Jun 27, 2002 By Rob Burchianti 6 min read

His first name is Matthew, but California University of Pa. basketball fans will remember him better by his middle name, Shea. He is the same Shea Fleenor who played on the Vulcans’ 1996 squad that reached the NCAA Division II final four, the one who was a three-year starter and team captain as a senior.

And now he is the Shea Fleenor who is girls’ basketball coach at Albert Gallatin, following the highly successful reign of Ann Capozzi, who stepped down after this past season.

Fleenor was hired on May 15, and will also teach special education at Albert Gallatin Senior High School in the fall.

This will be Fleenor’s first head coaching job.

“I was assistant boys coach at Elgin High School in Marion, Ohio, for two years,” Fleenor said. “We reached the district championship game, which is the final eight in the state, one year, and that was the furthest they’d ever gone.”

Fleenor wanted to get a little closer to his wife’s hometown, however, so he took a job as a varsity boys’ assistant coach at Quaker Valley High School. Leslie Fleenor is from Brownsville. The Fleenors have one two-year-old daughter, Abby, and live in Bridgeville.

The family will be even closer to Leslie’s hometown very soon, as they are currently attempting to move in the Fayette County area.

Fleenor, the son of Jack and Cathy Fleenor, graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in his hometown of Beckley, W.Va.

The 27-year-old Fleenor played under coach Dave Barksdale in high school.

“He’s a legend,” Fleenor said. “When it comes to teaching fundamentals, especially defensively, there’s probably not many better than him. I was able to learn a lot from him about how you should build a high school program.”

One change the Lady Colonials will make is the switch from multiple defenses to almost exclusively a man-to-man set. That’s not as easy as it sounds, though, according to Fleenor.

“You can get any team to play man-to-man, but the players have to want to do it for it to be successful,” he said. “Coach Barksdale always said 85 percent of playing defense is heart and 15 percent is technique. You have to be mentally ready to go do it.”

Fleenor played two years at California under coach Jim Boone, who has since moved to NCAA Division-I head coaching jobs at Robert Morris and then to Eastern Michigan, and two years under current Vulcans coach Mike Brown.

“Coach Boone was all man-to-man all the time,” Fleenor said. “We played zone one time in two years I was there under him and it was because that was the only chance we had to win that particular game. So I’ve had some good teachers in man-to-man philosophy.”

Fleenor is relaying those philosophies to the Lady Colonials already as he guides the team during summer league play.

“Coach Brown has been a great help to me, too,” Fleenor said. “I stay in constant contact with him and he helped me in making my decision. I was able to learn some things from him, also. He was a little more laid back and he thought sometimes it was good to listen to what you had to say. He was almost the total opposite of Coach Boone, who was much more strict and less-bending in his ways and his philosophy. You did it his way or else.

“They’re both successful coaches and I think playing under both of them gave me a good balance in coaching techniques.”

Fleenor expressed his coaching philosophies during his first interview for the AG job.

“I felt very comfortable with the situation from the first interview,” Fleenor said. “I presented them my expectations and how I wanted to build a program, and they called me back for a second interview.”

This one was much tougher, according to Fleenor.

“They grilled me for about an hour and a half, gave me some tough scenarios and asked how I would deal with them and gave me philosophy questions,” he said. “It was a good interview. I give them credit. They hammered me for a good long time, but I felt comfortable with how I handled everything.”

Fleenor also had recently interviewed for the Beaver High School boys’ head coaching position.

“I was one of the final three for that and felt very comfortable with those interviews, too,” Fleenor said. “I didn’t get the job, but I think it all worked out for the best that they didn’t hire me because I feel this is a better situation all around for me at Albert Gallatin.

“I’m glad everything worked out the way it did.”

Fleenor hasn’t coached girls basketball before, but doesn’t see that as a problem.

“Basketball is basketball,” Fleenor said. “I thought I was ready for a head coaching position, whether it was boys or girls. It didn’t matter. While boys may be more athletic and can do a little more, I think girls listen a lot better and do what you ask them. We’ve played in a couple summer leagues, and they’ve all done what I’ve asked them. I haven’t seen that much difference.”

Fleenor does see a difference in one of the Lady Colonials’ returning players, though.

That player is Loui Hall, arguably the WPIAL’s best player.

“I think anytime you step into a program and have the type of player she is there, it makes my job a lot easier,” Fleenor said. “It seems I have a pretty good group of seniors in addition to Loui. Rachel Karpency does everything I ask her to do and has been a great leader. Shane Guerierre also. They’ve done a great job to this point.

“I think as I get to know the girls better, I’ll probably do some things that work to their strengths. But, at the same time, I have my own philosophy.

“We’re going to get up and down the court as fast as we can. We’re going to look to get as many easy buckets as we can. In the halfcourt game we’re going to work to our strengths. Loui is our main strength there, and everybody knows it. One main focus for us will be to get with all the girls and develop them fundamentally, because we want them all to be a threat on offense to take a little of the pressure off Loui. “We’re obviously going to play man defense. I’ve never played in a zone and never coached a zone.”

The AG girls are currently playing in the Brownson House league in Washington.

“I think that helps because you not only see Fayette teams there, you see Pittsburgh area teams, too,” Fleenor said. “It gives us a different look.

“Regardless of what we do, when we play I want not only us but everyone who watches us to know we play with maximum effort. When we walk off the floor every night, I want people to say, ‘Boy, that AG plays harder than anybody I’ve ever seen.'”