Football coach Eric Kasperowicz poised to make WPIAL return at Mars

By: Chris Harlan
Monday, April 11, 2022 | 6:47 PM

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Mars is prepared to hire football coach Eric Kasperowicz, bringing the two-time state champion coach back to the WPIAL a year after his ouster at Pine-Richland.

He is the recommended candidate to be hired pending Mars school board approval Tuesday night, according to the meeting agenda.

Kasperowicz went 85-18 in eight seasons at Pine-Richland with four WPIAL championships and two state titles, but his contract there was not renewed last April following a district investigation into the football program.

He worked last fall as a volunteer assistant coach at Pitt, his college alma mater.

Mars was long-rumored as a possible landing spot for Kasperowicz if he returned to coaching high school football, in part because he already had roots in the district. It became an option when the Mars school board in January voted to accept applications for its head coaching job, ending Scott Heinauer’s 30-year tenure with the Planets.

Heinauer, who did not reapply, will remain athletic director. He won more than 200 games at Mars since 1992, but the Planets are coming off a down year.

Mars went 2-8 last season and 2-5 in the conference.

Kasperowicz attempted a return to Pine-Richland this winter when the Rams’ coaching job came open again. He dropped a defamation lawsuit against the school district and reapplied for the job, but Pine-Richland instead hired former Penn Hills coach Jon LeDonne in February.

Kasperowicz’s son, Eric Jr., was a freshman quarterback at Pine-Richland last fall. The family also owns property in the Mars school district and they previously lived there.

Pine-Richland went 11-0 and won WPIAL and PIAA Class 5A titles in 2020, Kasperowicz’s final season with the Rams. However, his coaching tenure there ended in controversy a few months later when the school district conducted an investigation into allegations of hazing and bullying. As a result of the investigation, his contract was not renewed last spring.

Kasperowicz denied the allegations and filed a lawsuit against the Pine-Richland school district and several top officials claiming they damaged his reputation. He dropped that lawsuit in January when he hoped to be rehired at Pine-Richland.

As coach, he led the Rams to WPIAL titles in 2014, ’17, ’18 and ’20, along with two state titles in 2017 and ’20. They were state runners-up in 2014.

As Mars’ coach, Kasperowicz would take over a program searching for its first WPIAL title. The Planets were WPIAL runners-up in 1996 and 2002. The team went 72-35 over the past decade with nine playoff appearances.

Kasperowicz also won WPIAL and PIAA titles as a player when he quarterbacked North Hills to both championships in 1993.

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.