While the fast-approaching start of a new football season understandably receives extensive coverage from the sports media, area soccer coaching changes have been notable also.
Carl Dei Cas, who had served as Monessen High School's head girls soccer coach for the past 10 years, was recently hired as the assistant men's soccer coach at Waynesburg College. He will serve under first-year Yellow Jackets' men's soccer head coach Stuart Bracher.
"We are pleased to provide support to both Stewart and our men's soccer program with the hiring of Carl Dei Cas," said Rudy Marisa, longtime Waynesburg College director of athletics. "He has been a head coach for 10-plus years and enhances the program with valuable coaching experience."
Before being named Monessen's head coach, Dei Cas served as an assistant with the Greyhounds in 1994 and coached area youth soccer teams. The last three years, Monessen's girls soccer team missed qualifying for the WPIAL playoffs by one game.
"Coming from the high school ranks, I wasn't sure what to expect, but the players are a very mature bunch of guys," said Dei Cas. "The game is still the game, but the speed at the college level is definitely quicker."
A native of Charleroi who is still an active player, Dei Cas is a graduate of West Virginia University. Since 1998, Dei Cas has played with the Fayette County Independent League, and prior to that he played five years with Dunlevy in the Pennsylvania West League.
The Yellow Jackets' men's soccer team opens the 2005 season with four straight home games, including a contest against President's Athletic Conference newcomer Thomas More College, Crestview Hills, Ky., Sept. 2.
Last year, the Yellow Jackets finished last in the PAC with a 5-14 overall record and a 1-9 conference mark. Waynesburg's men's soccer team compiled a school-best 13-6-1 overall record in 2000.
With hopes of continued stability, the Monessen School Board hired Bill Hughes to replace Dei Cas. The 59-year-old Hughes had been Dei Cas' assistant coach each of the past three years.
Haywood out at Charleroi
Dan Haywood, the only coach in the history of Charleroi High School girls soccer, saw his job opened at a July 26 school board meeting by a 9-0 vote.
While Haywood is permitted to apply for his old position, the school board opted to replace him on an interim basis with Denver Byron.
Under Haywood's direction, the Lady Cougars were PIAA Class AA finalists in 1999 and 2000. He also led the Lady Cougars to WPIAL Class AA championship appearances in 1998 and 1999. Charleroi lost 2-1 to Center in the 1998 finals and also 2-1 to Sewickley Academy in 1999. The 1999 final was actually decided in a shootout with the Lady Cougars falling 4-3 in that format.
Steeber new Frazier AD
Certainly no one can accuse Mike Steeber of not working hard during this upcoming academic and athletic year.
A 1995 graduate of Belle Vernon Area High School, Steeber is working his fifth season as an assistant coach with the Leopards under head coach Jesse Cramer. He is coaching Belle Vernon's defensive backs.
Steeber was also recently hired as the athletic director at Frazier High School, where he replaced Bill Henderson, who resigned. Steeber is also a physics teacher at Frazier as well as the ninth-grade boys basketball team's head coach.
A four-year football letterman at NCAA Division I-AA Lafayette College in Easton, Steeber played for three different coaches during his scholastic career at Belle Vernon -- Bill Connors, Tony Ruscitto and Gary Dongilli.
Steeber was a defensive back during his 1994 senior season and helped the Leopards compile a 10-2 overall record and advance to the WPIAL Class AAA semifinals.
An economics major at Lafayette, Steeber was a two-time Academic All-American defensive back who earned this coveted honor in 1996 and 1998. Academic Americans at all NCAA levels are voted on by the College Sports Information Directors Association.
