Oct 30, 2019 4 min read

Two Washington County school districts hope they have hit home runs in their pursuit to find new leaders for their baseball programs in 2020.

Chartiers-Houston hired Andy Manion, a long-time assistant at Peters Township under retired head coach Joe Maize, earlier this month, and Beth-Center hired Matt Sabatini Monday night.

Manion, a 1995 graduate of Our Lady of Sacred Heart, succeeds Vince Capozzi as the Bucs’ head coach, while Sabatini succeeds long-time Bulldogs’ head coach Frank Pryor, who retired earlier this year.

Capozzi left Chartiers-Houston to assist Rocky Plassio, the new coach at Peters Township.

The Bucs went 13-4 overall last season and shared the Class AA Section 1 championship with Carmichaels with a 10-2 record.

Beth-Center compiled a 7-9 overall mark and was 7-5 in the Class AAA Section 3 race to finish fourth.

Chartiers-Houston lost to Laurel, 16-6, in the opening round of the WPIAL playoffs. The Bulldogs upended No. 5-seed New Brighton in the opening round before losing to eventual WPIAL champion Steel Valley, 8-0, in the quarterfinals.

Manion, who teaches physics in the Chartiers-Houston school district, said it has been a goal for him to become a head coach. He was hired Oct. 21.

“I eventually wanted to work my way up to gain one of the varsity coaching jobs,” said Manion, a respected soccer official, who also officiates basketball. “I was fortunate being the junior varsity coach at Peters Township that Joe (Maize) allowed me to be a varsity assistant.

“I tried to be a sponge and learn as much as I could under him and all the wonderful and knowledgeable assistants he had there. There was so much baseball knowledge, so many drills. I want to take a lot of that and instill that as a head coach.”

Manion was part of Maize’s staff for 15 years at Peters Township and he played four years at Washington and Jefferson College before earning a graduate degree from the University of Tennessee.

Sabatini, 27, played for Pryor at Beth-Center before enjoying a successful career at La Roche University.

He served as an assistant coach at Penn State-Fayette and worked with the Bulldogs’ staff during the second half of the 2019 season.

“Baseball has sort of set up my whole life,” Sabatini said. “I always had the feeling to come back and help out in some way.

“I would like to bring some excitement to the baseball program and hope to create a similar atmosphere for baseball as we have in other sports in our district. We’ll try to develop a new culture around the (program). I’m going to bring some new ideas I learned in college and other places.”

Manion was selected in part because of his background and him being a district employee.

“Andy’s number one strength is being a good communicator,” said Kurt Kesneck, Chartiers-Houston’s athletic director. “He has vast knowledge of the basics of the game. He comes from a successful program at Peters Township and we are hoping he can bring the fundamentals and the success of that program to ours.

“Being a teacher in the district is always good for communication purposes and knowing the rules and policies of the school.”

The Bucs have a talented roster returning and one player, Jimmy Sadler, who has made a verbal commitment to play at West Virginia University.

“Certainly, there is going to be a little bit of a learning process,” Manion said. “We have some very talented players. The team is stacked full of juniors and that bodes well for the next two years. My goal is to build a program that is competitive every year, not just the two years coming.”