genuinely believe that I loved the kids and I really cared about the kids. And everything I did was to try and make their experience as positive as possible. At the end of day, after all the stuff you have to put up with, I’ve been so blessed in my football journey and football life. I want to bring a big feel of football to a small rural community and I want our program to have a feeling that we were part of something that truly mattered and was special. I hope every single kid that plays for me, whether you’re a Braylon Wagner or the 47th guy on the roster, can look back and say it was worth the time to be a part of it.”
We then talked a bit about the youth/midget program and how he hasn’t been able to break through and have a working relationship, and the resistance he gets despite the fact of the success he’s had. In fact, one of the youth program powers in charge made the statement, “we’ll consider any changes to the program if you win a state championship.” To Coach Gold’s credit, he has moved beyond that and taken the high road. He and his staff take the kids at the 7th grade level and begin work and adaptation with them there. So far, it has worked pretty well. Gold feels, at times, there is a burnout factor to consider with kids in midget programs.
PM: “Is there anything you’d like to see changed in the high school game?”
BG: “I can’t think of anything that’s really, really blatant. I will be anxious to see if 5 or 6 years from now we see the kickoff stuff changing. Usually, the high school game follows some of the trends at the higher levels. There are definitely some things I like. You can’t argue the science of what they’re doing with the head trauma.”
He goes on record as being strongly in favor of the PIAA going to 6 classes. “I would never have coached in a state championship game if it weren’t for 6 classes. I am always going to be a proponent of that. At the end of the day, you are trying to grow the game and give more opportunities to kids.”
PM: “If you could pick the brain of any football coach at any level, past or present, who would it be?”
BG: “There’s two guys I really love to consume as much on them as I can. I love the stuff Nick Saban and Bill Belichick present.” He went into great detail of why he’d love to talk with these two coaches. It was very interesting and I came away amazed as to the knowledge retention Coach Gold had about Saban and Belichick.
PM: “What do you like to do with your spare time?”
BG: “I like to get involved with things that are mentally and physically challenging. Starting in 2019, I started running marathons. I did three marathons and accomplished the goal of finishing a sub four-hour marathon. The latest thing I picked up for the last six months is that I’ve started to learn the sport of boxing. That has been really good for me. You can build a lot of mental strength in trying to learn things and do things you’re not very good at.”
PM: To sit down to your favorite meal, what would it consist of?”
BG: “A steak. I’m definitely a meat connoisseur. The best meal I could have would be a steak and then a couple of steaks on the side. My guilty pleasure would be pizza.”
PM: “What would your favorite dessert be?”
BG: “I’m an Oreo guy. I’m big into the candy like the Nerds or sour gummy worms. That would be my go to over any other type of sweet.”
PM: “A favorite athlete of yours in any sport would be who?”
BG: “I was a huge Cordell Stewart fan. I think he was definitely a player before his time. As a kid, I loved watching Cordell Stewart play. If Cordell Stewart played in the NFL today, he’d be a superstar.”
PM: “Do you have a favorite entertainer?”
BG: “Denzel Washington. When he’s in a movie, I’m probably not going to miss that one.”
PM: “Do you have any advice for the younger kids out there?”
BG: “Your window of playing a sport with your best friends is so small when you think about the grand scheme of things. It’s okay to chase your goals, it’s okay to pursue the things you want to pursue. Pursue those things relentlessly. But don’t forget to have fun and enjoy the experiences.” As an example, Coach Gold pointed out that in 2023 the Redbank boys’ soccer, football, basketball, and baseball teams all won district titles. “A group of friends as seniors that basically ran the table for the entire season.”
PM: “What’s the outlook for the upcoming football season?”
BG: “My expectations are high for this group. I believe anytime you have a quarterback, you have a chance to win and I think we have a pretty good one. I’m glad I have #9 (Braylon Wagner) on my team because he can really sling the football. One thing that is so impressive with Braylon breaking every (Redbank Valley) passing record last year was because we struggled up front. A lot of that was because we had kids out there that probably weren’t ready. But we sacrificed that in hopes it would better prepare us for 2025.”
PM: “Anything else that I missed that you’d like to comment on?”
BG: No, I don’t think so. I think we covered a lot in that time.”
Coach Gold spent over an hour with me and I came away impressed with his knowledge of the game, his work ethic, and his desire to help his teams get the most out of their God-given ability each and every year. He is not afraid to try things and do things that will put his Redbank Valley Bulldogs in a better position to be in and win football games. Blane Gold, in six short seasons, has put Redbank in a position to not only win district titles, but go very deep in the state playoffs. Do not be surprised to see Redbank make another appearance or two in a state championship game in the near future. I’m pretty sure that the town of New Bethlehem, and Redbank Valley football in particular, know they have someone special as the head football coach. A man who not only is building a winning tradition in the football program, but also a man who is building men of integrity out of his players.
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