Brett Gordon keeps his late father in mind as La Salle continues its run in the state playoffs

There are days when Brett Gordon is driving down Route 309 toward La Salle College High School and he’ll think about his late father Drew, the Hall of Fame coach who died on Sept. 4, 2023, at the age of 73. Memories of his dad, Brett admits, have become more vivid, especially these last couple of weeks.

The Explorers are on a special journey this season. So is their second-year coach Brett Gordon, who learned everything about football — and life — from his dad.

The only time La Salle won a PIAA state football championship was 2009, when the Explorers won the Class 4A title with Drew as their head coach and Brett as their offensive coordinator.

Drew and Brett are on the brink of doing something no father-son duo has ever done in the 36-year history of the PIAA football state playoffs — win state championships as head coaches. But first, one game stands in the way of accomplishing that. La Salle (12-1) will face Central Catholic High School (13-1) of Pittsburgh in the PIAA Class 6A final on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Cumberland Valley High School.

“I know how much my father would have loved to be a part of this,” Brett said. “I think about him all the time. If my father was with us and he was in good health, he would have been around here coaching in some capacity. I wouldn’t have a choice. The thing I admired the most about my father was that it never was about him. He grew up in a generation of serving. He never cared about any recognition. He was direct. He was there to coach. He cared about the kids. That was all that mattered. That was how he operated.”

After La Salle beat St. Joseph’s Prep for the first time in 10 years for the Catholic League 6A crown on Nov. 1, Brett, 46, a 1998 La Salle and 2002 Villanova graduate, received a long, congratulatory text from former St. Joe’s Prep coach Gabe Infante, currently Duke’s assistant head coach, special teams coordinator, and defensive tackles coach. When Infante was first hired by The Prep in 2010, he was not exactly embraced by the area football community after taking over for the popular Gil Brooks.

One of the first welcomes Infante received came from Drew in a letter sent to Paramus Catholic in North Jersey, where Infante was leaving to take the Prep job.

“I know people will not want to hear this, but Drew and I were very close, even after he stopped coaching [in 2014],” Infante said. “Drew welcomed me, and that showed me who Drew was. He was a true competitor. He showed tremendous class. I was definitely an outsider who was not welcomed when I originally went down to Philadelphia. I would not be where I am today without Drew Gordon and what he built at La Salle. He raised my level, and I would like to think Prep’s success raised La Salle’s level again.

“I was in Brett’s shoes. I could appreciate what Brett is doing there. I am a fan of people who are committed to sacrifice like Brett is. True competition brings out the best in people. When Drew got sick, I reached out to him. We had a really good relationship, and it all started with a very kind, simple letter welcoming me to the Philadelphia Catholic League and Philadelphia area.”

» READ MORE: How St. Joe’s Prep vs. La Salle became Philadelphia’s ultimate football rivalry

The notes fill a shoebox in a bedroom drawer. They came in the form of either a Hallmark card, yellow legal paper, or a simple scrap of printer paper or from a looseleaf notebook. They sometimes would be sitting in an envelope on the kitchen table, tucked under a door or stuffed in a mailbox. Brett still has most of them — letters from Drew.

Father and son share a lot in common. They always took a cerebral approach to football. They always were focused and intense about the steps in the process of preparing. Brett, a two-time Catholic League champ and league MVP at La Salle, says he tends to wear his emotions on his sleeve, probably more than his father, who was far calmer on the sideline and emotionally indifferent.

It’s why he communicated with his son and two daughters through letters.

Drew was a baby boomer born in 1950, the oldest of six. He was 12 when his parents separated, moving with his mother, Dorothy, and five younger siblings from Ohio to Glenside, Montgomery County. He was “the man of the house” who worked a paper route in Abington to help his mother pay the bills.

He was steeped in Midwestern stoicism and self-reliance.

“That was my dad,” Brett said. “He came from that generation when men did not show emotion. Verbal communication was not my dad’s strong suit. He had a very regimented way he did things. He built Gordon Truck Leasing from the ground up. We are similar in certain ways, and we are also very different. My dad was always about the process. I still use a lot of his old-school principles. But he came up in a different, authoritative generation. I’ll ask the players for their feedback, like what uniforms they want to wear. He would never have done that.

“The compliments he gave me came in letters. I still have a lot of them. He came from a different generation. He would put things down on paper.”

» READ MORE: La Salle takes down St. Joe’s Prep to win Catholic League 6A crown: ‘This is only the beginning’

When Brett was inducted into the Hall of Fame at Villanova and La Salle, Drew left his son a letter stating how proud he was of him.

Sometimes letters were better.

After Brett threw for a Villanova single-game passing record of 460 yards (which still stands) and three touchdowns in guiding the Wildcats to a last-second 38-34 victory over rival Delaware in November 2002, he was greeted by Drew and his mother, Bernadette, outside the Villanova locker room. The first thing Drew said to Brett was, “Your footwork was horrendous today.”

“In a weird way, that was his way of complimenting me,” Brett said, laughing. “It was very hard for him to hand out compliments. I’m sure he told his buddies about the game I had. I always knew he was proud of me. I wouldn’t be where I am without him. Yeah, you could say it was the good, tough love. It is that constant reminder that there is always room to be better. That is my coaching philosophy today.”

This season is as much a homage to his dad as it is giving a group of dedicated seniors a year to remember.

When John Steinmetz resigned after the 2023 season following nine years as Explorers’ head coach succeeding Drew, there was a groundswell of support from the La Salle community for Brett to take over. Brett, who was his father’s offensive coordinator from 2006 to 2014, dabbled in coaching after his father left La Salle in 2014. He joined Albie Crosby’s Imhotep Class 3A state championship staff in 2015 and helped occasionally at his alma mater.

Numerous current players were looking to transfer out of La Salle after their sophomore year. The Explorers had been competitive, though not exactly in the class of Catholic League foe St. Joe’s Prep. The Hawks had turned what once was a rivalry into a lopsided series. There is a standard at La Salle, a touchstone of success the football program had not felt since Drew left.

“It was not 100% that we were all leaving, but a lot of guys were talking,” said Gavin Sidwar, the Missouri-bound quarterback who has broken all his coach’s passing records at La Salle. “When we found out Coach Brett would be the head coach, it’s something a lot of us were happy to hear. Personally, I can’t say enough about what Coach Brett has done for me. He’s brought out a growth in me, and I am willing to put in 100% for him.

“He gave up his job for this. We know that. This run is going to be emotional for a lot of us. I know for me, being here for four years with some adversity, winning a state championship means everything. Knowing now the tradition his father has here and being the first father-son combination to ever win a state championship, it means more for all of us. We play our butts off for Coach Brett and the whole coaching staff. To get Coach Brett a state title, we are even more motivated.”

Brett received his business degree from Villanova and worked in the corporate world for 15 years, building a national reputation in the software industry. It gave him financial flexibility, he said, to do what he is doing now. He had to first check with Tanya, his wife, son, Luke, who is a sophomore quarterback for La Salle, and teenaged daughter, Grace, who follows her father everywhere.

» READ MORE: La Salle’s Gavin Sidwar broke school records held by his head coach

“Tanya puts up with a lot, especially at certain times of the year like now,” he said. “In order to take on the role as coach at La Salle, I needed full support from not only Tanya, but Luke and Grace. This job impacts our entire family, so it was very important for me to have both Tanya and Grace involved so they feel a part of what we are building here.

“Tanya has gotten to know most of our players and has our son in the program, so it can be difficult being the head coach’s wife and being a parent in the program. She has done an amazing job balancing it all. Tanya and Grace often remind Luke and I at home when it is time to talk about something other than La Salle football.”

In 2009, father and son were robbed of their time in the sun, or in the Gordons’ case, that late-December Saturday, the snow. When the Explorers played State College in the 2009 Class 4A championship, the game was postponed for a day because of a raging blizzard. Luke had been born a few weeks earlier with a collapsed lung. His medical situation put the family on edge. Brett woke up at 7 a.m. on a snowy Saturday, Dec. 19 morning and had the roads to Hershey to himself. La Salle handily beat State College, 24-7, to become the first Catholic League team to win a state football championship.

The problem was Brett had no time to celebrate. He had to trek back home to be with Tanya and Luke.

Around 9 p.m. that night, Brett got a knock on the door. It was his dad, who drove through a snowstorm to get there, tossing aside the state championship celebration himself to see his grandson. He stayed in the guest room that night.

“These next few weeks won’t be easy. It won’t be easy on or off the field. I wish I could bounce ideas off him, but I also know how much he would love being a part of this. If we are able to pull this off, he’ll be the first one I think of.”

Drew never missed anything Luke or Grace did. To this day, Luke wears a silver chain his grandfather gave him.

There were more than 1,000 people who attended Drew’s funeral services, Brett recalled. It stretched over two days in September 2023.

“I saw my dad cry once, after my last high school game on Thanksgiving against St. Joe’s Prep in 1997,” Brett said. “We lost, and I remember when I saw him after the game, I told him I was sorry. He just burst open and hugged me. I remember his younger brother, my godfather, telling me years later he never saw anything like that with my dad. ... It won’t be easy on or off the field. I wish I could bounce ideas off him, but I also know how much he would love being a part of this. If we are able to pull this off, he’ll be the first one I think of.”