Nov 16, 2015 5 min read

Every successful high school program has a focus on developing young talent and easing the transition for younger players to join the varsity team.

It’s a philosophy Peters Township head coach Rick Tingle has utilized to build one of the most consistent programs in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League.

The Indians had enough players to utilize two varsity teams last season, and they now have two junior varsity teams and two middle school teams.

As the sport continues to grow in Western Pennsylvania, it’s not a shock that a school district the size of Peters Township has large participation, but how it develops players is what has the program among the best in the region.

“What we’ve done consistently the past 10 years is play one system with a little bit of freedom at the younger ranks,” Tingle said. “That’s made it easy for those guys to move up and know what to expect. I jump on the ice with the JV so I’m not some novelty item that people haven’t seen or heard. It gets kids up to speed quicker and they actually know who I am.”

Since 2000, Peters Township has won six Penguins Cups and claimed the state championship in 2014. The success continues.

The Indians (4-0-3) are in first place in PIHL’s Class AAA and have scored 22 goals in seven games, despite losing four of their five leading scorers from last season.

Peters Township is getting production from players who sharpened their skills and learned the intricacies of Tingle’s system while playing in the junior varsity of middle school programs.

Will Barnes has four goals with four assists, Matt Amelio has chipped in two goals with five assists, Conner Gielarowski has seven assists and Zachery Gielarowski, the team’s leading scorer last season , has two goals and four assists.

Despite a roster filled with underclassmen, the Indians are positioning themselves for another strong season and the program’s youth development is showing.

“Walking in the door, kids have 80 percent of the system, probably,” Tingle said. “There is definitely a lot of fine-tuning that goes on, but these guys have a pretty good feel for what we want in the forecheck and backcheck.”

Though Peters Township has found a way to not lose, its defense is still a work in progress. The Indians have allowed two or more goals in five consecutive games. They finished tied for second in Class AAA with only 44 goals allowed in 22 games last season.

Tingle can prepare players schematically for the rigors of a high school hockey season, but the biggest challenge is discovering leadership after a strong senior class is gone. He believes that Amelio and Zachery Gielarowski are ready for the role of leaders.

“Guys jump right into roles and I’ve got to be honest, it usually takes almost until December to transition into the leadership role,” Tingle said. “That’s a big change to go from being just a member of the team to being ‘that guy.’ Zach and Matt have stepped right into those shoes. That’s helped.”

Despite a reputation for success, the Indians are perceived as an underdog to return to Consol Energy Center for the Penguins Cup. Butler, which defeated Peters Township in the playoffs last season, is the favorite and Canon-McMillan, the defending Penguins Cup champion, also is a contender.

“We don’t plan on rebuilding for a year,” Tingle said. “We plan to compete every year. We have some work ahead of us, but the guys seem ready for it.

Trinity senior Sam Trapuzzano, who developed into one of the top kickers in Class AAA, has accepted the opportunity to be a preferred walk-on for Bucknell’s football team.

Trapuzzano was not only the Hillers’ kicker on field goals and extra points, but Trinity rarely worried about poor field position with his strength on kickoffs and punts.

“If you look at Trinity the past few years, there were a lot of kicks returned for touchdowns, punts returned for touchdowns and punts blocked,” Trinity head coach Jon Miller said. “We didn’t have any kickoffs returned and we didn’t have punts returned for touchdowns. I don’t think we had a punt returned for more than 10 yards against us. Field position is such a big part of the game and that was huge. Extra points were pretty much automatic for him. He put the ball where he wanted to.”

Canon-McMillan track and field coach Mike Koot, who has overseen a program with numerous WPIAL medalists, resigned late last month.

Under his direction, the Big Macs’ boys track team won the Class AAA team title in three of four seasons from 2006-10.

Also, Avella boys basketball coach Joseph Hough has resigned. He spent the last seven seasons as the Eagles’ head coach and three more as an assistant.

Athletes across the area signed their letters of intent to Division I programs the past seven days, including two from Trinity, two from Canon-McMillan and four Peters Township golfers.

Trinity senior Mary Dunn signed with Youngstown State for basketball and Hillers senior softball player Delaney Elling made her commitment to Penn State official by signing her letter of intent Monday.

Canon-McMillan senior baseball player Tanner Piechnick signed with Ohio and senior Becca Turney will play basketball at Eastern Michigan.

At Peters Township, four golfers signed letters of intent last week: Alec Stopperich (Samford), Synclaire Kuhn (St. Francis, Pa.), Connor Schmidt (Drexel) and Jake Sollon (Rider).

The WPIAL’s winter sports season officially began Monday with the first practices for basketball, wrestling, rifle, gymnastics and swimming. The season’s first official play date is Dec. 4.