Feb 20, 2025 4 min read

By Bill Hughes

For the Observer-Reporter

newsroom@observer-reporter.com

When Matt Humbert was hired in 2014 to become head coach of the Belle Vernon football program, he wanted to instill a family mentality.

After 11 years, consecutive WPIAL and PIAA championships in 2022 and 2023, five conference titles, and a 96-26 record as the Leopards’ head coach, Humbert informed his football family Thursday afternoon that he was resigning as head coach to spend more time with his family at home.

“My son is in elementary school, my daughter is in sixth grade, and we are in that weird little pocket that they still think I am cool,” Humbert said. “My wife is exploring a couple of things, and I would be selfish to not give her that opportunity after all she has done, which has allowed me to coach.

“Everyone wishes they had more time, but it is time. It is hard (to resign) because Belle Vernon is my baby, and I am still extremely emotionally connected.”

Humbert will stay on at Belle Vernon as athletic director.

“I am going to enjoy facilitating my time as athletic director and I am at peace,” he said. “My family is at peace and the staff is supportive of it.”

When Belle Vernon hired Humbert away from Ringgold – where he served four years as head coach, went 32-13, and won a conference championship – he envisioned big things for the Leopards.

“I don’t think I would have jumped if I didn’t have belief,” he said. “Even when I played against Belle Vernon in high school (for Laurel Highlands), I respected them and they had a toughness about them.

“Even though they didn’t have a lot of wins, they wore hard hats and had a gritty type of toughness. I felt we could resurrect the program, and it was a challenge we took on.”

Humbert pointed out another huge factor in his decision to take the Belle Vernon job.

“The parents attracted me, the parents valued football, and if you want to have a successful football program, then you have to have buy-in from the parents.”

Between Belle Vernon and Ringgold, Humbert has a 128-39 record as a head coach.

Despite only being 39, Humbert knows he has been blessed to already have so many years in as a head coach and he said he will get back into the game at some point.

“I’m extremely fortunate,” he said. “How many guys start this gig at such a young age, take a pause, get to be dad, and jump back in eventually?”

What was a key for the program’s resurrection? Humbert said the 2015 team, his second at Belle Vernon, will always stand out for him.

“When we hit the 2015 class, we hit reset, and I am always fond of that group because they unwaveringly followed, and bought into the system,” he said. “That was the foundation, the 2015 class.”

Belle Vernon continued to improve under Humbert and in 2022, the Leopards went 12-2 and won the WPIAL Class 3A championship, beating Avonworth 24-7 in the final. The Leopards then won their first PIAA title, edging Neumann-Goretti 9-8 in a thrilling championship game.

Belle Vernon repeated both championships in 2023, when the Leopards went 13-1. They defeated Avonworth again (26-0) in the WPIAL final and routed Northwestern Lehigh (38-7) in the PIAA championship game.

This past season, Belle Vernon moved up to Class 4A and had a 4-5 record that included a loss to McKeesport in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs.

Though his players graduated over the years and went down different paths in life, Humbert said it is a blessing to still have close relationships with a lot of them today.

“I have been super blessed that a lot of hard work has paid off with the relationships and the kids I have been able to impact,” he said. “This is where, as I get older in this game – I have had former players coach for me, get married – once you get to this point, they grow up and their lives change and you get the relationships with them.

“As their coach, I put barriers up but now as they are older, I can have friendships with them. I get to watch the ones in college play, I golf with some of my former players. As a coach, I had such tunnel vision that I couldn’t do these things.”

Humbert instilled a family atmosphere within his program, and now he will put his focus on his family at home.

Belle Vernon is one of three local head football coach jobs that are currently open. The others are at Waynesburg and Beth-Center.