HOPEWELL HIGH Vestal shoots for stars, lands job near Moon

The Boardman High graduate was recently named head football coach at Hopewell.
By JOHN KOVACH
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
ALIQUIPPA, Pa. -- Dave Vestal used to entertain hopes of becoming an astronaut or an aerospace engineer.
Instead, he became a football coach and a science and mathematics teacher.
How and why did the changes come about for the Boardman High and Miami (Ohio) graduate, who recently was named football coach at Hopewell High in Aliquippa, Pa., at the age 32?
Hopewell is a Class AAA school in the Parkway Conference with teams like Ellwood City, Blackhawk, Moon and New Castle.
"My first year at Miami I was going to try to get into the Naval Academy, but I got rejected because of my eyes," said Vestal.
New career: Regarding his diversion from aerospace engineering, Vestal explained: "I started at the University of Cincinnati graduate school [in aerospace engineering] for one quarter, and decided I didn't like it, that I wanted to get a job where I was involved with people, and that I wanted to become a teacher and a coach.
"I found myself going to high school football games in Cincinnati, and I saw myself as being a head coach some day. I saw my life in a different way and I wanted a change of direction," said Vestal.
Although not a football player in high school, he became a walk-on at Miami and was a member of the squad for five seasons as a defensive back.
"I was very small and I was in the marching band," is the reason Vestal gave for not playing football in high school.
And while playing football at Miami, he still continued his musical interests by playing the trumpet in the Miami Jazz Band.
Went to YSU: Once he was sure that coaching and teaching were his new objectives, Vestal returned home, earned his teaching certificate at Youngstown State, while at the same time serving as a volunteer assistant football coach at Boardman under coach Bill Bohren in 1991-92.
"This was a goal of mine to become a head coach. It definitely was the right move. I'm in a good position with my life at 32 years old to do some good things with my life," said Vestal, who has been at Hopewell for six years and teaches physics, astronomy and algebra there.
He has been an assistant coach at Hopewell for six seasons, serving as defensive coordinator the past five before recently succeeding Andy Robertson, who resigned after the team went 5-4 last year and made the playoffs.
Prior to coming to Hopewell, Vestal was an assistant coach at Lakewood High for two seasons.
Philosophy: Vestal's general coaching philosophy is to build a well-rounded student-athlete.
"I'm interested not in just wins and losses, but in the development of the total student-athlete [who] does things in the right way and is a role model for the community."
Vestal's style of football will be an option offense and aggressive defense.
"We're hoping to be multiple offense, and the one signature thing is our ability to run the option. We do it a lot and do it well. We have kids that can do that," the coach pointed out.
"On defense, we are an aggressive, attacking style of defense [while] trying to keep things simple for the kids and let them react and play."
Family: The son of Janet and Ted Vestal, Dave is married to the former Leah Orlando from Boardman High, who is a teacher in West Allegheny at McKee Elementary School. They live in Imperial, Pa.
Janet and Ted Vestal also were teachers and now are retired. Janet taught at Boardman schools, Ted at Youngstown city schools. Ted also was a principal.