New coach takes reins after breakthrough season for North Hills girls

By: Josh Rowntree
Saturday, December 7, 2024 | 11:01 AM

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Jason Pirring decided to stop coaching basketball in order to spend more time with his growing family. He never imagined that, years later, it would be his family that brought him back to the bench.

Pirring was hired earlier this year as the new head coach of the North Hills girls basketball team, taking over a program that broke through in 2023-2024, winning its first section title in 44 years.

“I have three daughters,” said Pirring, a long-time coach at a variety of levels. “My oldest is a freshman at North Hills, my middle is in seventh grade and my youngest is a fifth grader. All three are basketball players.

“I walked away from basketball because of my kids. I never thought I’d get back in it because of them.”

Pirring has plenty of coaching experience on his resume. He was an assistant boys coach at Shaler from 2006-2012, helping the Titans to a state semifinal appearance in his last year.

But, when he started missing milestone events in his children’s lives, he got out of the game.

Eventually, those daughters started to play basketball, and Pirring got the itch to coach again, most recently serving as the middle school coach at North Hills. He led that team, which included his oldest daughter Lucy, to a 41-0 record over the last two years.

When Tony Grenek left North Hills after two years to take the same job at Shaler, Pirring hopped at the chance to coach the Indians to see if he could continue the strong play at the high school level, while also getting the chance to coach his own kids.

“The middle school program, we had some success down there,” said Pirring. “But North Hills, before me, was not really successful at all. They didn’t win a lot of games. We were undefeated for two seasons in seventh and eighth grade. I give those girls credit, but it was only middle school.”

Pirring inherits a team, however, that will move up into Class 6A and will do so while trying to replace a large group of seniors, including all-section performers Olivia Waters and Gianna Sturdivant, who is now playing at Seton Hill.

That group finished last season 14-11, having reached the WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinals and played a pair of consolation games in an attempt to reach the PIAA postseason.

“(Grenek) is a great coach and did a great job with that group last year,” said Pirring. “They won the section, made the playoffs and kind of came out of nowhere. People came to North Hills and had to scout us. It wasn’t just, ‘Oh we’re playing North Hills. That’s just another check of the box.’

“But now I only have two starters who have played varsity minutes. The rest were all JV players and never came on the floor for varsity.”

Giavonna Minton is one of those players, as she’ll be one of just two seniors on the roster, along with Grace Zickefoose.

“She’s the captain,” said Pirring of Minton. “I need her energy and for her to help out these younger kids. We’ll have juniors, sophomores and freshmen all playing. It’s sort of a good, bad thing.

“These two seniors, they’ve had three coaches in four years at North Hills. That’s insane. I’m here for longevity, and I don’t want to see that happen.”

As a freshman last year, Delaney Amato worked into the starting lineup. She’ll play a prominent role again this year following a personally successful year on the soccer field as one of the region’s top goalkeepers.

“She’s really coming along,” said Pirring. “She needs to play a big role for us this year, offensively and defensively. She played a big role offensively last year, and maybe got away with her athletic ability. This year I’ll need more for her on defense and for her to help us out there.”

Zoe Devlin is a promising freshman who will get playing time early, as well.

Pirring’s hope is that those returning players — as well as the new additions — will be able to quickly adapt to his system.

“We want to play up tempo and fast,” he said. “We have tremendous athletes and I’m trusting them to play fast. I always say to them, ‘If you want to play fast, you have to think fast.’ That’s hard for some of these girls. I need them to start thinking and playing fast.

“And I want them to have in their minds that defense wins championships.”

North Hills will need both sides of the ball to click on all cylinders. The Indians join Section 1-6A with Butler, Woodland Hills, Seneca Valley, Pine-Richland and defending WPIAL runner-up and rival North Allegheny.

“This section is brutal,” said Pirring. “With 6A, you have some of the powerhouses that have been there before and the legacies of some of the teams that we’re in with. They have very good, successful programs.

“My goal is to win the section, but I know that other teams out there will stand in our way.”

Tags: North Hills