Jan. 12, 2006

EASTON, Pa. (www.lafayette.edu) - Former Lafayette football players Elijah Beamon '01 and Harry Armstrong '02 have both accepted high school head coaching positions. Armstrong will take over at Riverside High School, his alma mater, in Taylor, Pa., while Beamon has assumed the head coaching responsibilities at John S. Burke Catholic in Goshen, N.Y.

Beamon, who served as an assistant coach for the last two years at Burke, replaces Dwight Smith, who retired after leading the school to the Section 9 Class B title in just its third varsity season.

A native of Middletown, N.Y., Beamon was a three-year starter at defensive back for the Leopards. He had 12 career interceptions and was a member of the All-Patriot League Second Team in each of his final three seasons. Beamon led the Patriot League with six interceptions and 25 pass break-ups as a junior, and had two interceptions, 18 passes defensed and a career-high 54 tackles as a senior.

Following his career at Lafayette, Beamon played three years as an offensive specialist with the Albany Conquest in the Arena Football League. A physical education teacher at Burke, he is the junior varsity boys' basketball coach and was the varsity tennis coach last spring. He was a four-year letterwinner in both football and basketball at Middletown, starting at quarterback and free safety on the gridiron and at guard on the hardwood.

As a player at Riverside, Armstrong led the Vikings to two straight District 2 Class A championships and the 1997 PIAA Class A championship game, and set school records with 4,253 yards and 66 touchdowns. He continued his career as a quarterback at Lafayette, where he compiled a 3-2 record in five games as a starter as a sophomore.

Armstrong earned the McGaughey Award as the MVP of the 1999 Lafayette-Bucknell game in which he completed the game-winning 36-yard touchdown pass on fourth down in his first career start. He also completed 22-of-33 passes for 181 yards and two touchdowns in the Leopards' 14-12 loss to Lehigh, and finished his career with 1,056 yards passing and nine touchdowns.

Armstrong coached defensive backs during spring football in 2002 for the Leopards. He has also spent time at Worcester Polytechnic and Johns Hopkins, and coached quarterbacks and wide receivers for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers. He inherits a program that has made two state playoff appearances in the last four years and won the Lackawanna Football Conference Division III crown in 2004, but fell to 1-9 last season after being hit hard by graduation.