Rustin’s St. Clair has ruled C-M American from the start
WESTTOWN – A football winning percentage near .900 is reserved for a select few coaches, like Notre Dame legend Knute Rockne. In Pennsylvania high school circles, Berwick’s George Curry is tops, winning at a .806 clip from 1967-2015.
West Chester Rustin mentor Mike St. Clair’s career numbers aren’t quite that lofty – although .721 is nothing to scoff at. But if you look at his record against his primary competition every season, fellow Ches-Mont American foes, it stands out like a bright blinking beacon.
Since starting the Rustin football program in 2006, St. Clair has an implausible 60-6 mark within the division. That’s an unworldly winning percentage of .906.
“Coach St. Clair does a phenomenal job of taking the pieces he has each year and seamlessly fitting them into a scheme that has been successful for a long time, while making small tweaks and adjustments to take advantage of his player’s skill sets,” said Oxford head coach Michael Means. “He gets the most out of his kids.”
St. Clair’s Golden Knights captured a huge one last Friday, blanking Unionville 14-0 to move into the driver’s seat in the race for the Ches-Mont American crown. Now 3-0 (5-2 overall), Rustin needs a road win at Sun Valley today and a regular season home win against Great Valley next week to wrap it up, and complete the program’s seventh perfect season within the division since its debut season in 2007.
“(Head coach) Pat (Clark) does a great job at Unionville and every game we’ve had against them comes down to a score here or there,” St. Clair said. “We came ready to play that night and were lucky enough to come away with the win.”
St. Clair’s Ches-Mont roots are deep. He spent 13 seasons as an assistant coach under Joe Carroll at West Chester East, and jumped at the chance to become Rustin’s first head coach.
“I knew the type of kids that would be coming to Rustin and I thought it would be a good fit,” he said.
For its inaugural season, the Knights didn’t even have a senior class but the team won its first game and went 3-8. An 8-4 campaign followed, and then Rustin became a regional superpower, going 22-0 in the C-M American over the next four seasons (43-7 overall) which included several deep playoff runs.
“We were lucky enough to have success early and it just sort of snowballed over the years,” said St. Clair, who also said that the early success was a bit of a surprise.
“Mike is an outstanding coach,” added Clark, who won the previous three C-M American titles in 2015-2017. “The thing about Rustin is that they always play hard. He’s intense and competitive and has been able to build a program where he inspires kids to be their best.
“I know I would want my son to play for someone like Mike.”
That’s pretty high praise from a primary rival, but it’s been earned. In all, Rustin’s reined over the division seven times in a dozen seasons with number eight looming.
“I always came to Rustin games when I was a little kid, so I remember them always having success with runners like Terry Loper and Rondell White,” said senior runner Mike Covert. “We have to live up the standard that comes with playing at Rustin.
“(Unionville) took it from us that last three years and we’ve worked hard to get into a position to take it back.”
Now in his 14th season at the helm, St. Clair’s overall record is 106-41. But perhaps more importantly, he is a combined 18-7 against the other two programs in the district: West Chester East and West Chester Henderson.
“Our two main goals are posted in our locker room: win West Chester and win Ches-Mont (American),” Covert said.
“We are proud of our record in the Ches-Mont, proud of our record against East and Henderson,” St. Clair added. “Number one for us is to make sure we win West Chester.”
It certainly didn’t take long for St. Clair to develop a recipe for winning at Rustin, which is rooted in some core principles that could be described as old school football: like running the football and being sound and aggressive on defense.
“Mike runs a great program and has built something impressive,” said Great Valley head coach Dan Ellis. “When you play Rustin you know you’re going to get a team that is fundamentally sound, doesn’t beat itself and plays very physical football.
“Having coached with him and against him, I know he does it for the right reasons.”
According to St. Clair, another philosophical approach has helped his program, as well as all of the others at Rustin, over the years.
“One of the big things why we’ve had so much success is that all of the coaches in our building work together to make sure the kids are playing multiple sports,” he explained.
“It’s a philosophy here that the more sports you play, the better athlete you are. You don’t want to do just one thing all year. It burns you out.”
Senior tight end-defensive end Sean Hopkins is a prime example. The 6-foot-3, 210-pounder plays basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring.
“If you play other sports, you don’t get burned out and you’re using different muscles,” Hopkins said.
The recent win over Unionville was very Rustin-like. The Knights held the Indians to 129 yards of total offense, and ran for 242 themselves, with Covert leading the way with 110 yards and an interception.
“We have a lot of respect for (St. Clair) and the whole coaching staff,” Hopkins said. “He gets under our skin at practice for motivation and he’s hard on us, but it pays off on Friday nights.”
