Westmoreland high school notebook: Longtime Franklin Regional softball coach Armstrong hangs up cleats

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Tuesday, May 13, 2025 | 6:43 PM

Like any coach, Jim Armstrong wanted his softball players at Franklin Regional to win more than they lost. But seeing them laughing, being loose and enjoying their time in the program sometimes seemed more meaningful.

“Let’s work hard, but let’s have fun,” Armstrong said. “It’s just a game.”

Armstrong told the team months ago this season would be his last. He is stepping down after 23 years as head coach.

He joined the program in 1999 and served as an assistant for four years before becoming the lead man and going 273-135-3 with one WPIAL championship (2009).

Franklin Regional lost to Fox Chapel, 4-0, on Monday in the first round of the WPIAL 5A playoffs to finish 13-7.

Armstrong said the finality began to sink in when athletic director Zach Kessler hugged him after the playoff loss.

“I didn’t think I’d cry, but it hit me,” said Armstrong, 65. “It was time. There are several things that played into it. When you’re at it every day … I’d run home from work and get to the field. It cuts your day in half. People would invite us to things, and I couldn’t go because we had a softball game. I think it’s time to enjoy life a little more.

“Who knows? Maybe whoever comes in (to coach) will be a breath of fresh air.”

The owner of Armstrong Drilling in New Alexandria, Armstrong said he is putting more responsibility of his 31-year-old company into the hands of his son, Travis, a former starting tackle on Franklin Regional’s 2005 PIAA championship team.

Armstrong, who also has coached travel softball and American Legion baseball — “There’s some dirt in these spikes,” he said — is proud to have coached his daughter, Natalie, on the softball team. His other son, Nick, played baseball for Slippery Rock and pitched in the NCAA Division II World Series.

Armstrong has coached talented players, including star pitcher Ally Vrcek, who helped the Panthers win a WPIAL title in ’09 and go undefeated until the state playoffs. This year’s standouts, Toryn Fulton and Ciara Camacho, Division I commits to South Florida and Kent State, respectively, are also high on the list.

Fulton and Camacho graduating is not the main reason he is resigning.

“It’s not Toryn and Ciara are gone, so Jim’s gone,” Armstrong said. “I considered staying on another year. I am not leaving the cupboard bare.”

Armstrong wants to be remembered as a coach who did more than manage games and oversee drills.

“I cared,” he said. “There are a lot of coaches better than me with X’s and O’s. I wanted what was best for the girls. I will miss the kids and the good times we had.”

Armstrong was voted the Big 5/6 Conference Section 2-5A Coach of the Year.

P-T hires Fontana

Penn-Trafford named Chuck Fontana its girls basketball coach, filling a vacancy left by the resignation of longtime coach John Giannikas.

Fontana was an assistant last season when Penn-Trafford (25-2) had an undefeated regular season, won a section title and made the WPIAL 5A quarterfinals and PIAA playoffs.

“Knowing the kids and the parents, the great group we have, helps a lot,” said Fontana, a middle school science teacher at Penn-Trafford. “I knew John was going to be gone, which got me thinking about (coaching). I talked with him about it. Our assistants, Pat O’Riley and Bella Long, said if I get (the job), they will come back, too.”

The team also added a former standout player to the staff in Olivia Rizzo, who coached with Giannikas a few years ago and returns to the program.

Fontana, 53, a Jeannette graduate, is a former athletic director and assistant football, track, baseball and boys basketball coach at Penn-Trafford.

His daughter, Isabella, is a sophomore guard for the Lady Warriors.

“I didn’t take the job just to coach my daughter,” Fontana said. “I will play the best five. If she is not one of them, she won’t (start).”

Fontana, the girls seventh and eighth grade coach for four years, got a taste of what it is like to be a head coach last year. In fact, he is 1-0 already. He was interim coach when Giannikas had to sit out the last game of the regular season at Upper St. Clair with an injured arm.

Penn-Trafford rallied to win and take a 22-0 mark into the playoffs.

“I got into it more in the second half,” Fontana said. “It was time to step up and see what we could do. In those moments, you get fired up like you’re playing again.”

Fontana said Giannikas allowed his assistants to provide input to the team.

“He didn’t micro-manage,” he said. “He let us do our own thing.”

Giannikas, 53, stepped down after 19 seasons to watch his two children, Stefano and Giuliana, play at Norwin. He guided the team to 16 WPIAL playoff appearances, five section titles and a WPIAL title in 2014, going 273-176.

Penn-Trafford loses five seniors but is primed to return the remainder of a deep rotation that stretched to 10 or more.

Fontana was a three-sport standout at Jeannette in football, basketball and baseball.

He began coaching Jeannette boys freshman basketball in the early 1990s under Rick Klimchock, who coaches the Greensburg Salem girls.

Penn-Trafford and Greensburg Salem are slated to play next season.

“It’s tough to beat your mentor,” Fontana said.

Fontana has played or coached under a number of county football coaches of considerable note, including Art Tragesser, Bob Palko, Bob Murphy, Ray Reitz and John Ruane.

Derry double-dip

Derry fans will get to follow their baseball and softball teams at the same site Wednesday in the playoffs.

The baseball team plays Belle Vernon at 2 p.m. and softball takes on Elizabeth Forward at 3.

Both games are at Norwin.

Though the game times overlap, the fields are within walking distance, and scoreboards are mostly in view from each venue.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Derry Area, Franklin Regional, Penn-Trafford