Apr 10, 2017 4 min read

The theatrical body language, and pure and genuine emotion that defined his high school basketball coaching style will surely be missed.

Though Bruno Pappasergi is retiring as California High School’s boys basketball coach, do not expect him to become invisible.

He and his wife, Elaine, will be busy with their granddaughter and another grandchild, who is due to be born in the next few weeks.

Pappasergi, 62, is not closing the door completely on being an assistant coach at some point.

“As the season went on I was vacillating between retiring or staying,” said Pappasergi, who announced his retirement Sunday night at a team banquet. “I was going back and forth – definitely thinking about retiring.

“After 42 years of coaching between basketball and baseball, I felt it was enough. There was no one factor. It was like retiring from teaching at Charleroi. After 36 years, I just knew it was time. There was nothing negative at California. The kids were great, parents were great and the school board and administration were great. It was a perfect place for me to coach.

“Charleroi was my first family and then I found a second family at Cal.”

Pappasergi added that being able to coach with his son, Chad, at California was special.”

“It was my good fortune to have Chad as an assistant and for him to be at my side,” he said. “Every father should have that chance.”

In four seasons as the Trojans’ head coach, Pappasergi’s teams won 59 of 86 games (.686 winning percentage). California was a section runner-up each of the past three seasons, when the Trojans were 49-15. Under Pappasergi, California’s section record was 37-13 – qualifying for the WPIAL playoffs four consecutive years.

The Trojans were 19-3 this past season but had to play in the 8-9-seed game in the opening round of the WPIAL Class AA playoffs, losing 46-45 to Neshannock.

California’s last postseason win was 2015 when the Trojans defeated Union, 46-44, in the WPIAL Class A playoffs. The Trojans were upended by Monessen in the quarterfinals and lost to Cornell, 54-43, in a PIAA play-in game.

Pappasergi was a longtime varsity assistant, working under Phil Pergola, Bill Wiltz, Mickey Hornack and Greg Melvin. He credited those men, as well as fellow assistant, Mike Lucas, for helping him to grow as a coach and as a person.

Wiltz, Charleroi’s atletic director and head boys basketball coach, and Pergola, Ringgold’s coach, agreed that Pappasergi has led a life of mentoring and guiding young people as a teacher and a coach.

“I think Bruno’s development as a coach and person goes back to Phil,” Wiltz said. “There are a lot of branches off the Phil Pergola coaching tree. He took Bruno on as a young man and they developed a wonderful friendship.

“I knew he was thinking about retiring. When our teams played, it was real competitive. It was like watching your own team playing. Our style and philosophy was the same.”

Pergola, whose long coaching career began at the former Mon Valley Catholic High School, said Pappasergi has a keen eye for what is happening on the court.

“He played for me, and when he was a freshman we went 1-21,” Pergola said. “By the time he was a senior, we were 17-6. We became very good friends. My wife and I kind of adopted him. He reminded me of me as a young coach. He always was on top of everything.

“Bruno is very good at seeing things on the floor. It is his strength. My strength is seeing things on paper.”

Pappasergi was a longtime assistant to Charleroi baseball coach Fran Celaschi, before becoming the Cougars’ head coach for 21 years. He currently is a volunteer assistant baseball coach for the Cougars.

“I’ve been very lucky,” Pappasergi said. “I haven’t coached a kid I wouldn’t invite to my home. Being a volunteer coach, I am kind of weaning myself away from it. It remains to be seen if I come back to coaching as an assistant. I want to see if there is a void in my life. We’ll see how it plays out.

“I have had a tremendously supportive wife through all these years,” he added. “She has been my rock, always there for me. We’re not going to look into the future and we’ll just take one day at a time and find out where it takes us.”