STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – Long-time Clarion (and Central Clarion) football coach and current North Clarion athletic director Larry Wiser was inducted into the Centre County Sports Hall of Fame on Sunday, Oct. 22.
“It is a great honor to be selected to this group,” Wiser told Clarion Sports Zone when it was announced he was getting into the Hall of Fame. “I want to thank the voting members of the Centre County Sports Hall of Fame for selecting me. I want to also thank the many, many people who helped me get this honor.”
Wiser, who is also in his second year as the color commentator on the YDL Sports Network’s District 9 Football Game of the Week, is a 1968 graduate of Bald Eagle Area High School, where he played football and wrestled while also playing baseball in the summer.
“I grew up in a small town in Centre County (Port Matilda),” Wiser said. “My brother (Steve, the associate head coach and co-defensive coordinator at Lycoming College, who was inducted into the Centre County Sports Hall of Fame in 2019) and I played Little League, Teener Ball, and American Legion. We were very successful and were very lucky to have our Dad coach us. He was not only a great coach but also played baseball at Penn State.”
After high school, Wiser came to what was then Clarion State College (later Clarion University and now PennWest Clarion) where he wrestled while majoring in education.
Upon graduation, he began teaching social studies at Clarion Area High School and joined the coaching staff of the football team while also coaching wrestling.
He became head coach of the Bobcats in 1988 and served two stints as the head man (1988-2009 and 2011-2019) and was the first head coach of Central Clarion in 2020.
In those 32 years, Wiser won just over 70 percent of his games (238-103-1) and finished his career as the second-winningest coach in District 9 history. He led the Bobcats to four District 9 titles (three in Class 1A – 1997, 2009, 2013 – and one in Class 2A – 2017) and eight runner-up finishes.
During his time at Clarion, Wiser also served a stint as the athletic director for the school.
Upon his second retirement as a football coach, Wiser became the color man on the YDL Sports Network in 2022. The 2023 season marks his second year in that role.
He also took over as the athletic director at North Clarion High School for the 2023-24 school year.
A member of both the Pennsylvania Scholastic Football Coaches Association and Central Pennsylvania Football Hall of Fame, Wiser was instrumental in getting the Central Clarion football co-op in place and has also served key roles on the Lezzer Lumber all-star football game committee.
