At age 62, Jim Rankin has taken on the task of trying to turn around a losing high school football program.

But no one should be surprised.

Ever since he "retired" as North Allegheny's coach after the 2004 season, he has wanted to be a head coach again. He was a finalist for Kiski Area's position a few years ago and thought for sure he was going to get the job. He didn't.

He also was a finalist for the Hempfield job when Greg Meisner was hired.

Rankin got his coaching wish Monday night when Butler hired him as its new coach.

"I think Tom Moore, the guy who's been the Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator, said it best," Rankin said. "He said about coaching, 'You're talking experience, and not age.' The way I see it, I feel I have enough energy to do this."

Rankin coached at North Allegheny for 18 years and had a 144-62-2 record. He also coached Ellwood City for eight seasons and his career mark is 181-106-3.

Since leaving North Allegheny, Rankin has spent time as an assistant coach at Carnegie Mellon University and two years as a volunteer assistant coach at Jeannette and Latrobe. At Jeannette and Latrobe, Rankin was under Ray Reitz, his ex-brother-in-law.

When the Butler job opened, he spoke with legendary former Butler coach Art Bernardi, who is on Butler's school board. But due to some off-the-field commitments, Rankin wasn't totally sure he could take the job until Monday afternoon.

Now he seems excited to be a head coach again. But that begs the question. If he wanted to be a head coach, why did he retire from North Allegheny?

There are a few things Rankin said he won't get into, but he said: "It was time to move on. I'm pretty good when I make a break with something. It's a clean break. I really haven't even followed football in the North [suburbs] since I left North Allegheny. I didn't even know how Butler did the past few years. I'm like a dog. When I make a break, I go on to the next thing."

His "next thing" is reviving Butler's program. The Golden Tornado hasn't been to the WPIAL playoffs since 1998 and the team was winless two of the past three seasons.

"I think it would've been different if I would've been off from coaching the last five years," Rankin said. "But I wasn't.

"If I was just going to get coffee and read the paper every morning and traveling to Costa Rica every three months without coaching anywhere, this would be different. It's not a broken relationship I had with coaching high school football. The past few years have actually enhanced it.

"You look at coaches like [North Hills'] Jack McCurry, [Upper St. Clair's] Jim Render, [Woodland Hills'] George Novak, [Shaler's] Neil Gordon. I'm similar in age to them and they're all coaching at a high level. I still think I can relate to kids and I think I can have a plan and have the energy to do what is needed to be done."

The National Federation of State High School Associations has passed a new rule concerning possible concussions in football games. State associations, including the PIAA, follow NFHS rules.

Under the new rule, any player who shows signs, symptoms or behaviors associated with a concussion must be removed from the game and shall not return until cleared by an appropriate health care professional.

This is different from the previous rule that directed game officials to remove an athlete from the game "if unconscious or apparently unconscious." Now, officials must remove the player who shows signs of a loss of consciousness, headache, dizziness, confusion or balance problems.

"Given that the vast majority of concussions do not include a loss of consciousness, but that athletes often show obvious evidence of concussion, the NFHS Sports Medicine Advisory Committee strongly believes that officials must continue to be empowered to remove these athletes from play, thus protecting them from further injury," Dr. Michael Koester, chair of the SMAC, said in a released statement.

It's hard to believe a WPIAL playoff team could be held to 25 points in a game. It's even harder to believe it happened twice on the same night.

In Tuesday's Class AAA first round, Montour defeated Greensburg Salem, 42-25, and Belle Vernon beat Hopewell, 40-25. Consider this: Those were two of the worst scoring performances in one of the largest classifications in more than 60 years.

Looking at Class AAA and AAAA playoff scores since 1947 (Class AAAA wasn't formed until the 1983-84 season), the 25 points tied for the fourth-lowest total. In 1988, Highlands lost to Latrobe, 25-20, in a Class AAAA first-round game. The second-lowest total since the late 1940s came in 1947 when Sharon lost to Aliquippa, 39-22, in a first-round game. Also that year, Uniontown lost to Duquesne, 47-23.

In 1962, Mt. Lebanon lost to Uniontown, 43-25. Last year, Elizabeth Forward lost to Mars, 49-25, in a preliminary-round game.

When Chartiers Valley's T.J. McConnell scored 44 points Tuesday against Indiana, it was the fifth-highest scoring game for an individual in WPIAL playoff history. Just in case you were wondering, here are the top four scoring games.

50 -- T.J. Heatherington, Serra, 2009.

48 -- Marc Marotta, Central Catholic, 1980.

46 -- Kevin Covert, Neshannock, 1995.

45 -- Cam Totedo, Belle Vernon, 2000.

A total of 24 boys' players in the WPIAL and City League averaged better than 20 points a game this season.

Only three girls averaged more than 20 points a game, compared to 10 last year. In 2003, 15 averaged better than 20.

McConnell finished the regular season with a 34.1 average, the second-highest in the WPIAL in the past 25 years. Laurel Highlands' Rob Kezmarsky averaged 36.2 in 1989-90.

It's considered a milestone when a player scores 1,000 career points. But Beth-Center's Tyler Miller finished his career with more than 1,000 rebounds. Miller, a 6-foot-6 senior, finished the regular season with 1,009 career rebounds.

Mike White's "High School Sports Edition" videos are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.