Lasting legacy
Bethel Park-bound Humbert reflects on stellar reign at BV
Matt Humbert has had success wherever he’s gone.
At Laurel Highlands he quarterback the Mustangs to only their second WPIAL playoff appearance in 2002 and was part of a winning program at California University of Pa. (now PennWest California), where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Education in 2009 and a Master in Athletic Administration in 2010.
Humbert guided Ringgold football to a 30-13 record over four years in his first head coaching job, including an undefeated regular season in 2010 in his first full season with the Rams, who had a winning record in just two of their previous 10 years.
In 2014 Humbert accepted the football head coaching position at Belle Vernon and became athletic director there in 2016.
His reign with the Leopards has been highly successful in both positions. Belle Vernon had a 98-26 record during his 11 years as coach, including consecutive WPIAL and PIAA championships in 2022 and 2023, and athletics at Belle Vernon have improved significantly all-around during his time there.
Humbert has a new challenge ahead of him now. He has accepted the athletic director position at Bethel Park and will leave Belle Vernon midway through the upcoming fall season. He reflected on his time at Belle Vernon while also looking ahead to being a part of Black Hawk nation.
“When I think back on it, I just feel such fulfillment,” said the 41-year-old Humbert. “When you get in a career like this — obviously I associate my football career with my AD career — there are a lot of things that have happened at Belle Vernon that are gratifying, that I take pride in. I look back with such fond memories. I’ve had the experience and opportunity to work with a lot of good people. I feel that we, as an athletic department, have left a very positive impact on the district in many different ways.
“I’ve always enjoyed my time at Belle Vernon with trying to plus and improve things. We’ve done a lot to the Weir/the Beach (James Weir Stadium). We’ve done a lot of just other things, press boxes, weight rooms, locker rooms, Leopard Hall was a big initiative that we put in good hands, a full auxiliary gym, a full large-gather film room, and our brand-new gym project that hopefully will be done in two weeks.”
Humbert admits to being a bit emotional about leaving.
“One sad thing I’ll miss especially at Belle Vernon is my support staff, my athletic department family, from the people that sell tickets to the people that do our security, our game managers, my front office, my secretary Melissa (Modar), who’s a rock star, to my former secretary Janice (Sandy),” Humbert said. “I’m going to miss them all because it was just such a good group of people. It was truly like a family. And that’s the goal, to make it like a fraternity, to make it like a family and kind of build that culture.”
Location played a role in Humbert’s move. His family, which includes wife Kimberly, 13-year-old daughter Payton and 11-year-old son Nolan, lives in the Thomas Jefferson school district, which is less than 10 miles from Bethel Park High School.
“My kids are very active in athletics and everything so it helps,” Humbert admitted. “At Belle Vernon there’s days where I’d be working 13-14 hours and sometimes I’d try to run home in between, sometimes I would just stay because you’re wasting almost an hour commuting back and forth.
“It will be nice with Bethel and the South Hills where my kids play and they have practices and things of that nature. I’m active in their stuff with my training business that I started. We do girls travel flag football teams. My daughter plays on that. I coach my son’s tackle football team. I think it’ll work out for my family as far as being a lot closer to the homestead and I always felt that was a premier institution athletically, academically.”
Bethel Park has a larger enrollment than Belle Vernon and is a Class 5A team in football, while the Leopards will be in Class 3A.
“The classification thing didn’t really play into it, though,” Humbert said. “Bethel Park has a considerable amount of sports and a lot of facility upgrades going on. They just put in two new 100-yard turf fields that are auxiliary fields. The athletic department and school district is on the up-and-up with trying to improve and progress things. To be honest, it doesn’t need that much progressing because it’s a very, very nice district as it is right now. But even though they have great facilities, they’re still looking to add and upgrade, so I’m excited about that.”
Humbert is a highly regarded athletic director in the PIAA and credited part of his success to some of his former coaches. He played football under Jack Buehner and Scott Knee at Laurel Highlands and Jim Luckhardt at California.
“The lasting thing I took away from Jack is his positivity and energy and passion,” Humbert said. “From Scott, it was his attention to detail and the intensity that he brought that wore off on me.
“From Coach Luck, one thing I took away was the logistical side of everything. He was great when it came to all the backend stuff, the fundraising, the different cultural-based things of getting everyone to row the right way, and administration as well. Luck was very good with the full concept of organizational football.
“It was kind of neat being able to pick apart three guys who were clearly different and take away some of those things and morph it into my leadership style.”
Humbert said he wasn’t actively pursuing another job but the Bethel Park position opened up and drew his attention.
“These jobs don’t come open every two or three years,” Humbert said. “They’re hard to come by sometimes. I know Belle Vernon will be a very coveted job for a lot of people. Then the Bethel job, I thought they had a lot to offer and I felt it was good timing.”
Humbert is confident Belle Vernon’s athletic department will have a smooth transition for whoever takes over for him and will remain successful, and commended Modar.
“My secretary has been with me for two years and has such a good, strong ownership and leadership of the athletic department,” he said. “She’s pretty resourceful and self-sufficient.”
The highlight of Humbert’s stint at Belle Vernon was the two WPIAL and PIAA titles, an accomplishment he looks back on fondly.
“I feel an immense amount of pride to win at those levels,” Humbert said. “We’ve been to the stadium with the yellow seats (Heinz Field/Acrisure Stadium) four times since I’ve been at Belle Vernon and won it twice and won the two states. Those are things that people go a lifetime without getting close to, let alone winning, so I’m very appreciative of that and very gratified by that.
“But I think the thing that’s truly special is seeing how much it meant to the kids, their families and the community. I think that is probably more of a lasting impact, just taking in the whole collective, from the administration to the student-athletes to the band to the support staff, to everyone involved, and rejoicing in those accomplishments.”