Hempfield expected to hire former wrestling coach

By: Paul Schofield
Monday, September 21, 2020 | 12:20 AM

Hempfield Area School District is expected to hire a familiar face to coach its wrestling team at Monday’s school board meeting.

And they didn’t look too far for their top candidate.

The school board is expected to hire the approved winter coaches on the agenda, including school board member Vince DeAugustine, who coached at Norwin the past two seasons and helped guide Kurtis Phipps to the school’s first individual state title last winter.

If hired, DeAugustine will not be paid for the position because of his position on the school board. DeAugustine coached at Hempfield for 13 seasons and compiled a 218-53 record. His career record is 251-61. He was 33-8 at Norwin.

He would replace Tom Dolde, who was removed as Hempfield’s head coach during the postseason tournament and replaced by interim coach Mike Kirkling.

DeAugustine was a two-time PIAA champion and a three-time WPIAL Class AAA champion with a 135-18 career record. He won state titles in 1996 and ‘97 and placed second in 1994.

During his time at Hempfield, his team was WPIAL Class AAA champion in 2007. He coached six state champions and 12 WPIAL champions.

His state champions were Steve Santia (2007), Luke Kemerer (‘07, ‘08), Sam Krivus (‘13, ‘15) and Jared Verkleeren (‘17).

Phipps became his 13th WPIAL champion in 2019 and seventh state champion. Norwin had three Westmoreland County Coaches’ Association winners — Phipps, John Altieri and Ryan Weinzen — in the same year for the first time since 1975.

The board also is expected to rehire Bill Swan as boys basketball coach, Tom Brush as girls basketball coach, Kevin Clougherty as swimming coach, James Wilkinson as rifle coach and Dave Murray, Melissa White, Larry Williams and LaRoyal Wilson as indoor track coaches. They also plan to hire numerous assistant coaches in all sports except for wrestling.

Paul Schofield is a Tribune-Review Staff Writer. You can contact Paul by email at pschofield@triblive.com or via Twitter .

Tags: Hempfield, Norwin