St. Joseph hires former Vincentian Academy athletic director Ron Moncrief

By: Greg Macafee
Tuesday, June 23, 2020 | 9:15 PM

St. Joseph High School has named Ron Moncrief as its new athletic director.

The Saint Joseph High School community would like to welcome Mr. Ron Moncrief as the Spartan Athletic Director! pic.twitter.com/k4tpO3002Y

— Saint Joseph HS (@SaintJosephHS) June 23, 2020

Moncrief, who is a Robert Morris alumnus, was the head athletic director at Vincentian Academy before the school closed at the end of the school year because of low enrollment and financial issues. Moncrief had been the Royals athletic director since 2015 and was the assistant athletic director from 2013-15. He said he’s looking forward to his new opportunity with the Spartans.

“I’m very excited for the opportunity to be the athletic director at St. Joseph,” Moncrief said. “It’s a great school and I’m just happy to be a part of the St. Joseph community. ”

After spending the past five years as the AD at Vincentian, Moncrief said that he was drawn to the Natrona Heights school because of the similarities between the two.

“After talking to (assistant principal) Mrs. (Kimberly) Minick, just the atmosphere and the community that she described, the closeness between the students, the administration, the coaches and everything, after being at Vincentian, where we were a close-knit family, that stood out to me,” Moncrief said.

During his time at Vincentian, Moncrief helped the Royals develop a winning culture where several teams won section, WPIAL and PIAA championships. This past December, the boys basketball team won its second WPIAL title since 2015. The Royals also won a WPIAL title in 2018 and were the PIAA runners-up. The Royals baseball team won a WPIAL title in 2018.

Moncrief is hoping to bring that same type of atmosphere to St. Joseph.

“I’m hoping to bring the same culture to St. Joseph that we had at Vincentian,” Moncrief said. “The winning attitude, I want to bring that to St. Joseph. To be successful within the athletic program and within their sport. Whatever their expectation is, I want them to be their best and I’m going to support them 110% and give them everything they need to be successful.”

Aside from being a successful athletic director at Vincentian, Moncrief was also a decorated girls basketball coach for the Royals. After starting as an assistant in 2005, Moncrief took over as head coach in 2006-07. He helped the Royals win eight section championships, seven WPIAL titles and two PIAA titles. Despite his success on the sidelines, Moncrief said he won’t be coaching any sports at St. Joseph, but he won’t forget all of the success and memories he had there.

“My time at Vincentian was great,” Moncrief said. “I started off as a young coach and I grew up there. They gave me an opportunity to start my coaching career there as a young coach and I was able to develop into an athletic director there. So, my time there was really great and I was able to grow and learn a lot at Vincentian and I think that’s one thing that I’m always going to remember.”

Greg Macafee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Greg by email at gmacafee@triblive.com or via Twitter .

Tags: St. Joseph