SCRANTON – Vito Quaglia and Alan Kiesinger enjoyed what they were doing and were proud of the accomplishments of their teams as head coaches of the Pittston Area softball and boys basketball teams, but a job change and a life change will take them away from those roles.
Quaglia, who guided Pittston Area to its first two District 2 softball championships the past two seasons, confirmed after the latest title win Thursday night that he is stepping down when the team’s state tournament run ends.
Kiesinger turned in his resignation May 20, meeting with administrators and his team to explain his decision for family reasons.
Quaglia is leaving a position as elementary school principal in the Wyoming Area District for the same role at Delaware Valley. He had started his career in education as a teacher at Delaware Valley.
“It’s bittersweet,” Quaglia said. “It’s a great opportunity for me career-wise. But, to give up this position is really hard. It was a very difficult decision.
“I’m making a career choice, but thinking as a high school coaching job, it was really hard. This program is loaded. Down to sixth grade, there’s a lot of talent and these kids are fun to coach. I really hope this season lasts forever because it’s going to be hard to be away from them.”
Kiesinger and his wife Angela welcomed their first child, Ben Harrison Kiesinger, April 26.
“Things changed very quickly,” said Kiesinger, who teaches adapted physical education for the Luzerne Intermediate Unit.
The Pittston Area softball program rose to prominence while advancing to district and/or subregional championship games each of the past four seasons.
Quaglia took over a losing program at Pittston Area and led the team through a strong playoff surge in the second of his five seasons, beginning the title game streak.
The Lady Patriots made their first championship game appearance as a sixth seed and the next as the last seed in a seven-team tournament. They beat higher-seeded playoff opponents in all five of Quaglia’s seasons with eight of those wins total, including Thursday night’s 5-0 victory over top-seeded Abington Heights.
Pittston Area pulled three boys basketball upsets over teams seeded at least four slots higher during Kiesinger’s time leading the team. The Patriots went to the 2014 Class 3A state tournament after beating the second and third seeds as the seventh-seeded team.
Kiesinger has coached for the past 20 seasons, including the last 10 as head coach at Pittston Area, the school he graduated from in 1994. He was also head coach of Pittston Seton Catholic for its final season.
“I’m proud of the whole body of work,” Kiesinger said. “There wasn’t much controversy surrounding Patriot basketball and we were able to have success as well.
“I feel as though myself and my staff did a really good job of always our team prepared. We certainly were not an easy out.”
The Patriots went 13-10, outperforming generally perceived expectations with a young, small lineup in Kiesinger’s final season.
