Chartiers Valley grad bringing structure, fun as new lacrosse coach

By: Ted Sarneso
Sunday, March 22, 2026 | 11:01 AM

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Those around Chartiers Valley familiar with his Tik Toks will undoubtedly recognize the new boys lacrosse coach.

Or if they aren’t constantly on social media, they have surely seen him patrolling the grounds of the high school and the middle school.

When Kyle Kelsch took over as the School Resource Officer last year, he wanted to find ways to connect with the students he saw every day.

“It was mostly informative and showing off what I was doing that day or special events,” Kelsch said.

“Then a kid said something to me at the end of the year about doing Tik Toks and at first, I didn’t want to do that type of thing.”

But, after attending a national SRO conference in Texas where he sat in on a social media class, Kelsch changed his mind and started making content along the lines of Reno 911, sort of a “good thing” as he called it.

His content has changed, especially when the school’s teams make the playoffs.

“The athletic director, Zach Hayward, and I are pretty tight, so when a team is doing well, we’ll make a video for every round,” said Kelsch. “It sort of humanizes the badge.”

After graduating from Chartiers Valley in 2011, Kelsch majored in administrative justice at the Pitt. He later enlisted in the Pennsylvania National Guard and served for eight years.

He was then hired by the City of Pittsburgh as a police officer and worked there for five or six years before taking a job in Collier.

Before he became a police officer, Kelsch coached the lacrosse youth league at Chartiers Valley. He got back into coaching last year as an assistant under Don Tolomeo.

“I was playing a pick-up game with some of the guys, and they pushed me to get back into coaching,” Kelsch said.

“When the job came open, I applied and got it. I’m very thrilled.”

When looking to round out his coaching staff, Kelsch knew exactly what he wanted — fellow Chartiers Valley alumni who played lacrosse.

He went out and hired three former teammates in brothers Matt and Mitch Redmond, who graduated in 2011, and Ryan McGoogan, who graduated in 2012.

Lastly, Kelsch brought on a player he had coached in youth league, Rob Richardson, who asked Kelsch about getting into coaching. Richardson graduated from CV in 2018.

“I wouldn’t want my staff to be any other way,” said Kelsch. “It’s cool because no one is going to take more pride in the program than us.”

The first thing the group did was to establish pillars of the program, principles to guide the players. They named the pillars after their high school coach, Tony Greco. They are grit, reliability, excellence, coachability and open communication.

“With me, as well as two of my staff, being former military, we are harping on discipline and accountability, things that sort of went by the wayside the last few years,” Kelsch said. “The kids have bought in and are seeing we’re taking it seriously.”

But it’s not all discipline and structure, and how could it be when Kelsch’s fun persona is on display in his Tik Toks?

“It’s a fun atmosphere,” said Joey DeAngelis, a senior defenseman and team captain. “We really love coming to practice and can’t wait for the season to get started.”

It’s that fun personality that helped him add 12 players to the roster this year.

“We lost four seniors and our starting goaltender, who was a sophomore, from last year,” said Kelsch. “It helped that I worked at the school and could go around and ask kids if they wanted to play. I was actually worried I might not have enough jerseys for this year.”

That goaltender was Nick Dinger and he stepped up, having never played the position before, and did an outstanding job of helping the Colts qualify for the playoffs last year.

With him being the only goalie left on the roster, it left a huge hole for Kelsch to fill.

“Nick was a dawg,” Kelsch said. “He got us out of a lot of close situations and saved us in that first playoff game against Sewickley.”

All his recruiting in the halls paid off as Kelsch now has four goaltenders on the roster, with freshman Ben Waldron, who is the hockey team’s starting netminder, as the frontrunner to start.

“He has shocked the heck out of us,” Kelsch said. “There’s another guy we picked up who has never played in net before, but he’s also done an outstanding job in practice that it’s really making it difficult for us to pick a starter.”

Whoever winds up in net, he will be the beneficiary of having a big, strong, veteran defensive group in from of him.

The group is led by seniors DeAngelis, Gavin Waldron and long-stick midfielder Regan Kosanovic and is out to prove that the 12-2 loss against Peters Township in the quarterfinal round was an anomaly.

“Just like me, they want redemption,” said Kelsch. “We got down a little bit, then got down on ourselves. Working through adversity is something we’re teaching this year. We won’t let that happen again.”

“We want to be tough to play against,” said DeAngelis. “We want to be gritty, get to every ground ball, force every turnover we can.”

Offensively, the Colts will be led by a trio of hockey players. Darien Strosnider, who has scored nearly 120 goals in his career, Dylan Shamonsky, who was the captain of the hockey team, and faceoff specialist Austin Tornabene.

Another hockey player, Tyler Held, is playing his first year of lacrosse as is Tyler Mayo, who was the center for the football team. Both have been taking reps as faceoff men, because the Colts’ current players in that role are on the smaller side, and Kelsch knows he’ll need some physicality when his team squares off against bigger foes.

“It’s a physical sport,” Kelsch said. “There is a finesse side to it, but I don’t want a soft team. When it comes down to it and we need to be physical, we’re going to rise to the challenge. All our guys are smart about it. They know when to hit and when to work with their feet.”

Overall, Kelsch and his staff are going back to basics to sure up any shortcomings he saw as an assistant last year.

Last year, the Colts allowed just 7.8 goals a game, but could only muster 7.5 a game, which in Kelsch’s eyes meant “the offense was stagnant.”

Coaches McGoogan and Richardson have been working on that side, using a drone to film practices. They’re showing how to work the ball around, what to look for and generally how to keep moving.

“I told our guys last year, as a defenseman myself, you are making it way too easy for the other team to defend you,” Kelsch said. “Let’s move our feet. When a guy won’t stop moving, it makes the defense’s job a lot harder.”

If the Colts can get their offense to rock and roll, they could make a run at the goals Kelsch has for his team.

“I want to have a solid winning record, and I think we could win the section this year,” said Kelsch. “I want us to get as deep into the playoffs as possible.”

If that happens, then Kelsch will be producing Tik Toks to celebrating his own squad’s achievements.

Tags: Chartiers Valley