Coaching carousel takes three spins
Moves come in boys and girls basketball
A retirement, a resignation and an ouster. The basketball coaching wheels have been turning recently in the WPIAL.
Three notable coaching moves happened over the past few days, two in boys basketball and one in girls.
• Bill Sacco retired as Cornell High School’s boys coach after 18 seasons. Sacco spent more than three decades as a head coach, also leading the Moon boys and West Allegheny girls. He was John Calipari’s coach at Moon in the 1970s.
• Justin Walther resigned as Serra’s boys coach after four seasons. Walther guided the Eagles to the WPIAL Class 2A championship appearance in 2019.
• The Baldwin school board voted Wednesday night to open its girls basketball coaching position, meaning Kyle DeGregorio is out after only two seasons. This move was made despite Baldwin making the WPIAL playoffs this past season and beating Central Dauphin in a PIAA playoff game. Central Dauphin was ranked No. 1 in the state in Class 6A.
Sacco, 77, was a head coach in six different decades at three different schools. He coached the Moon boys from 1976-81 and then again from 1987-93. He coached the West Allegheny girls from 1997-2002, and the Cornell boys from the 2002-03 season through this year. He won more than 400 games. Cornell made it to the WPIAL Class 1A championship this season and won two PIAA playoff games to reach the quarterfinals. But the season was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You just have to have a feel for when it’s time to go,” Sacco said. “This might be a good time. Hey, I left with a win. Most of the time, unless you win a championship, you don’t end things with a win. And we can always dream we would’ve made it to the [PIAA] championship.”
Sacco, always a man happy to deliver a one-liner, will remain Cornell’s athletic director.
“I’m still the athletic director,” Sacco said. “I can always fire the new coach if I want to come back.”
Calipari tweeted a few times Friday about Sacco and said, “I hope he takes a little time to look back and reflect on an unbelievable career. He’s touched a lot of lives!”
While Sacco walked away, DeGregorio was forced out at Baldwin, and the move
caught him off guard. Baldwin had won only 12 games in the two previous seasons before DeGregorio took over in 2018. He only had one senior on his 13-11 team this season.
“I’m heartbroken for the girls because they had made such a commitment to basketball and the team,” DeGregorio said. “I would guess not as many teams worked as hard as we did the past two years.”
DeGregorio, who was Baldwin’s boys coach from 2002-11 before being let go, said he was informed Wednesday afternoon by Baldwin principal Shaun Tomaszewski that his job would be opened that night.
“I had a very short video meeting with the principal. He gave me no reason, and I didn’t ask for any,” said DeGregorio, who is retiring as a guidance counselor at Baldwin. “They can’t be opening it for basketball reasons. I think you’d be hardpressed to find a program that did as much as we did from a basketball standpoint. I did everything above board, too, so I’m not in trouble.
“I don’t know. Evidently, the superintendent [Randal Lutz] doesn’t like me, and I’m OK with that. I think I deserved to be told if you don’t think I was doing a good job with basketball. And, if you don’t like me, then tell me.”
Lutz’s daughter, Jenna, was the only senior on this year’s team, but didn’t get much playing time. When asked if he thought whether that was a contributing factor to his dismissal, DeGregorio said, “Well she was hurt for a lot of the year but I think there was an angst there, and I could feel it. But when you coach, you have to be able to keep that inside and you can’t put that off on the kids.”
Lutz did not give reasons for opening DeGregorio’s position, but commented in an email: “To characterize that I do not like him is not accurate. … I am sure any time the superintendent’s children are on a team or in the classroom with teachers, it adds another layer. My daughter was unable to play most of the season due to a preseason surgery. As a father, I have a right to an opinion as to how players are being handled and treated. As a superintendent, I have been doing this job for too long to allow the two areas to mix. To make this matter about playing time is not accurate and disrespectful to my daughter.”
Lutz went on to say, “The remainder of this matter will remain confidential as a personnel matter.”
DeGregorio, 60, who has been a high school coach for 37 years, said he hopes to coach again, maybe as an assistant somewhere. Walther also hopes to coach again — as a head coach.
“I’m hoping to move up in the ranks around here [in the WPIAL],” Walther said. “I’ve been trying to maybe get into [Class] 6A and I feel like that time is going to come. I just want to coach against the very best. … I’m banking on myself to get something. I’m confident in myself and my abilities.”
When asked why he wouldn’t keep the Serra job until he found another one, Walther said. “I wanted to give Serra adequate time to put the job out there and get somebody in. They were good to me.”
Walther had a 58-36 record at Serra, including a 39-13 section mark.
“You just have to have a feel for when it’s time to go.” — Bill Sacco
Cornell boys basketball coach retiring