C-H doesn’t look far, finds basketball coach
It’s not that Rich Tranquill suddenly developed a burning desire to get back into coaching basketball.
After all, being involved in the sport was something Tranquill wanted from the time he first picked up a basketball in his hometown of Avella. That feeling stayed with him even after he stepped away from coaching in 2017 following six years as the boys head coach at Burgettstown High School.
“I love the game of basketball. The bug never left me,” Tranquill said. “It has been with me since I was five years old. The passion for the game never left. I always had it in my mind that I would get back in it.”
Tranquill had been content in recent years raising two young sons with his wife, Alyson, and knowing that one day he would return to coaching.
That day has arrived, and he won’t have to get in his car and to drive to practice after work.
Tranquill was recently hired as the boys head coach at Chartiers-Houston, where he has spent 17 years as a teacher.
“This is the perfect match,” Tranquill said. “This was a family decision. My wife and I sat down and laid everything out. I am a teacher in the school district, we live in the school district. It was the right fit at the right time.”
Tranquill succeeds Eugene Briggs, who left for the same position at Fort Cherry. Briggs was the Bucs’ coach for 10 years. Chartiers-Houston went 10-12 last season and missed the WPIAL Class 2A playoffs because of a pair of two-point losses to Jeannette.
Tranquill said he’s not familiar with how much talent the Bucs are returning, but he’s not totally unfamiliar with the players in the program.
“I teach seventh-graders, so I’ve had almost all the kids in the program in class. It seems like a really good group of kids,” Tranquill said. “I know they graduated only a few seniors from last year’s team, and there seems to be some good younger kids. I look forward to working with them.”
Tranquill, who was a standout high school player at Avella, has 13 years of coaching experience. He was an assistant at McGuffey for four years before going to Burgettstown as an assistant and eventually becoming the Blue Devils’ head coach for six seasons.
Chartiers-Houston will play in Section of Class 2A along with Burgettstown, Carlynton, Fort Cherry, Northgate and Sto-Rox.