O-line coach expected to be named next Gov. Mifflin head football coach
2023 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
They’re keeping it in the family at Gov. Mifflin, with the offensive line coach once again moving up to become head coach.
Nicholas Morrissey, who served as both defensive coordinator and offensive line coach for the Mustangs last season, is expected to be approved as head coach at Monday’s school board meeting.
Morrissey will replace Jeff Lang, who resigned last month after spending 33 seasons with the program, including the last six as head coach. Lang was offensive line coach for Mick Vecchio, whom he replaced on an interim basis in 2016 and then again in 2018 after Vecchio retired.
Morrissey replaced Lang as offensive line coach when Lang became head coach.
Lang threw his support behind Morrissey last month, telling MikeDragoSports.com: “He’s all Mifflin and loves it. He’s all in.”
Morrissey was a two-time first-team all-league guard at Muhlenberg as a junior and senior, helping the Muhls win the Inter-County League Section 1 title each season. He played for John Yocum in high school before moving on to play at Albright College.
Morrissey is a 2008 Albright grad and teaches social studies at Gov. Mifflin high school.
His father Mick, a long-time assistant coach, was on the Mifflin staff with him last season.
Lang got in on the ground floor with Vecchio in 1992 and the two helped build Mifflin into a Berks football dynasty. During Lang’s time in the program Mifflin won 14 league titles, a District 3 championship and 226 games, with two perfect regular seasons and nine seasons of 10 or more wins.
Lang was Mifflin’s head coach for seven seasons, finishing with a 51-26 record and the highest winning percentage (.662) in program history. He led the Mustangs to three straight Section 1 titles, from 2019-21, and to a 24-1 record in league play before Mifflin returned to the Lancaster-Lebanon League for the 2022 season.
The Mustangs finished each of the last two seasons with losing records. They were 5-5 this season before losing to Pleasant Valley in an Eastern Conference playoff game.
Morrissey will be the second new football coach hired in Berks since the end of the season.
Former Reading High and Daniel Boone coach Rob Flowers was hired earlier this month at Muhlenberg, where he quarterbacked one of the best teams in program history as a senior in 1998.
Flowers replaced John Lorchak, who resigned following four seasons as head coach.
Flowers coached the Blazers from 2018-22 and Reading High from 2011-17.
Section 2 of the Lancaster-Lebanon League will look quite different next season, with at least three new head coaches. In addition to changes at Mifflin and Muhlenberg, Lebanon will have a new head coach after the resignation of Frank Isenberg.