Kezmarsky, Minerd chosen as coaching finalists
The two best area high school basketball teams this past season were the Uniontown Red Raiders and the California Lady Trojans. Both squads won a section title and a pair of playoff games to reach the WPIAL semifinals and qualify for the PIAA tournament.
Not surprisingly, the head coaches of those two teams were selected as finalists for the Tri-County Athletic Directors Association Coach of the Year award.
Uniontown’s Rob Kezmarsky joins Joe Salvino of Monessen and Eugene Briggs of Chartiers-Houston for the boys award.
California’s Chris Minerd joins Amanda Burchett of McGuffey and Laura Grimm of Ringgold for the girls award.
The winners will be revealed at a banquet hosted by Tri-CADA at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Meadow Lands on Sunday. The event begins at 5 p.m.
“It shows what type of year your team had,” Kezmarsky said of being a finalist. “It takes good players and a good coaching staff to be considered for an honor such as this, and even the community that supported us so well all season deserves credit.
“I don’t see it as being an individual thing at all.”
Kezmarksy credited his assistant coaches for helping him guide the team to success.
“Warare Gladman did so much to help our team, especially in the playoffs, as did Harry Kaufman,” he said. “Jeremy Brain was a volunteer assistant for us. They all deserve credit.
“This was a very rewarding season when you look back on it. I’m thankful for the players we had this year. This is a nice honor for your program and your basketball team.”
Uniontown finished the season with a 22-3 record and won three post-season games, including one in the PIAA tournament.
Whether he wants to take credit or not, the numbers show that Kezmarsky is now in rare company. He improved his overall record in 12 seasons at Uniontown to 188-88, an even 100 games over the .500 mark, and earned his eighth section championship.
Kezmarsky continues to climb up the Red Raiders’ all-time victory list as well. He currently sits in fifth place, behind Abe Everhart Jr. (566-160), Abe Everhart Sr. (383-86), Dave Shuck (228-79) and Lash Nesser (220-66).
Minerd’s Lady Trojans went 19-5. They secured sole possession of first place with a tough win at Avella in their regular-season finale. It was their first section title since 1982.
California went on to win two WPIAL playoff games, its first since 1993, to qualify for the state tournament for the first time in school history.
“This is definitely the icing on the cake of a great season,” said Minerd, who completed his fourth year as head coach and seventh with the team overall. “I never started coaching with any aspiration to be a coach-of-the-year candidate. I just coach to the best of my ability.
“This is special, though, because it’s voted on by the coaches and athletic directors (from Fayette, Greene and Washington counties).”
Minerd said he’s proud of the players and the coaching staff.
“Now that the season is over and I’ve had a chance to reflect, to me, we were probably a year or two ahead of schedule,” Minerd said. “The girls just gelled together. I’ve got to give them credit. They put everything aside in that it didn’t matter who scored. They just wanted to win.
“The season they had is not something to take for granted. When you think about it, they did things most other teams have never done. It was something special.”
While Minerd is gratified with his team’s accomplishments this season, he’s ready to look ahead.
“Hopefully, this is something we can build on. We were one game from (playing at) the Palumbo Center. Hopefully, we’ll come back and be hungrier and get over that next step.”