May 18, 2025 By Jerin Steele 4 min read

Alec Ferrari had been an assistant coach for the Trinity boys basketball team the last two seasons, so he already had plenty of familiarity with the players.

Now he’s elevating to a new role as the Hillers head coach, fulfilling a goal he’s had since he was a player at Edinboro.

Ferrari was hired last Thursday as Trinity’s new boys basketball coach.

“I’m extremely excited,” Ferrari said. “It’s something I’ve wanted since I was in college. I wanted to be a head coach and now to be at the point that it’s real is a pretty cool feeling. I know it will come with its challenges, and I’ll wear a lot more hats compared to an assistant coach, but I think I’m well prepared for those aspects. I’m excited to get going.”

Ferrari, a health and physical education teacher at Trinity, takes over for Tim Tessmer.

Tessmer stepped down at the end of the season in March. He had coached the Hillers since 2013.

Ferrari had an outstanding high school career at Chartiers-Houston and was the 2015 Observer-Reporter Player of the Year. One of the highlights was scoring 47 points in a game against Fort Cherry, which was a single-game school record.

He played at Edinboro from 2018-20 and that’s where he realized he wanted to become a head coach after his playing career and started looking at practices with more intent.

The pace, the structure and the purpose of each drill and scheme were studied.

He wants to pay it all forward, because of the impact his coaches and the lessons that came from the game of basketball had on him.

“I know for a fact that playing sports and the coaches that I had shaped me into the man that I am today,” Ferrari said. “I want to be that for these young men. I love the idea of being an individual that gets to lead by example and be a positive figure in their lives. I am a big believer in the daily aspect of things. Teams that are disciplined and kids that are forced to pay attention to minute details, whether they think they seem important to them or not, are things in basketball that pertain to life. Ultimately there’s a small percentage that go on to play collegiate basketball, so at the end of the day those life lessons they take away from those four years are far more important than the results on the court. You strive for results as a coach obviously, but I think what they are asked to do in my program will help them be better people in life.”

One of his former coaches is Eugene Briggs, his high school coach at Chartiers-Houston. Briggs is currently the head coach at Fort Cherry, and Ferrari spent four years with him as an assistant for the Rangers prior to going to Trinity.

Ferrari said that Briggs breathed confidence into him as a player and wants to do the same for his players.

“He was one of those coaches that you had the green light to take your shots and play your game,” Ferrari said. “You don’t want kids to be fearful of making mistakes or doing something wrong. There are things that are non-negotiable, especially on the defensive side, and you don’t want guys chucking up dumb shots left and right but giving kids the green light to be confident allows for the game to go smoother.”

In the transition from assistant to head coach, two tenets Ferrari wants his team to live by are “toughness and togetherness.” Those two keys are the framework for the foundation he wants to build.

“I preach the term unity pretty often and that’s something that’s going to play largely into a successful basketball team at any level,” Ferrari said. “Any team that is tough and plays together is the majority of the time the team that wins.”

Ferrari met with his players for the first time in his new capacity last Friday. He’s held a couple open gyms to begin the process of being ready when a new season begins this winter.

“I got to sit down with them as the head coach and talk about the culture, our mentality and how we’re expected to be from now on,” Ferrari said. “That was a really cool moment.”