Aliquippa's Vashawn Patrick ready for new challenge as interim head coach

ALIQUIPPA — After Aliquippa football head coach Mike Warfield announced he would be taking a leave of absence during the 2024 season, the Quips named associate head coach Vashawn Patrick the interim head coach for the upcoming season.

Even though there is a new leader at the helm, Patrick is no stranger to the Aliquippa program as he has deep ties within the program having once played for the Quips and also serving as an assistant coach and associate head coach.

“I feel blessed being able to coach at my alma mater,” Patrick said. “This is definitely a blessing in disguise. I am very happy and excited. I know what it takes to win, what it takes for these young men to be prosperous around the community and become good football players.”

Patrick has been with the program for over a decade and a half as a coach serving as the team’s defensive backs coach, linebackers coach, running backs coach, offensive and defensive coordinator and most recently associate head coach along with other roles.

Through the years, Patrick worked under the tutelage of former head coaches Mike Zmijanac and Mike Warfield, and for Patrick, he believes that the hard work that he has put in over the years has gotten him into the position he is today.

“Nothing has changed," he said. "It was just a lot of hard work that I have put in over the years and I guess it did not go unnoticed. I am blessed for the opportunity and I am glad that coach Mike [Warfield] appointed me as his predecessor.”

Patrick was named the associate head coach of the Quips football program in May 2022. In a letter to the Aliquippa Board of Education obtained by The Times, Warfield promoted Patrick, who was one of the assistant coaches at the time to the associate head coach position due to the concern for “the future of our historic football program.”

Since then, Warfield and Patrick have gone back and forth about the potential of him taking over the program in the near future and this season, Patrick finally got the call.

“Me and Mike [Warfield] joked about it for a while and he always let me know to be ready,” Patrick said. “The things that he instilled in me, guided me, and helped me through just by watching him he said it was time and and gave me my opportunity.”

Through his time under Warfield, Patrick learned a multitude of valuable lessons from his predecessor, guiding him through different situations and focusing on the bigger picture at hand.

“I just learned about the demeanor and how to approach different situations. He always taught me to take myself out of the situation and do what is best for the kids and the team," he said. "He told me to be myself and keep doing what I have been doing and things will pan out. He would also always tell me not to focus on wins and losses and just focus on getting better each day and making sure these kids become good young men in the community. Watching him and learning from what he does, I just want to do the same thing.”

With the football season just about a month away from kicking off, Aliquippa still is dealing with a lot of unknowns regarding its football program.

The Quips are still in limbo on which classification they will be competing in this football season after the PIAA decided to take the program to court once again to try and overturn a Beaver County Judge’s ruling on the team in May.

Even with the court hearing scheduled for Tuesday morning, neither Patrick nor his team are worried about what is to come with the court hearing and he is just focused on getting his group ready for the season.

“The kids aren’t worried about it,” Patrick said. “I am not too worried about it either. I am letting our administration handle all of it and all I am focused on is getting this group of kids ready for the season.”

As Patrick begins a new era of Aliquippa football, he follows two of his greatest role models as he looks to put his own mark on the Quips program this coming season.

“There has been a lot of hard work that I put in to get to this moment. Being able to learn from Mike Zmijanac and Mike Warfield, those are two great role models to look after and I just am going to mimic my game after them while putting my own flavor to it.”

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Aliquippa's Vashawn Patrick ready for new challenge as interim head coach