‘Rookie’ guides Peters

Indians regroup under new coach

Leroy Simms is making his debut, of sorts, despite having 20 years of volleyball coaching experience on his resumé.

Simms has taken over as boys head coach at Peters Township High School.

“This is my first year coaching boys,” Simms said. “I’ve been coaching girls for the past 20 years.”

Simms had been the head women’s coach at PittGreensburg for 12 years and will begin year No. 13 in the fall. He also has previous coaching stints at Waynesburg University as an assistant, Waynesburg Central High School as a head coach, and six years of coaching club volleyball, but has never coached boys during that time.

“I’ve wanted to coach boys volleyball, but it’s tougher to find a coaching opening in the WPIAL because most of the schools have coaches who have been around for a long time,” Simms said. “When I heard that Chris Kelly had stepped down at Peters Township, I applied and was fortunate to get the job.”

Simms is a 1988 graduate of Waynesburg Central High School. He started college at Robert Morris University, then transferred to Waynesburg University and graduated in 1995 with a bachelors degree in education. Since then, he’s earned two more degrees, a masters in political science in 2003 from California University of Pennsylvania, and a master’s in athletic administration in 2006 from Concordia University.

“I’m finding that there’s a big difference between coaching boys and girls,” said Simms, who is a seventh grade social studies teacher at Bentworth Middle School.

“Boys are more team-focussed than girls. They are more in tune with the final objective of winning, and will do what’s needed to get that accomplished. Girls are more refined and learn technique easier than boys. They are trained better and have better passing skills. Boys like to jump high and hit hard.”

Simms took over a Peters Township squad that was profoundly affected by graduation, as the Indians had to replace six of their top 11 players.

“We lost the setter, a libero, an outside hitter and a middle hitter,” Simms said.

Simms does have five players back who have varsity experience, but one has been out with an injury.

“James Bertrand sprained his ankle the first week of camp,” said Simms, referring to a 5-foot-10 senior outside hitter. “He missed our matches against Moon and Upper St. Clair. We lost both matches in five sets after leading in both. We actually had a 2-0 lead against Moon. James would have made the difference in those two matches.”

Bertrand returned for a brief appearance against Bethel Park, but the Indians were swept by the Black Hawks.

“Bethel Park is considered the favorite in our section,” Simms said. “We didn’t do well at the start of the match, but were very competitive with them in the third set, as we lost 27-25.

“We didn’t use James much in that match. I want to work him back into the lineup slowly. It will take another week or so before he plays an entire match.”

The other four players with varsity experience are 6-4 senior opposite Nate Young, 5-10 middle hitter Sean Harrison, 5-11 junior outside hitter Joe Fick and 511 sophomore setter Jordan Ranallo.

“Nate and Joe have been our top hitters thus far,” Simms said.

Ranallo and Jake Lininger, a 6-0 junior, have split the setting duties in the Indians’ 6-2 offense.

“Jake missed all of last season with an injury,” Simms said. “So neither of our setters had very much previous varsity experience. I’ve thrown them to the wolves. They’ve been inconsistent at times. It could to take an entire season for them to mature, but we don’t have that much time. They have to mature quickly for us if we are to make a run at the WPIAL playoffs. We will go as far as our setters take us.”

Others in the Indians starting rotation are 6-1 junior middle hitter Ben Dole, 6-3 junior outside hitter Jake Boehme and 6-0 senior outside hitter/back-row specialist Lukas Burkhardt,

Peters Township improved its Class AAA Section 1 record to 1-3 after edging Central Catholic, 3-2, Tuesday. The Indians were scheduled to play host to Baldwin Thursday.

“We need to finish the first half of section play strong,” Simms said. “And we should have James back at full strength for the second half.”