Feb 25, 2020 4 min read

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Joe Salvino was frustrated.

The first-year Belle Vernon boys basketball coach, who came over from Monessen, had just watched his team drop a 85-36 decision on its home floor to Uniontown in a January section game last year. Salvino felt his team wasn’t committed to the system he was trying to implement.

“It’s hard when it seems like they don’t trust me as a coach,” he said after that game. “I’m putting this new system in and they just don’t want to adapt to it.

“Without sacrifice and dedication, this is the type of team you’re going to be. So I’m trying to find five people that are willing to try to work together as a team. It’s just a little bit hard right now.”

The Leopards were coming off a district final four appearance in 2018, but ended up with an 8-15 overall record in 2019.

A year later, the surprising Leopards are back in the WPIAL semifinals and take on New Castle in a 6 p.m. Class 4A game today at North Allegheny High School.

The only other local team playing today is the Trinity girls (18-4), who will play Woodland Hills (19-4) in the Class 5A semifinals at Mt. Lebanon.

The Leopards players still around are now working with Salvino, instead of against him, and Belle Vernon got an extra boost with the addition of sophomore Devin Whitlock, who transferred from Monessen.

Salvino recalled the game against Uniontown when it was brought up after the Leopards’ gutsy 66-61 victory over Quaker Valley in a quarterfinal game at Plum High School on Saturday.

“Being my first year they didn’t really know my system that well,” Salvino said, “but all these players came back, they adapted to me and the system and they see it works.”

Winning has a way of convincing players the coach might be right.

“When you win, that goes a long way,” said Salvino, who saw his team improve drastically late in the 2018-19 season when the Leopards won their last four regular-season games, qualified for the playoffs and put up a surprisingly strong fight in a 75-67 loss to Highlands.

“It was the players,” Salvino said. “They saw, especially at the end of last year, that the way I want it done will work if you just work with with me instead of butting heads.

“This year they know the system and they’ve work hard at it, so they deserve credit.”

The Leopards proved to be mentally tough against the Quakers, refusing to fold at certain times when the situation looked bleak, and came up big in the fourth quarter. A steal and layup by Whitlock put Belle Vernon ahead to stay with 1:07 left.

“He’s a very big key for us,” Salvino said of Whitlock. “When Devin does the things he’s capable of he can change a game around.”

Whitlock was one of the keys to the Greyhounds’ drive to the PIAA final four last year, and that experience is invaluable.

“They means a lot,” Salvino said. “You know what the atmosphere is all about in these big games, you know everything that’s going on. As a player, you know what you have to do to win. He does and he did a great job.”

The Leopards have key pieces in place besides Whitlock, including Cam Nusser, a senior guard who can seemingly hit three-pointers from anywhere, along with Mitch Pohlot and Jake Hartman.

Nusser made three three-pointers in scoring 17 points against Quaker Valley, while Pohlot and Whitlock tallied 14 apiece and Hartman added 13, including a pair of eye-opening treys.

“They did well,” Salvino said of his the 6-foot-4 Pohlot and 6-3 Hartman. “Mitch does a great job inside on the boards. Jake doesn’t look to shoot a lot but I guess today he felt good about it and he did it.

“It was just a great team effort.”

That’s what Salvino was looking for when he took over and he now has his Leopards all on the same page headed in the right direction.