Avonworth High School Head Football Coach Duke Johncour is the Steelers High School Coach of the Year and the team's nominee for the Don Shula NFL High School Coach of the Year.
Johncour, who is in his 14th season as the school's coach, guided his team to the 2024 Class 3A WPIAL Championship this year, with his No. 5 seed team defeating No. 2 seed Central Valley. They also finished as the 3A PIAA State Championship Runner-up.
Avonworth is not known as a football powerhouse in the Western Pennsylvania area. They are a smaller Class 3A school that doesn't recruit players or draw many future Division I college players.
But it's about more than that.
"Coach Johncour stood out from the rest of the pack in terms of the togetherness of his team," said Joe Lofton, the Steelers football development manager. "They might not have the greatest talent on the field, but they managed to make their way back to the WPIAL championships three years in a row. It has to be something the coach is doing with the kids. It goes further than the game.
"They do a lot of character development with their student athletes. Not only do they care about what happens on the field, but they care about the kids off the field."
That quality is something the Steelers Youth Football program values, and something the entire Steelers organization values and takes to heart.
Sure, winning is important and Johncour has led Avonworth to a 119-41 record in 14 seasons.
"I think those values go deeper than in youth football, high school football, but as a football community in general, and we recognize that with Coach Johncour," said Lofton. "We've been keeping an eye on him for a long time and we think he's well deserving of the award. I think he will continue to lead the next generation of kids in that same direction of having good character on and off the football field.
"We absolutely love his team philosophy. It's not about you, it's about us. That's the team mentality. Coach Johncour doesn't care about statistics or touchdowns, but he cares about what they do as a team together. That's the way they move on the football field and off the football field. It's about us as a collective."
The NFL will recognize two overall winners, one representing the AFC and one the NFC. The award is named after the late Miami Dolphins Hall of Fame Coach Don Shula.
The NFL Foundation and Nike will present the two winners a $15,000 award to their high school football programs and a $10,000 cash award. The other 30 club nominees will all receive a $1,000 cash award. They will also attend Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans as special guests of the NFL. The Don Shula Award winners will be announced in the week prior to the Pro Bowl Games.
