Football Friday: Antonio Pierce joins fraternity of NFL coaches with high school roots

When Antonio Pierce was named the interim head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, he became the latest in a small fraternity of NFL coaches who have also coached at the high school level.

Pierce, a nine-year NFL linebacker with the Washington Redskins and New York Giants during the 2000s, coached Long Beach Poly (Long Beach, Calif.) from 2014-17 and produced an overall record of 31-15. He replaced longtime coach Raul Lara, who stepped down following the 2013 season.

Pierce becomes one of the few coaches to be a head coach at both the pro and high school level. Surprisingly, only 15 coaches out of the 102 with 50 or more NFL coaching wins, were head coaches in high school before eventually moving on to the professional level.

Here are the top 10 coaches from that list with the most high school wins to their credit. 1. Paul Brown
NFL coaching jobs: Cleveland Browns, 1950-62; Cincinnati Bengals, 1968-75
Overall NFL record: 213-104-9
High school coaching jobs: Severn (Ohio), 1930-31; Washington (Massillon, Ohio), 1932-40
Overall high school record: 92-10-3
Notes: Certainly the most successful football coach when you consider all of the levels. Won five state championships at Washington and four of his teams are recognized as national champions. He won a national championship at Ohio State in 1942. While coaching the Great Lakes Navy armed services team, his 1943 team defeated Notre Dame, which was ranked No. 1 in the nation. As head coach of the Cleveland Browns, he won seven titles in the AAFC and NFL combined.



2. O.A. "Bum" Phillips
NFL coaching jobs: Houston Oilers, 1975-80; New Orleans Saints, 1981-85
Overall NFL record: 82-77
High school coaching jobs: Nederland (Texas), 1951-56; Jacksonville (Texas), 1958; Amarillo (Texas), 1959-61; Port Neches-Groves (Port Neches, Texas), 1964-65
Overall high school record: 86-40-7
Notes: Phillips won four straight district championships and had a record of 46-4-3 in his final four seasons at Nederland, which included a berth in the Class 3A state championship game.

3. Weeb Ewbank
NFL coaching jobs: Baltimore Colts, 1954-62; New York Jets, 1963-73
Overall NFL record: 130-129-7
High school coaching jobs: Van Wert (Ohio), 1928-29; McGuffey (Ohio), 1930-43
Overall high school record: 74-34-2
Notes: Like Brown, Ewbank played at the University of Miami-Ohio. He assisted Brown on the Great Lakes Navy team in 1943-45 and eventually assisted Brown at Cleveland before getting the job with the Colts in 1954.

4. Blanton Collier
NFL coaching jobs: Cleveland Browns, 1963-70
Overall NFL record: 76-34-2
High school coaching jobs: Paris (Ky.), 1928-43
Overall high school record: 73-50-10
Notes: While serving in World War II, Collier met up with Paul Brown and went on to assist him with the newly-formed Cleveland Browns rather than head back to Kentucky. Later won an NFL championship in 1964 with the Browns.

5. Doug Pederson
NFL coaching jobs: Philadelphia Eagles, 2016-20; Jacksonville Jaguars, 2022-present
Overall NFL record: 52-47-1
High school coaching jobs: Calvary Baptist Academy (Shreveport, La.), 2005-08
Overall high school record: 41-10
Notes: Like Antonio Pierce, Pederson played in the NFL before venturing into high school football and then making his way back to the NFL.

6. Vince Lombardi
NFL coaching jobs: Green Bay Packers, 1959-67; Washington Redskins, 1969
Overall NFL record: 96-34-6
High school coaching jobs: St. Cecilia (Edgewood, N.J.), 1942-46
Overall high school record: 39-6-6
Notes: The legendary Packers coach had a 25-game win streak and had back-to-back seasons of 11-0 in 1943 and 10-0-1 in 1944.

7. Dick Vermeil
NFL coaching jobs: Philadelphia Eagles, 1976-82; St. Louis Rams, 1997-99; Kansas City Chiefs, 2001-05
Overall NFL record: 120-109
High school coaching jobs: Hillsdale (San Mateo, Calif.), 1960-62
Overall high school record: 15-8-2
Notes: Vermeil went 8-1 his second year at Hillsdale. He made eight more coaching stops before getting the Eagles job in 1976.



8. Bill Walsh
NFL coaching jobs: San Francisco 49ers, 1979-88
Overall NFL record: 92-59-1
High school coaching jobs: Washington (Fremont, Calif.), 1957-59
Overall high school record: 12-10-2
Notes: After an 8-1 season in his second year, Walsh went 1-7 his final year at Washington. The next year he joined Marv Levy, who had started his coaching career at St. Louis Country Day School, at the University of California-Berkeley.

9. Chuck Knox
NFL coaching jobs: Los Angeles Rams, 1973-77, 1992-94; Buffalo Bills, 1978-82; Seattle Seahawks, 1983-91
Overall NFL record: 186-147-1
High school coaching jobs: Ellwood City (Pa.), 1956-58
Overall high school record: 10-16-2
Notes: Knox was an assistant at the college and pro to other prep-to-pros coaches, including Collier at Kentucky and Ewbank with the Jets.

10. Jerry Burns
NFL coaching jobs: Minnesota Vikings, 1986-91
Overall NFL record: 52-43
High school coaching jobs: Redford (Detroit, Mich.), 1953
Overall high school record: 6-1
Notes: Prior to the Detroit job, Burns had been an assistant at the University of Hawaii and Whittier College (Calif.).

A couple of high school coaches recently went over 300 career wins:

Fred Simon of Bluefield (W.Va.) picked up win No. 300 with a 47-13 victory over Giles last week. He's now 300-142 in his 38-year career. He's won 10 or more games in a season 13 times with four undefeated seasons (1997, 2004, 2007, 2014).



Reed May of Brownstown Central (Ind.) picked up his 300th career win with a 56-27 win over Scecina Memorial on Oct. 20. The Braves lost to Triton Central last week in the playoffs to end their season at 9-2. In is 31 seasons at Brownstown Central, May has never had a losing season, he's won 10 or more games 18 times with 22 Mid-Southern Conference championships. He has a record of 300-64 record.

Jack Martinelli of Foxborough (Mass.) picked up win No. 300 on Oct. 20 with a 35-0 win over Canton. Martinelli has coached 42 seasons at the school with a record of 300-139 that includes state Super Bowl championships in 1987, 1988, 1991 and 2006.