Jan 29, 2025
Staff photo / Dan Hiner Frank Colaprete gives his introductory speech during a press conference Tuesday afternoon at Cardinal Mooney High School.
YOUNGSTOWN — There were a couple talking points Frank Colaprete wanted to cover Tuesday afternoon. First was the importance of academics, then the legacy of the Cardinal Mooney football program and ending on the work necessary to win at a high level.
The speech was only about 10 minutes long, but it was Colaprete’s official return to the South Side of Youngstown. He was hired as the Cardinals’ new coach on Jan. 20, and he finally got a chance to meet with players, parents and members of the faculty and administration.
“I want to see growth, and the only way I know how to get back to that level is through hard work. It’s on the field, in the classroom and in the community,” Colaprete said. “I want to make sure I’m out meeting people and welcoming them to Cardinal Mooney.”
Colaprete will take over as the athletic director next academic year, in addition to coaching.
He’ll be tasked with turning around a Mooney program that hasn’t finished with a winning season since 2022 or beaten rival Ursuline since 2018. This past season, the Cardinals went 3-8 under Carl Pelini and lost in the first round of the Division IV playoffs.
Colaprete spent 12 seasons as the head coach of the Wooster College football team. He posted a record of 53-57, but that only included four losing campaigns. Prior to his time with the Fighting Scots, he was an assistant at Division III Allegheny College and John Carroll and FCS Georgetown.
“We had to build it up (at Wooster), and we were able to do that,” he said. “But it is Youngstown, it’s Cardinal Mooney, that pulled me away. That’s no lie.”
Colaprete was contacted to see if he was interested in returning to his alma mater – he graduated from Mooney in 1992 – and it only took 24 hours to make a decision.
There weren’t many jobs that would have pulled Colaprete out of Wooster, especially dropping from college to high school. But a chance to coach at his old stomping grounds was too good to pass up.
“There are great opportunities out there, but there’s only one that mattered. There was only one that would have made sense, for not just me, but for my entire family,” Colaprete said. “I’m blessed that it all came together or I wouldn’t have left where I was at.”
Cardinal Mooney President and Principal Nick Byers said that it was a start of a new era at the school. And the Cardinals managed to bring back one of their own to lead the next generation of Cardinal Mooney athletes.
“For them to hire someone like me, makes me feel great,” Colaprete said. “Knowing I want to raise my family and be here a long time … this is home. I wouldn’t have left college for anything else. This is me and my wife’s forever.”
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