A-K Valley notebook: Search begins for Deer Lakes football coach

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, June 23, 2018 | 11:00 PM

Deer Lakes’ football coaching position officially became vacant last week when the district’s school board officially accepted Steve Sciullo’s resignation after four years leading the Lancers.

The hope is the job won’t sit empty for long.

Athletic director Chuck Bellisario said the position was advertised after Sciullo’s resignation became official, and a successor to Sciullo should be named sometime in July.

In the meantime, Sciullo’s former assistants are leading the team through offseason workouts. Camp begins in early August.

“It’s always tough, but our assistants are all staying around,” Bellisario said. “They’re there right now running the workouts.”

Sciullo resigned from Deer Lakes in May after getting offered a full-time staff position at Hampton, where he’ll also work as an assistant football coach.

Sack out

Another of Deer Lakes’ fall coaches stepped down, as the school board also accepted the resignation of boys golf coach Sam Sack last week.

Sack coached the Lancers for six seasons and led them to back-to-back section titles in 2015 and ’16. But the program saw its lowest numbers last season with nine players, including four who were new to the sport, and Deer Lakes finished with a losing record for the first time in Sack’s tenure.

“I don’t know what it is,” Sack said. “Maybe it’s that we’re a Double-A school and don’t have much participation. But the program reached the top like that and the kids just kept coming, and it was great. Then something just happened, and it just kind of fell off the face of the Earth. It gets frustrating for me because I put a lot of time into it.”

Sack said he was “torn” over what he called a “heartbreaking” decision to resign. In addition to the numbers problem, Sack owns a construction business, which at times conflicted with coaching. He also recently purchased a cabin in Cooks Forest and was spending time there.

Sack praised the hard work of his former players, including Jiri Banyas-Galecki, Connor Chirdon, Jake Roberts and his own two sons, Adam and Sam. Deer Lakes qualified for the WPIAL Class AA playoffs each season from 2013-16 and claimed a pair of section titles.

“All the work that they do, to see them make the playoffs is a great thing,” Sack said. “The other great thing was to go into the gym and see that banner up there (for) section champs. We’d never had anything like that at Deer Lakes. It’s always so nice to have that.”

Crown Joel

Joel Ceraso helped lead Leechburg to its most successful girls basketball seasons in school history, but his tenure with the Blue Devils didn’t begin so smoothly.

Leechburg finished 1-17 in 2013-14, Ceraso’s first season, failing to crack double-digit points in seven games — including a 56-0 shutout against Ford City.

Somehow despite that hole, Ceraso’s final record with the Blue Devils — he left Leechburg last week to take the same job at Burrell — ended up five games above .500. Leechburg went 58-38 the past four seasons, qualifying for the WPIAL playoffs three times and making it to the PIAA tournament twice, the first two times in school history.

A standout six-player class — 2,000-point scorer Mikayla Lovelace, prolific shooters Cam Davies and Brittany Robilio, defensive dynamo Makenzie Fello, strong interior presence Daesha Knight and key reserve Hannah Berry — helped lift Leechburg, starting virtually every game over the past four seasons.

Ceraso will see if he can work some of the same magic over at Burrell, which missed the playoffs last season for the first time since 2011.

“Getting an opportunity to work with these Burrell kids is exciting,” he said. “I know these kids. I worked as a middle school coach there and Burrell fast-pitch as a coach, so I’ve worked with a lot of these kids. I know them, and I’m excited to keep working with them.”

Pat at bat

Pat McAfee never played an inning of baseball as a child. In fact, he didn’t even pick up a bat or glove, sticking with soccer and later football.

The former Plum star and ex-NFL Pro Bowl punter changed that last week, joining the Washington Wild Things for a Frontier League game against the Traverse City Beach Bums.

Never played baseball a day in my life.. That changes on Thursday..I’ll be the starting RFer 4 the @WashWildThings.. I’ll have at least 1 at bat.. Started training in the @barstoolhrtland office today. @tyschmit was firing hockey balls at me..Need a dinger.. What’s ur prediction? pic.twitter.com/uNvdkWFsZc

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) June 20, 2018

McAfee batted ninth and played right field for the Wild Things, grounding out twice before reaching on a fielder’s choice in his third at-bat and taking second base on a throwing error. He was lifted for a pinch runner and received a standing ovation upon his departure.

He also caught a fly ball on his only defensive chance in right field.

McAfee grounds into a fielder’s choice but reaches and goes to second on the ball that gets by the first baseman.

The crowd erupts as the All-Pro punter gets to 2nd & is lifted for a pinch runner. A fun and entertaining professional debut! And no Ks #WildRide #DingersOnlyNight pic.twitter.com/RBG0MCem30

— Washington Wild Things (@WashWildThings) June 22, 2018

A two-time Pro Bowler with the Indianapolis Colts, McAfee retired from the NFL in February 2017 and now primarily works as a podcast host with the Pat McAfee Show, part of the Barstool Sports network.

We fall in the series finale tonight to the Beach Bums 13-2, but it was a really fun night on #DingersOnlyNight as @PatMcAfeeShow made his pro baseball debut with us.

We are now 23-13, and still in first place in the East Division #WildRide pic.twitter.com/4eXcuO1MUj

— Washington Wild Things (@WashWildThings) June 22, 2018

Doug Gulasy is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at dgulasy@tribweb.com or via Twitter @dgulasy_Trib.

Tags: Deer Lakes, Leechburg, Plum