Zewe excited to lead Peters Township basketball
New Peters Township boys basketball coach Rob Zewe joked that he’s used to people mispronouncing his last name.
It’s pronounced Zay-we.
“No one gets it right,” Zewe said with a laugh. “People who have known me for years still get it wrong.”
It wasn’t that long ago that Zewe was making a name for himself as a major college basketball assistant coach.
He was an assistant on Eric Musselman’s Nevada team that was ranked fifth in the country in 2018. That was one of several stops he had as a college coach.
But a few years ago, he decided to change paths and returned home to Western Pennsylvania to raise a young family with his wife, Jhana.
That’s when he found a new passion for coaching high school basketball.
After two seasons as an assistant to Joe Urmann, Zewe was hired to lead the Indians’ boys basketball program.
Urmann resigned at the end of last season after leading Peters Township to the WPIAL Class 5A championship game twice.
Zewe, a Baldwin graduate, knew Urmann from his time with the Highlanders and decided to reach out to him about becoming an assistant coach after spending eight and a half years coaching at several colleges.
“With my role on the team the past two years, because of the trust Joe had in me and my background, I essentially ran our offense and was in charge of player development, so I was able to develop a rapport with our players, parents and the community,” Zewe said. “When Joe decided to resign, for me because of the relationships I built it was something I wanted to do, and the stars aligned to be fortunate enough to get this opportunity.”
Zewe is only 33-years old, but he brings plenty of coaching experience. That started at IUP shortly after he graduated from Pitt with a degree in Exercise Science.
His plan originally was to go to pursue physical therapy and was accepted to three different schools, but after coaching at Baldwin his senior year at Pitt, the urge to coach won out.
“I missed being around the game and through the basketball connections I had, I got connected with Joe Lombardi at IUP and he offered me a voluntary assistant position,” Zewe said. “At the 11th hour of me having to accept a spot in physical therapy school, I decided to go to IUP and roll the dice with coaching. It ended up being the best decision I could’ve made.”
After one season at IUP, Zewe was elevated to an assistant coaching role with the Crimson Hawks.
Then came his stop at Nevada and after that he was hired as an assistant at Cal State Fullerton, where he spent two years and then coached for three years at Denver.
“Each stop taught me something different, from the X’s and O’s to building a culture, to developing relationships with players, parents and administrations,” Zewe said. “Over those eight and a half years you learn a ton and I felt like I was ready to take that next step.”
With the opportunities came plenty of moving and eventually Zewe and Jhana wanted to settle in one place. They are both natives of Pittsburgh, so it was the perfect spot to make a permanent home.
“We’re fortunate enough to have two kids right now, a three-and-a-half-year-old son and nine-month-old daughter,” Zewe said. “They are my priority and a big reason why we made the decision to move back home and settle down here.”
Zewe takes over a Peters Township team that enjoyed plenty of success under Urmann.
Peters Township made it to the WPIAL Class 5A championship twice in Urmann’s tenure. He had a 90-51 record in his six years and achieved a winning record each of the last four seasons.
The Indians lost to Penn Hills in the 2023 WPIAL 5A championship and in 2025 they made a run to the finals as a six seed, but were defeated by Chartiers Valley.
The Indians made the state quarterfinals in 2023.
Dylan Donovan, the school’s all-time leading scorer in boys basketball, and point guard Lucas Rost and shooting guard Jayden Greco are graduating, but the Indians return big 6-foot-8 center Jake Wetzel and sharpshooter Lucas Saxe.
They’ll provide Zewe with a foundation as he enters his first season at the helm.
“I think the group we have that will be led by Jake will play unselfish basketball and play an up tempo style,” Zewe said. “I think we’ll be a better three-point shooting team this year. Lucas Saxe got his feet wet last year playing starting varsity minutes for the first time and I think will take a step forward to be the engine to our offense. We have guys like Danny Dudek, Cameron Kirsch and Cooper Donovan that are great pieces and collectively we’re going to be able to hopefully compete for a championship.”