Fox Chapel’s Zach Skrinjar, Eli Yofan hits major milestones

By: George Guido
Saturday, February 12, 2022 | 11:01 AM

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Early February turned into a time for milestones with the Fox Chapel boys basketball team.

Coach Zach Skrinjar reached the 200-victory mark in just his 13th season with the Foxes and Eli Yofan became the school’s all-time career scorer.

Skrinjar hit the mark on Feb. 1 when the Foxes visited Hempfield and came away with a 60-49 victory.

Skrinjar’s teams have averaged 15.5 wins per season and his record at Fox Chapel as of the game against Norwin on Feb. 8 is 202-95.

“A lot of people put the time, effort and energy into this,” Skrinjar said. “The assistant coaches, all their help, them buying into the system, working together as a team, it’s a product of the whole organization from the athletic director Mike O’Brien, all the way down. It’s just a collective effort, and I’m glad just to be a part of it.”

Skrinjar was an assistant under Ben O’ Connor and had never been a head coach until O’ Brien tabbed him to lead the program.

“That’s something I am proud of,” Skrinjar said. “Mr. O’Brien took a chance on me having no head coaching experience at the varsity level. Doing it at one school and a school that I love is something that is one of the things I’m happiest about, doing it at one institution with students from the Fox Chapel area. That really means a lot to me.”

The Foxes have made the WPIAL playoffs 10 of the 13 seasons, including all six seasons that Class 6A has existed.

The current senior players have accounted for 76 of his wins as the 2021-22 regular season has wound down.

“It’s an awesome accomplishment,” senior Eli Yofan said of Skrinjar. “Our class has been around for a lot of the wins.”

Skrinjar has been a limb on the Chuck Crummie coaching tree, acknowledging the long-time Central Catholic coach who won 653 games in 39 seasons guiding the Vikings.

Said Skrinjar: “I’ve always said I’ve been fortunate to have lots of great coaches, starting with my parents. My mom was a teacher, I’m a teacher, my dad was a communicator for PennDOT who coached CYO basketball. I’ve been in gyms since I was a second- or third-grader. Then through high school with coach Crummie, to work in college with coach (Bill) Shay and coach (Bob) Rager, three hall of fame coaches.”

Could there be a Skrinjar coaching tree in the works?

Sean Devinney, a Fox Chapel assistant for five seasons, now has his own team, Freeport, in the WPIAL playoffs.

“Coach Sean did a great job for us at Fox Chapel,” Skrinjar said. “We still have a close relationship. We still try to talk once or twice a week. His assistant, Ben Bailey, had been here at FC. It’s gratifying to see that occur.”

For now, Fox Chapel will get ready for its latest playoff excursion and add on to Skrinjar’s victory total.

“Great players always make coaches look a lot better, and I’ve been fortunate to have a good group over my tenure at Fox Chapel,” Skrinjar said.

Yofan, meanwhile, now owns the highest career scoring mark in the 60-year history of the high school with 1,446 points after the team’s 71-34 victory over Norwin.

The senior standout broke the mark of 1,437 set by Matt D’Amico from 2010-14.

D’Amico was on hand to watch Yofan set the new standard.

“It’s pretty cool,” Yofan said of setting the record. “I really didn’t know about it until around 10 games ago. I thought I might come close.”

“It just happened that Matt was able to come that night and everything came together,” Skrinjar said.

Yofan said he would like to continue his basketball career next year but is undecided on a college choice.

Tags: Fox Chapel