Mar 1, 2018 4 min read

After 10 seasons as South Fayette’s girls basketball coach, Matt Bacco has resigned.

Bacco informed his team of his resignation after their loss to Oakland Catholic in the first round of the WPIAL Class 5A playoffs Feb. 16. The South Fayette School Board accepted his resignation Tuesday.

Bacco, who will remain as a middle school teacher in the district, said he’s “grateful for the opportunity” he’s had over the last 10 years at South Fayette, but that “it was just time for a change.”

“It can be a really demanding job,” Bacco said. “I have a young daughter who is three years old. I think all of the other things that go along with high school coaching today takes a toll. I think over the last couple of years, I’ve started to feel the toll, along with my coaching staff. We thought it was a good opportunity to make a change.”

Bacco said that being a high school coach can be “difficult” and that it’s “well-documented what the state of coaching is today,” though he wouldn’t explain about any specific situations at South Fayette.

“As coaches, we talk to each other and everyone deals with the same challenges,” Bacco said. “Without getting into specifics, the challenges that are pretty typical of high school coaches have been well-documented. It can be challenging in a number of ways, especially the schedule and time you put in.”

This past season is one of the worst for the program since Bacco took over, though the standards in that timeframe are mostly why. The Lions finished the 2017-18 season 12-9 overall with a 7-3 record in Section 1-5A.

Despite jumping from Class AA to Class 5A in the last 10 years, Bacco ends his tenure at South Fayette with a 173-78 record, good for a .690 winning percentage, and an 83-29 section record. In the five years before Bacco’s hire, the Lions were 65-58 overall and under .500 in section play.

Under Bacco, the girls basketball program accomplished a lot of firsts.

In 2008-09, Bacco’s first season, South Fayette earned a spot in its first PIAA tournament. The Lions went to the state playoffs five more times under Bacco.

After advancing to its first WPIAL title game in 2014-15, which the Lions lost, South Fayette won the WPIAL championship the following year. The Lions went 24-4 that season, going undefeated in section play. The next year, the Lions went 20-7 and made it to their first state semifinal game.

“To make two appearances in a WPIAL championship game and winning one, and last year going to the state semifinals, was a great experience,” Bacco said. “We hope that as the program continues on to new hands that they can continue to achieve more firsts. To be able to do those things over the last 10 years and accomplish those firsts was pretty cool.”

Despite his resignation, Bacco said he isn’t done coaching. Bacco said he’s going to take the next several months to spend time with his family and “get away from it.”

“I’m open to the possibility of not coaching for a couple of years and then returning to it,” Bacco said. “I’m open to the possibility of maybe being an assistant, whether at the high school or college level, for a time to allow it to be a little bit more flexible with my schedule. I’m going to take the spring here and kind of just see how I feel. … I’m going to see how much I miss it come summer and fall.”