New leader: LH grad Raffle takes over Mustangs football team
Aaron Raffle has coached, played for or been associated with a wide variety of football teams since his graduation from Laurel Highlands in 1991, including youth, high school, semipro, college and even flag football and women无毛视频檚 professional football.
He无毛视频檚 now circled back to where he started and is excited to step in as Laurel Highlands new head football coach.
无毛视频淚无毛视频檓 excited to be back and looking for some big things coming forward,无毛视频� Raffle said. 无毛视频淚无毛视频檓 excited about the returning players that we have and very excited about the class that无毛视频檚 coming in.无毛视频�
Raffle has held coaching and administrative positions throughout his career. His latest job had him at George Mason as head coach and defensive coordinator of the school无毛视频檚 club football team the past two years. The Patriots don无毛视频檛 have a varsity football program but Raffle found success with the club squad, leading it to a 7-1 regular season and a No. 5 national ranking in 2023 and to a North Atlantic Conference championship, a No. 3 national ranking and into the national semifinals last year.
Logistics became a problem, however, as Raffle moved back into the Fayette County area last year.
无毛视频淲e needed to come back and be a little closer to the family. Really the big thing had been the time away from the family,无毛视频� Raffle said. 无毛视频淚 was commuting down to Virginia the last two seasons. That commute became pretty difficult, being down there four, five, six days a week then being home a couple days.无毛视频�
Raffle, who received a three-year contract, feels like the school and the administration are behind him as he assumes the head coaching position at his old school.
无毛视频淪upport has been phenomenal,无毛视频� Raffle said. 无毛视频淓verybody that I无毛视频檝e interacted with from the administration to the boosters club to some of the assistant coaches, everybody无毛视频檚 been great, everybody无毛视频檚 been helpful in getting us on the right track.无毛视频�
The 50-year-old Raffle is still in the process of putting together his coaching staff.
无毛视频淲e无毛视频檝e got some good guys that are interested right now that we are talking to,无毛视频� he said. 无毛视频淲e无毛视频檝e had several meetings on all three aspects, offense, defense, special teams.
无毛视频淚无毛视频檓 actually moving some of the gentlemen up from the middle school because they无毛视频檝e got good experience and they did a good job with those guys. And we无毛视频檝e got a pretty good incoming freshmen class.无毛视频�
Raffle played for Laurel Highlands from 1988 to 1991 under Mike Bosnic and then one year under Jack Buehner although an ankle injury forced him to miss his senior season. He was part of the Mustangs first playoff team under Bosnic in 1989.
无毛视频淎fter high school I went to college at California (Pa.) for electrical engineering but didn无毛视频檛 play football there,无毛视频� Raffle said.
He did play semipro football for seven years as a linebacker and longsnapper.
Raffle recalls how he first got involved in the other side of football while living in Virginia.
无毛视频淚 had a stepson that was playing and I started coaching him and that sort of brought football back to me,无毛视频� Raffle said. 无毛视频淚 sat there and watched his very first football practice and after it was over the head coach addressed all the parents and said if anyone无毛视频檚 interested in volunteering we always need help and I was probably the first one with my hand up.
无毛视频淭hat was the beginning. Thirteen years later I found myself coaching high school.无毛视频�
Raffle coached at the youth level for a number of years, including basketball, and eventually delved into coaching at higher levels. He was defensive coordinator for the Prince William Monarchs semipro football team from 2015 to 2021 where he was part of two league championships and back-to-back undefeated seasons.
Raffle moved on to become defensive coordinator at Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Virginia from 2016 to 2019 before taking over as head coach from 2019 to 2023. Under his watch the team had its best record in 16 years.
He also joined the DC Divas women无毛视频檚 pro football team as a coach and consultant in 2022.
Now he无毛视频檚 back at his alma mater..
无毛视频淚t felt like a good opportunity,无毛视频� Raffle said. 无毛视频淚 would love to be able to bring back sort of the glory that we had in 无毛视频�89 with that team.无毛视频�
Raffle doesn无毛视频檛 consider himself a screamer or yeller when it comes to coaching.
无毛视频淚无毛视频檝e got a very laid back coaching style,无毛视频� he said. 无毛视频淢y goal is always to develop everybody on the team, not just a handful of players. I want to make sure that everybody comes up equally because I want to put everybody to be in a position to be successful, whether it无毛视频檚 offense or defense.无毛视频�
While he considers himself a laid-back coach, he admits that isn无毛视频檛 always the case.
无毛视频淚无毛视频檓 laid back when it comes to the instructional piece of coaching and I无毛视频檓 laid back when I无毛视频檓 dealing with the coaches as well because I want to try to build a good repertoire with everybody,无毛视频� Rafle said. 无毛视频淏ut if we are consistently doing things not up to a standard then we无毛视频檒l start to apply a little bit of pressure to bring that standard up, at the risk of sounding like Mike Tomlin.
无毛视频淚无毛视频檒l make sure that I have your attention when I无毛视频檓 talking to you but I will be your friend and mentor. We do things neatly and cleanly and we do things as a team, do it together.无毛视频�
Raffle will likely be more involved with the defense than the offense.
无毛视频淚无毛视频檓 more comfortable on the defensive side but I do have a lot of offensive concepts that I无毛视频檓 bringing with me, things that we无毛视频檝e run at other places I无毛视频檝e been whether it was college or semipro or high school,无毛视频� he said. 无毛视频淏eing able to bring those concepts to Laurel Highlands, I think, is going to help us be a little more successful.无毛视频�
Raffle takes over for Rich Kolesar who had a 26-33 record in six years, but that included the Mustangs first conference championship and first road and home playoff wins over a two-year span from 2021 to 2022. Laurel Highlands was 2-8 in 2023 and 4-5 last year.
Raffle hopes to utilize every piece he has at LH.
无毛视频淚 feel as though everybody that无毛视频檚 on that squad can be a weapon, can be a good, solid player,无毛视频� Raffle said. 无毛视频淭hat无毛视频檚 sort of what our aim is, to make them all good, solid football players, and put everybody in that position where they can be successful.无毛视频�
Raffle enjoyed his time at George Mason and feels the experience helped him improve even more as a coach.
无毛视频淚 learned a good bit,无毛视频� he said. 无毛视频淐lub football at the college level is kind of like the college version of semipro football because you无毛视频檙e working around a lot of different schedules, whether it无毛视频檚 class schedules or work schedules for players as well as coaches. So being able to be dynamic in practice planning and practice scheduling was crucial, just helping them manage their time. That was the biggest hurdle with club football.无毛视频�
Raffle is confident his past experiences can help him in getting Mustang players recruited.
无毛视频淚 actually generated a lot of college connections coaching high school in Virginia, just simply from the recruiting aspect of things,无毛视频� he said. 无毛视频淲e were very good at being able to get student-athletes in front of college coaches and recruiters and helping them through the process if they needed it, and just being on the collegiate side of things, understanding what the admissions process is like and how those dollars fly around in different ways.无毛视频�
Raffle无毛视频檚 wife Heather is an Albert Gallatin graduate.
Raffle, the son of Gary and Ruby Raffle, has three sons 无毛视频� Milo, 5, Adam, 21, living in Virginia, and stepson Anthony, 25, living in Florida 无毛视频� and one daughter, Tessa, 2.