"Lou" DeRosa was the football coach at Slatington High School for several years.
1959 Arthur L. Johnson Regional High School football team coaches, DeRosa in center; photo credit A. L. Johnson 1960 high school yearbook
In September 1943, the Slatington Board of Education appointed Louis DeRosa as the head football coach with Lloyd Williams as his assistant.
DeRosa was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Paterson, New Jersey where he graduated from Central High School in 1935. At Muhlenberg College, he was varsity starting center for three years (1937, 1938, 1939), and he graduated with his Bachelor of Arts in May 1940. In September 1941 he was named freshman football coach at Muhlenberg, and the following year he became an assistant football coach at Lehigh University, while he was also working at Bethlehem Steel.
At Slatington High School, DeRosa taught English on a provisional contract. In March 1946, he qualified as a professional employee and was granted a regular contract as instructor of English and history.
In July 1948, the school board accepted DeRosa’s resignation, effective 31 August 1948, and Michael Burcin, assistant football coach at Lititz High School, was named coach and teacher.
That year DeRosa moved to New Jersey where he became an English and social studies teacher at Jonathan Dayton Regional High School in Springfield, NJ. He taught at that school where for eight years, and he was also an assistant football and basketball coach, later becoming the head basketball coach.
In 1956, he transferred to Arthur L Johnson High School in Clark County, NJ as a teacher and football/basketball coach. He was head football coach from 1956 to 1960. I have not been able to find complete football records, but the 1959 team finished the season at 2-7 and the 1960 team was 0-9.
From 1961 to 1964, he taught social studies at Governor Livingston Regional High School in Berkeley Heights, NJ. He returned to Arthur L. Johnson H.S. as an assistant principal in July 1964. He was principal at the same high school from 1977 to 1986 before retiring.
In the five seasons that DeRosa was head coach at Slatington, the team won a total of nine games:
1943 0-7
1944 3-4-1
1945 2-6
1946 3-5
1947 1-7
The war years dramatically reduced the availability of high school boys for the football team, which was reflected in the team records.
In January 1942, he married Doris Davies (1919 - 2007) in Elkton, Maryland. She was born and raised in Slatington, a 1936 graduate of Slatington High school, and working at Pennsylvania Power and Light at the time. They lived on West Franklin Street, and had three daughters.