Bob Palko was the architect behind West Allegheny High School growing into a football powerhouse in the late 1990s, but also heavily involved in the blueprint for success was a teenager who was once more interested in riding bicycles than winning football games.
When Palko took the job in 1995, he was quickly introduced to Ben Herbert, a promising 6-foot-1, 180-pound sophomore who Palko recalls as being “thin, but put together” and “intense.”
“He was a BMX bike rider, so I’m going, ‘That [stuff] is over. No more.’ So, he sold his bike and trained his [butt] off in the summer, and that’s when we knew we had some players,” Palko recalled. “Obviously, we didn’t know we were going to win a WPIAL title in three years because it had never been done there before. They had never won anything before.”
In just his third season, Palko guided a team that had reached the playoffs just once in school history before he arrived to a first WPIAL championship. The Indians went on to win eight WPIAL titles in Palko’s 24 seasons, but Palko will always hold that first championship team close to his heart.
Among the contributors, big and small, to West Allegheny’s WPIAL Class 3A championship team in 1997 were Herbert, a star senior tight end-linebacker and team captain, and Kirk Campbell, a sixth grader who was the team’s ball boy. Campbell went on to become a standout player himself and later helped the Indians win their first and only PIAA title in 2001.
Twenty-seven years later, Herbert and Campbell will team up once again to try to help their team win another championship, only this time they are both coaches and the title they’re playing for is the College Football Playoff National Championship.
A pair of West Allegheny graduates will attempt to bring Michigan its first national title since, coincidentally, 1997 on Monday night when the Wolverines (14-0) face Washington (14-0) at NRG Stadium in Houston. Herbert is in his sixth season as director of strength and conditioning, and Campbell is in his first season as quarterbacks coach. Herbert also holds the title of associate head coach.
Nearly 1,500 miles away, Palko plans on watching the game on television from his apartment in State College, where he just completed his first season as Penn State’s director of high school relations. And when the camera pans to one of his two former players, both of whom he considers family, chances are he’ll have a smile on his face.
“I don’t know how you put it into words. I’m grateful. I’m blessed,” said Palko, who was named the NFL High School Coach of the Year in 2021 after guiding Mt. Lebanon to WPIAL and PIAA Class 6A titles. “Blessed to have had these young men be a part of my life. You’re grateful. You cherish all those relationships that you have.”
There are actually three members of Michigan’s football staff that spent time at West Allegheny and that Palko speaks highly of. Justin Tress is a 2011 Blackhawk High School graduate who is Michigan’s associate director of strength of conditioning. Tress was a strength coach under Palko for a season or two last decade.
Herbert, who previously spent 11 years at Wisconsin and six at Arkansas, has grown into a superstar strength coach. Michigan offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore told The Athletic earlier this season, “He’s the best strength coach in the country. It’s not close.”
Herbert’s love for lifting weights began to take off after Palko arrived at West Allegheny. By the time Herbert graduated, he had grown 2 inches and added about 40 pounds to his physique. A three-year starter at tight end and linebacker, Herbert intercepted two passes, returning one for a 70-yard touchdown, to help West Allegheny claim its first WPIAL title courtesy of a 51-24 win against Brownsville at Three Rivers Stadium.
“He was really, really good because he was intense,” Palko said. “I remember vividly watching him pancake people. He loved to smack people. He loved the physicality.”
And even back then, Palko said, Herbert, who is known as a fiery guy, wore what has become a trademark scowl on his face.
“Oh yeah, he’s always been like that. He listens through his eyes,” Palko said.
Herbert was Palko’s first big recruit at West Allegheny. Urban Meyer, then an assistant at Notre Dame, was one of the coaches who made stops at West Allegheny to see Herbert, but Herbert eventually fell in love with Wisconsin, which had some local connections in head coach Barry Alvarez (Burgettstown) and linebackers coach Jay Hayes (South Fayette). Herbert became a four-year letterman as a defensive lineman at Wisconsin, where he won two Rose Bowls.
By the time Campbell began high school, his family’s last name was well known around local football circles. The youngest of Kevin and Cindy Campbell’s three boys, Kirk followed in the footsteps of brothers Kevin and Kellen as being a standout player — and captain — at West Allegheny. Kevin actually started at linebacker alongside Herbert on the 1997 WPIAL championship team, and Kellen ultimately went on to play at Pitt, where he went from walk-on to starting fullback and played alongside Palko’s oldest son, Tyler.
Kirk Campbell was a three-year letterman at West Allegheny who played wide receiver and safety and also returned punts. West Allegheny won WPIAL titles his freshman and sophomore years. His sophomore season also saw the Indians defeat Strath Haven, 28-13, for the PIAA Class 3A title. Both of Palko’s sons were also on that team, as Tyler, a senior, was the quarterback and Luke, a junior, a wide receiver. Years later, Tyler would be the best man in Campbell’s wedding.
“He was a late bloomer as an athlete,” Bob Palko said of Campbell, who graduated from West Allegheny in 2004. “He had great hands. He was a heck of a wide receiver. He just wasn’t that fast. He played at Mercyhurst. He wasn’t a Division I kid, but there’s some good football players at those PSAC schools. He was just a worker. I didn’t doubt anything about him. His hands were unbelievable. I’ll never forget that.”
Palko said he will also never forget Campbell’s eagerness to learn and his attention to detail, traits that have helped him thrive professionally.
“He’s more cerebral than [Herbert], but he was a talker,” Palko said with a laugh. “He would say, ‘Coach, we should do this.’ So I’d say, ‘Hey, Kirk. I really didn’t ask you. I don’t care what you think right now.’ Then I’d look around and go, ‘That kid was right. I probably should have listened to him.’”
Campbell began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at West Virginia Wesleyan before making stops at Tiffin (wide receivers/tight ends coach), Alderson Broaddus (assistant head coach/offensive coordinator), Penn State (offensive analyst) and Old Dominion (offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach).
After two seasons at Old Dominion, Campbell suddenly found himself without a job, so Palko reached out to Herbert to see if Campbell might be able to land a position at Michigan.
“There was an analyst job that opened up at Michigan, and I called Ben,” Palko recalled. “I said, ‘Ben, one of our family members needs a job.’ And he interviewed up there. I’m not saying we got him the job, but we put him in position, like all families do when you need a foot in the door. And that’s why he got hired at Michigan, because of Ben.”
After serving as an offensive analyst in his first season at Michigan last season, Campbell was elevated to quarterbacks coach this season. In that role he’s helped develop all-Big Ten performer J.J. McCarthy, who has thrown for 22 touchdowns compared to just four interceptions. McCarthy threw for three scores in a 27-20 overtime win against Alabama in the semifinals.
With Palko at Penn State and Campbell and Herbert at Michigan, the high school coach and his two former players are now at rival schools.
“They’re the enemies now,” Palko said.
But Palko sees Campbell and Herbert not as former players but as family. And there were a couple of family reunions in 2023. Palko visited Michigan for a spring practice before being hired at Penn State and then Penn State hosted Michigan on Nov. 11, a 24-15 Michigan win.
“Now it’s, ‘Tell me about your children and tell me about what’s going on,’ and it’s the same thing with me, and I’m talking about my grandkids now,” Palko said. “This is family here. This isn’t just ex-players. It’s like having family in this game.”
And when he turns on the national championship game Monday night, Palko will be one proud guy.
Said Palko, “It’s wonderful. They’re playing for the natty. How cool is that?”
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.