Glenside native Brett Gordon, head football coach at La Salle College High School in Wyndmoor, was featured in an article by The Philadelphia Inquirer alongside his late father Drew, a Hall of Fame coach who passed away in 2023.
The Explorers, District 12 and Catholic League 6A champs with a 12-1 record on the season, are headed to their third-ever PIAA state final and their first since 2010 when they defeated North Penn 38-35 in the semis. They will play District 7 champ Pittsburgh Central Catholic on Saturday at 7:00pm at Cumberland Valley.
Brett, 46, was hired in 2024 and is a 1998 La Salle and 2002 Villanova graduate. He was as an assistant coach at the school for 14 years (2005-2014, 2016-2019) and served under two of the former head coaches, including his father, Drew, who retired in 2015 after nine years at the helm of the Explorers.
La Salle won its only PIAA state football championship in 2009 with Drew as their head coach and Brett as their offensive coordinator.
“Drew and Brett are on the brink of doing something no father-son duo has ever done in the 36-year history of the PIAA football state playoffs — win state championships as head coaches,” The Inquirer wrote.
“I know how much my father would have loved to be a part of this,” Brett told The Inquirer. “I think about him all the time. If my father was with us and he was in good health, he would have been around here coaching in some capacity. I wouldn’t have a choice. The thing I admired the most about my father was that it never was about him. He grew up in a generation of serving. He never cared about any recognition. He was direct. He was there to coach. He cared about the kids. That was all that mattered. That was how he operated.”
Drew was a star quarterback at Bishop McDevitt High School in Cheltenham Township in the 1960s. He coached the Glenside Gorillas in a local youth league and became head coach at La Salle where he won the Philadelphia Catholic League championship his first season. His teams won five more league titles and four straight District 12 championships during his nine seasons as head coach.
He is in athletic halls of fame at La Salle, Bishop McDevitt and Villanova, and the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame honored him in 2010 as an influential contributor to amateur football. He also worked for 17 seasons as an analyst for Villanova football radio broadcasts.
Gavin Sidwar
Earlier this week, The Inquirer profiled standout senior quarterback Gavin Sidwar, a University of Missouri commit.
“We’re going to play teams that are good, but we’re a good football team, too,” he told The Inquirer. “At the end of the day, we’ve just got to go out and play fast, play physical and play disciplined. Be us. Don’t press. It’s just a football game that we’ve been playing since we were kids. So play the game, not the occasion. Just go out and play football.”
“Just when we think he’s got it all figured out, he figures out a way to continue to improve,” Gordon said. “He’s built for this, and he’s put in the work.”
“He’s one of the best quarterbacks in the country, and he proves it every day,” senior Joey O’Brien, a Notre Dame commit, said. “You always get a clean spiral, every time. And he doesn’t get too high or too low. He knows there’s more to be done. If we play our game, there’s nobody beating us.”
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