By: Chris Harlan


Thursday, February 13, 2025 | 5:11 PM

West Mifflin intends to hire a football coach next week, but it won’t be incumbent Rod Steele.

Steele was originally a finalist to retain his job but said Thursday he withdrew his name from consideration last month. All West Mifflin coaching jobs were open to applicants, with current coaches able to reapply.

Steele coached the Titans for six seasons.

“The more I thought about it, I decided to withdraw my name,” Steele said. “I felt it was the right time to move on.”

West Mifflin went 27-34 under Steele with a 19-17 conference mark and three playoff appearances. The Titans went 5-5 last season and narrowly missed the WPIAL playoffs because of a slimmed-down, eight-team bracket in Class 4A.

“Rod did a commendable job here at West Mifflin,” said athletic director Lance Maha, who was hired in July. “He was a great guy to work with. He really cared about kids, and he really cared about the program.”

Steele also works for West Mifflin as a school police officer.

Maha said the school expected to hire a football coach at its Feb. 20 board meeting.

Steele won two WPIAL titles and a state championship at Steel Valley before becoming the Titans’ coach. His 2016 state championship team was the most dominant in WPIAL history, winning by mercy rule over every opponent.

Steele’s career record is 101-62.

West Mifflin made the WPIAL playoffs in 2019, ’22 and ’23. Steele said he didn’t know when or where he might coach again but was leaving that door open.

“If an opportunity arises and it’s the right fit for what I want to do, then I’ll pursue it,” he said. “I’ll sit back and see what happens.”

Steele said his plans also include watching his son, Rico, play football as a redshirt freshman offensive lineman at Bowling Green. He said one way to measure his coaching staff’s success was the number of players they sent to college.

Senior lineman Jaiden Brown-Demery signed with Akron in December. Steele has coached some Division I talents but said many others over the past six years later played at an NCAA Division II or III school.

“We were developing student-athletes and giving them the opportunity to go off to school and be successful,” Steele said. “We’ve put a lot of kids in college.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: West Mifflin