Nick Cannone
Nick Cannone was a tremendous all-around athlete at Farrell High School who went on to a great coaching career in Mercer County.
He played football and basketball at Farrell from 1967-70. In football he was a three-year starter at quarterback and defensive back. The team won the Midwestern Athletic Conference crown in 1969 with a 9-1 record and he was voted offensive MVP by conference coaches. He was named honorable mention All-State at defensive back. He played basketball for the legendary Ed McCluskey on some strong teams, including as a junior the state title team of 1969. As a senior he was named second team All-Section 3. He lettered for McCluskey as a junior and senior. He received a full football scholarship to Purdue University where he played strong safety and special teams, lettering his senior year.
Nick had an illustrious coaching career. He served as assistant football coach at Farrell for 8 years under Bill Gargano and Lou Falconi. He coached basketball for 35 years, starting 4 years as 8th grade coach at Farrell then 1 year as varsity assistant at Sharon. He was a high school head coach for the next 30 years, posting an overall record of 476 victories in 771 games. As head coach, he served 4 years with Farrell girls, 4 years West Middlesex boys, 8 years Farrell boys, 4 years Wilmington boys, and 10 years Hickory boys.
He had 22 winning seasons, including eight 20-win seasons. His teams competed in the District finals 6 times, winning the WPIAL (District 7) Class AAAA crown in 1992, Farrell's last in Quad-A.
Nick later played softball for the Pepsi Cola team for 15 years, winning numerous league titles while qualifying for many ASA state tournaments.