Knause hired as Trinity football coach
Trinity’s school board wanted to hire someone for its football program who could turn the fortunes of the team around.
They might have gotten their man last night.
At Thursday’s school board meeting, the board hired Dan Knause, who has performed such a resuscitation act at Chartiers Valley, as its football coach.
The board also hired Alex Nikolopoulos as boys soccer coach. Nikolopoulos replaces Ryan Julian, who left to become the head coach at Canon-McMillan.
Knause replaces Jon Miller, who had his position opened after last season. Miller had been at Trinity since 2015 and compiled a 25-38 record, including a 22-29 mark in the Class 4A Big Seven Conference that included powerhouses Thomas Jefferson and Belle Vernon.
“I think anytime you come in, you first evaluate where the program is,” said the 44-year-old Knause. “I respect the coaching profession too much not to thank Coach Miller for what he and his staff did. Now it’s about moving forward. I’m a big believer in the process.”
Knause resigned at Chartiers Valley last month after spending five seasons there. The Colts went 18-30 in his stay there and had a breakout season in 2020, when Chartiers Valley went 6-2, 4-1 in the Class 4A Parkway Conference and qualified for the WPIAL playoffs. The playoff appearance was the first since 2015 for CV and only the second in the last decade.
“There’s no magic potion. We’ve been through a couple rebuilds. It hasn’t been easy but it’s been fun.”
Knause graduated from Chartiers Valley in 1995 and Westminster College in 2000. He will be an assistant principal in his new job at Trinity.
“Dan was one of six finalists for the job,” said Trinity athletic director Ricci Rich, who took time from a lacrosse match to be interviewed. Rich was able to get two officials for the game. Earlier this week, he was forced to cancel a match when the three officials balked at officiating the match.
“Dan has a good reputation of building up a program,” said Rich. “He’s a good people person. He really teaches kids about life and just his personality and he wants to create a culture where the kids are putting the work in and are shooting for their highest potential. He has experience doing that on the high school level and college, as well.”
Knause was the head coach at Cornell High School from 2007-2010, then moved on to coach the linebackers at Carnegie Mellon University for four years. He jumped back into high school football in 2015 at Montour, then took a job at his alma mater in 2017.
Trinity went 3-7 last year, including 2-4 in the Big Eight Conference and has not had a winning season since 2017, when the Hillers went 6-4.
Nikolopoulous resigned as boys soccer coach at Chartiers-Houston Thursday and was hired at Trinity Thursday night. He is a guidance counselor in the Avella School District.