Coaching legends join forces in hall
Tri-State Sports & News Service
In the heart of Mt. Lebanon, the colors of spring can be seen bursting through the yard of Mike and Michelle Zmijanac. Flowers of all varieties cover nearly every inch of this prolific layout, aside from a spot reserved for the family dog.
For hours on end, the garden’s curator digs and plants. Plants and digs. All the while, the sounds of doowop music can be heard in the background.
The Platters. The Drifters. The Flamingos. The Cadillacs.
Mike Zmijanac loves them all.
“My neighbors know I’m done when I play Earth Wind & Fire,” Zmijanac said. “I started doing this 20 years ago when my wife asked me to grow her a little cutting garden. I’ve been doing it ever since.”
Down the road from the Zmijanacs in Collier Township, Tim and Shelly McConnell live the hustle-and-bustle lifestyle of parents of three children. Daughter Megan, a star sophomore basketball player at Chartiers Valley, is at home, and sons Matty and T.J are playing basketball at Robert Morris University and with the Philadelphia 76ers, respectively.
“Lots of schedules,” Tim McConnell said.
McConnell is not one for golf, chess or even gardening. His hobby is people.
For the past 30 years, this Brookline native has gathered each week with 10 childhood friends to watch Monday Night Football. The group reminisces about anything from Brookline’s Moore Park to their families to the Steelers’ play calling.
“I look forward to those nights,” McConnell said. “It’s another reason why I love it so much here in Pittsburgh.”
McConnell and Zmijanac, legendary high school coaches, have more dimensions than what many see on game days.
They are husbands, friends, family men and community-driven.
Coaching is not who they are. It’s what they do.
It just so happens that they do it at an otherworldly level.
In McConnell’s case, he was the fastest basketball coach in WPIAL history to reach 500 wins. His 25-year record of 531-150 at Chartiers Valley equates to a winning percentage of .779.
Yes, he has been that good.
Zmijanac, recently fired in a controversial school board decision, finished his 21-year career at Aliquippa with a 237-36 record for a winning percentage of .868. He’s that good, too. Not surprisingly, the two are on their way to the Western Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame. They will join Sean Casey (Upper St. Clair), Swin Cash (McKeesport), Tyler Palko (West Allegheny), Gordon Jones (East Allegheny), Bob Junko (Trinity), Chuck Burkhart (Montour), Dr. John Cunningham (Burgettstown) and Mark Kelso (North Hills) for the induction ceremony on April 21 at the Pittsburgh Sheraton Station Square.
When told of his selection, Zmijanac uttered one word.
“Really?,” he said, before adding, “When you find out who is in there — coaching legends like Lindy Lauro, Larry Bruno, Pete Antimarino, Jim Render, Joe Hamilton — it’s like, ‘Wow.’ McConnell, however, weighed in on the matter.
“What I feel bad about is, that if people can go after Mike Zmijanac, they can go after any coach,” said McConnell,who was fired by the Chartiers Valley school Me? Really? It awed me.” board in 2007, only to be reinstated And McConnell? two weeks later. “He’s “I was shocked, especially a class guy who had the kids’ after looking at all of the best interest at heart. He’s a names,” he said. “I’m winner and he’s genuine. I shocked and honored, to be love Mike Zmijanac.” honest.” Zmijanac, who got his
A product of Pittsburgh’s start in coaching in 1972 as first family of coaching, an assistant to Don Yannessa, McConnell has led Chartiers pulled double-duty as Valley to six WPIAL championships the Quips’ basketball coach and two trips to for seven seasons. During the PIAA final. A two-time that time, his teams won Post-Gazette Coach of the three WPIAL championships Year, he has also led the and one state crown. Colts to 20 20-win seasons He also coached the Baldwin and groomed three 2,000girls team for several seasons point scorers, including his while serving as Yannessa’s sons. assistant at the
Zmijanac guidedschool. Aliquippa to six WPIAL “I enjoyed coaching the championships in 13 appearances. girls as much as the boys,” He also won a PIAA Zmijanac said. “They were crown in four trips. His most tough and competitive.” notable accomplishment is While McConnell and leading the Quips to the past Zmijanac are equally 10 WPIAL finals. driven, neither wants to be
Put into perspective, the defined solely by wins and seniors on the 2017 losses. The biggest reward Aliquippa football team for each is making an impact were third-graders when on the lives of young people. The Streak began. Nearly two decades ago,
“If somebody would have McConnell briefly coached a said, ‘You’ll be in the championship young man named Jeremy game 10 years in a Crocker. Due to a poor attitude, row,’ I’d have said, ‘It never Crocker got kicked off happens,’” Zmijanac said. the team in his first and only
Except it did. It also made season. the firing of Zmijanac disconcerting This was not what to many in the McConnell wanted, but it area and around the country. was necessary for the betterment of his program.
For his part, Zmijanac politely “Great athlete, but it just declined when asked to wasn’t working,” said comment on the subject. McConnell, who starred at Seton-LaSalle High and Waynesburg University as a player before embarking on his coaching career.
To this day, Crocker holds that memory close, but not with bitterness. Instead, he is appreciative.
“We’ve become great friends; he invited me to his wedding,” McConnell said of Crocker, who graduated in 2001. “He told me his mistake was not sticking it out and not having a better attitude and not being a better teammate. And every time he sees me, he reminds me of a saying I use all the time — ‘Your attitude determines your altitude.’ He says that has stuck with him all these years later. That’s what this job is about. It’s about making a positive impact.”
At Aliquippa, Zmijanac has mentored some of the WPIAL’s all-time greats in Darrelle Revis, Tommie Campbell and Sean Gilbert (when he served as defensive coordinator). But when he looks back on his career, his coaching accomplishments are not what make him most proud.
His great joy was teaching creative writing and English literature at Aliquippa High.
“You don’t have to be stupid to coach,” Zmijanac said. “I taught writing for 39 years and I was pretty good at it. I understand that going to the Hall of Fame is for coaching excellence, for winning a lot of games. But coaching is just an extension of teaching. All the guys who I think of as exceptional coaches are exceptional teachers.”
By devoting so much time to young people, both Zmijanac and McConnell have had to make sacrifices in their personal lives. Events such as school plays, weddings, vacations and family gatherings often conflict with games and practices.
“My wife makes the biggest sacrifice,” McConnell said. “Coaching takes time away from your family, your children. A lot of times, the kids came with me, but when they didn’t, my wife took care of everything, which has made my situation better than most. ... I’ve missed out on going to Little League games and dance recitals — and those are big sacrifices — but now that my kids are older, they understand.”
Not that it’s always easy, said Zmijanac.
“You have to have a fabulous family, especially a wife who can deal with all of it,” said Zmijanac, who is open to coaching again if the right opportunity is presented. “My wife is wonderful about it. The kids always called her Mrs. Coach. There were times when we couldn’t do things because it was football or basketball season. But we always managed.”
Aside from finding that family-coaching balance, another commonality between Zmijanac and McConnell is their disdain for losing.
Zmijanac likes to tell the story of a good friend, a baker, who presented him with a cake in the shape of a football field with the names of every coach that had beaten his teams. Zmijanac remembered every one of those losses. Vividly.
“I could point at the coach and I’d remember the score of the game,” Zmijanac said, laughing. “So, the losses hurt more than the wins feel good.”
As for McConnell, who was hired at Chartiers Valley at age 27, he said the phrase “agony of defeat” applies to him.
“When you lose, you think of all the things you could have done differently, things you could have done better,” he said. “I love to win ... but I hate losing more.”
Fortunately for McConnell and Zmijanac — and the Chartiers Valley and Aliquippa school districts — losses are few and far between.
“I’m honored to be going into the Hall of Fame with [McConnell],” Zmijanac said. “He and I coached against each other in a preliminary game at the Civic Arena when LeBron James’ high school team was here. His teams were tough and prepared. He’s a great coach, a great person. And this is a great honor.”