Not many high school football players can say their coach is a Hall of Famer. Players at
Cox (Virginia Beach, Va.) now can after former Pittsburgh Steelers great Alan Faneca was named head coach Monday.
The 13-year NFL veteran is part of the 2021 Pro Football Hall of Fame class and will be inducted Aug. 8 along with Peyton Manning, Charles Woodson, Tom Flores, Calvin Johnson, Bill Nunn, John Lynch and Drew Pearson.
After the induction ceremony, however, it's back to preparing the Falcons for the 2021 season. Cox went 5-1 in the recently completed spring season in Virginia.
Faneca helped the Steelers to a Super Bowl XL win over Seattle in 2006. He served as the offensive line coach at Cox for the past two seasons under Bill Stachelski, the school's winningest coach who is stepping aside to coach golf.
Stachelski compiled an 88-47 record and guided the Falcons to their first playoff victory in 2015.
"I’m not selling any fantasies," Faneca told the Virginian-Pilot in
February. "I’m going out there and coaching football and getting the
kids developed as football players and people. That’s how I was taught
when I was in school."
Cox is 35-17 over the past five seasons.
Faneca was an All-American out of LSU before being drafted in 1998 in the first round by the Steelers. He played 13 seasons in the NFL with Pittsburgh, the New York Jets and Arizona Cardinals before retiring in 2011. He was named to the NFL's All-Decade Team of the 2000s.
Faneca's wife, Julie Kuchtka, is from Virginia Beach and their daughter attends Cox.
