DeGregorio new coach at CW North Catholic

When Dave DeGregorio resigned as North Allegheny High School’s boys basketball coach two years ago, he always thought he would be a head coach again someday. Someday came Thursday.

Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic named DeGregorio as its new coach Thursday morning.

DeGregorio was an assistant coach at Hampton the past two seasons but decided to try for the North Catholic job when the school decided in March that it would not retain longtime coach Dave Long.

“When I left North Allegheny, I said I was getting out, but I wasn’t retiring,” said DeGregorio. “I knew I wasn’t done because I just enjoy it too much.”

DeGregorio was North Allegheny’s coach for 12 seasons and enjoyed plenty of success. He was 232-76 (200416) with five section titles and 11 WPIAL playoff appearances. He made the semifinals three times and the championship once.

He also was Pine-Richland’s coach for seven years before coming to North Allegheny and coached South Allegheny for a few seasons.

DeGregorio wasn’t after just any head coaching job. Few interested him. But North Catholic seemed like the perfect fit. He and his family live in the Hampton school district and DeGregorio is a physical education teacher in the North Allegheny district.

“I was intrigued when the job opened and I started to look at the school quite a bit,” said DeGregorio. “I like the school’s philosophy and what they are doing for kids.”

DeGregorio knows Long, North Catholic’s former coach, and knows of his success. Long had a 325-176 record in 19 seasons and won four WPIAL titles. North Catholic was in the semifinals 10 of the past 11 seasons.

Before Long, Don Graham was North Catholic’s coach for 51 seasons and is the winningest coach in WPIAL history.

“They’ve had only two coaches in all these years?” said DeGregorio. “To me, it’s a huge responsibility to maintain the level of success Dave and Don had there. … Dave did a great job.”

In another move, Montour hired former Sto-Rox coach Bill Minear, who won two WPIAL championships and one PIAA title. He had two stints at Sto-Rox (19962004 and 2010-13) and was 215-81 with seven section titles, two WPIAL championships, three consecutive appearances in a PIAA championship (2002-04) and one PIAA title (2004).