Piccinini out as Peters Township football coach
After back-to-back two-win seasons, Peters Township will have a new head football coach in 2016.
Rich Piccinini’s position as head varsity football coach was opened, effectively immediately. The Indians finished 2-7 this fall, missing the postseason for a second consecutive season while playing with an injury-depleted roster. Based on the PIAA’s enrollment parameters for six classifications, Peters Township is expected to compete in 6A beginning next fall.
Piccinini had an 18-30 record in five seasons at Peters Township and was the first coach in program history to reach the WPIAL playoffs in three consecutive seasons. He also tied the program record for playoff appearances for a head coach with three. Though the Indians reached the postseason from 2011-13, they did not win a playoff game. According to Piccinini, Superintendent Jeannine French encouraged him to reapply for the position.
“I’m disappointed,” Piccinini said. “We had a proven system. We’ve never been stronger. We had kids breaking weight room records, plus our offseason and regular season training regiments were working. We lost some games, but we were competitive with some of the best teams in Quad-A. We had Mt. Lebanon on the ropes this season. We were close a lot of times. We’re proud with some of those achievements.”
With standout running back TJ Kpan injured and starting a large group of underclassmen, Peters Township struggled in Class AAAA this season, averaging just 14.6 points per game. The Indians’ two wins came against teams with a combined record of 4-15. They were missing as many as 22 players from practice because of various injuries and they were missing as many as 18 players in games late in the season. Following each game this fall, Piccinini would sit down to draw up a game plan for the following week, including personnel packages, but injuries would derail those schemes and force more underclassmen onto the field against opponents such as Bethel Park and Mt. Lebanon.
“We started a ton of young kids this season and that’s not an excuse, it’s the reality,” Piccinini said. “We had a lot of kids coming back and they all bought into the system. You can’t control the injuries we had. Some were freak injuries and some were even non-contact. We thought we were right there.
“I want to win every game because I’m a very competitive person, but even in 2-7 seasons, there are a lot of positives that can’t be measured by a win total.”
Piccinini was hired to replace Nick Milchovich as the Indians’ head coach in 2011 after several stints throughout the WPIAL. He was the head coach at North Catholic from 2003-05, and worked as an assistant coach at Seneca Valley, Sto-Rox, Keystone Oaks and under Jim Render at Upper St. Clair.
Following the 2013 season, which ended with a first-round playoff loss to McKeesport, Peters Township lost 22 seniors. After going 2-7 in 2014, it lost five starters on offense and defense, including Cory Owen, a highly recruited quarterback and defensive back who received a scholarship to James Madison. Piccinini said he will be pursuing head coaching jobs around the WPIAL.
“For five years, our coaching staff and players worked their tails off,” Piccinini said. “We did some great things with the program. We had our fair share of guys get into great colleges for academics and football. I placed 20-plus kids in colleges from Division III to Division I. We had it going in the right direction. There were a lot of things we did that nobody sees – behind the scenes stuff – with getting kids into college, getting them noticed and improving this program every day.
“It’s disappointing.”