Phil Pergola's absence from basketball coaching barely lasted a few months. It ended with him being hired to a three-year contract as California Area High School's new boys basketball coach. The 57-year-old coach, who resigned this past winter after 18 years as Ringgold High School's head boys basketball coach was recently selected as the new boys hoop coach at California Area. He replaces Steve Luko, who resigned after three consecutive playoff seasons with the Trojans. Luko's 2002-2003 California squad advanced to the WPIAL Class A semifinals and the PIAA Class A quarterfinals. All told, Pergola has 445 career coaching victories with 230 of those coming for the Rams. He also coached the Charleroi High School boys basketball team for nine years after a seven-year head coaching stint at Mon Valley Catholic. Pergola's 1994-95 Ringgold team became the first WPIAL Class AAAA team to win the PIAA state title. Ringgold had been the only WPIAL Class AAAA team to accomplish this feat until Penn Hills won this year's PIAA Class AAAA crown. Ringgold changes For the second time in a couple of weeks, Ringgold High School has named successors for Pergola. Mark Gaither, an assistant the past three years at 2004 WPIAL Class A champion Sewickley Academy, is the new Ringgold boys basketball head coach as of the district's April 21 board meeting. The 30-year-old Gaither replaces Dave Krakoff, the West Allegheny coach and Pine-Richland teacher from Green Tree who had been hired to be the basketball coach and athletic director two weeks ago, changed his mind and decided not to take either job. Gaither, a 1993 Mt. Lebanon High School graduate, was hired solely as the new boys basketball head coach. Blue Monday for BVA Mondays are never really a welcome day but April 19 was even lass desirable for Belle Vernon Area High School's girls sports programs. Not only did the defending section champion Belle Vernon girls softball team experience a desultory 4-0 loss at Waynesburg, the school also lost its girls basketball head coach. Lou Zadecky, the fourth-year coach, handed in a letter of resignation that afternoon to Superintendent Bob Nagy. Before coming to BVA, Zadecky coached one year at South Park High School. He then took over a struggling Lady Leps program in 2000. After going 6-40 in his first two seasons, the Lady Leps improved to 13-10 before finishing at 12-12 this past season. Belle Vernon returns four starters heading into 2004-2005. Zadecky is a health and physical education teacher at Yough High School and resides in South Huntingdon Township, Westmoreland county. Two high in-house replacement candidates include Zadecky's assistant, Heather Kristen, and former BVA youth program coach and administrator Jim Monahan. WPIAL football shuffling With the addition of West Shamokin High School, the WPIAL will field a total of 125 teams in 2004. West Shamokin, which formerly competed in District IX, will now be a part of the WPIAL Class AA's Section 2. The WPIAL Class AAAA will have 23 teams since five schools dropped down to Class AAA. This quintet includes Ringgold, Albert Gallatin, Canon McMillan, Franklin Regional and Indiana Area. The WPIAL Class AAAA will have three sections and the 16 schools with larger enrollments are in Sections 1 and 2 with six of these teams qualifying for the playoffs. Four of the seven teams in Section 3 will qualify for the postseason. Kittanning and Valley High Schools dropped from WPIAL Class AAA to Class AA leaving Class AAA with 29 teams in four different sections. WPIAL Class AA gained Kittanning, Valley as well as previous Class A schools Brentwood and Sto-Rox while losing Charleroi Area, Apollo Ridge, and North Catholic high schools, which all dropped to Class A. The largest football classification in terms of total teams with 41, the WPIAL Class AA will be divided into five sections with three playoff qualifiers from each section and one wild-card selection. A total of 32 teams will be in the WPIAL Class A with four, eight-team sections with the top four from each section advancing to the playoffs. WPIAL football money Combined, the 64 WPIAL football schools that competed in the 2003 WPIAL playoffs received $285,334 in revenue. The total paid attendance of 155,716 throughout the WPIAL playoffs was nearly 16 percent higher than the previous years. The four WPIAL football championship games played at Heinz Field last November attracted a crowd of 34,451 paying fans. WPIAL Class AAAA champion and PIAA finalist Pittsburgh Central Catholic High School received the highest share check at $28,048.17. Thomas Jefferson High School, WPIAL Class AAA finalist, was one of seven other schools to receive more than $10,000 as the Cougars success earned the school $15,449.87. According to the WPIAL Newsletter, the revenue share ratio for 2003-2004 is 52 percent for schools and 48 percent for the league. Each school's share check is determined after expenses by splitting the gate revenue equally and dividing the pre-sale ticket revenue in proportional shares according to the pre-sale of tickets.

---

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---