Friends, players remember coach Rick Tatrn, who guided Deer Lakes volleyball to 4 WPIAL, 2 state titles

By: Michael Love
Tuesday, March 4, 2025 | 4:53 PM

Previous Next

Whether he was playing or coaching, Rick Tatrn made a lasting impact in athletics in the A-K Valley.

Tatrn, who coached Deer Lakes boys volleyball for 44 years through the 2014 playoff season, died Feb. 18 at the Concordia retirement home in Cabot. He was 77.

Tatrn was a standout football and basketball player at East Deer Frazer High School.

The 1965 graduate’s accomplishments on the gridiron attracted attention from Division I schools, and he earned a football scholarship to Kansas.

“Rick was such a good teammate who worked hard in practice,” said Tony Taliani, a high school classmate and a current East Deer Township commissioner. “He would always do what he could to help the team win while also being that leader the team needed. I was proud to call him a friend.”

Tatrn, while playing football for the Jayhawks and receiving his bachelor’s degree in health and physical education with an emphasis on coaching and athletic training, was exposed to the game of volleyball he came to love so much.

“He was very dedicated to that sport and to the players he coached,” Taliani said. “And the results speak for themselves.”

When he returned to the area and began teaching in what had become the Deer Lakes School District, he started a coaching journey with the Lancers boys volleyball team that included four WPIAL championships (1978, 1979, 1983, 2011) and two state titles (1978, 2011).

“Honestly, volleyball and volleyball coaching were his identity,” B.J. Reiher said about Tatrn’s love for volleyball and love for Deer Lakes.

Reiher played under Tatrn with the Lancers from 1995-98 and coached with him from his days as a student at Slippery Rock until Tatrn’s final season with the boys team in 2014.

“I’ve been around athletics for basically my whole life, and I never saw a program like we had with that tradition,” said Reiher, who came back to coach the Deer Lakes boys team for the 2021 season.

“We would have alumni come back, and we would have alumni games and tournaments every couple of years. We would be able to catch up. It was amazing that we all had that common bond of being coached by the same guy. It was a great ride.”

Tatrn was not in the greatest of health in recent years.

“He had a stroke before covid,” Reiher said. “He had a good long-term memory, but his short-term memory wasn’t good at all. Unfortunately, he kind of deteriorated every year after that. The last time I saw him, I don’t think he knew who I was. That was hard to see and experience.

“That was a rough couple of years for him, but he’s in a better place now.”

Reiher said it was an emotional but special time when Tatrn’s friends, family, former coaching colleagues, former players, and others recently gathered to remember his life and all he accomplished in athletics.

“Everyone talked about him for as long as they were there,” Reiher said.

“The one night, it was like from 3 to 7, and I didn’t leave until almost 8. It was just a nonstop wave of people from different generations who all had stories about Coach. Rehashing and remembering all of those times was so meaningful. I was glad there was a viewing, and I am glad we all had our chance to remember Coach and all the wonderful times he gave us.”

Tatrn worked in the Deer Lakes School District for more than three decades as a physical education teacher until his retirement in 2003.

Tatrn’s boys volleyball resume at Deer Lakes included 10 section championships, and in addition to the PIAA titles in 1978 and 2011, he led the Lancers to the state playoffs three other times.

He received the Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association Lifetime Achievement Award and was inducted into the PVCA Hall of Fame in 2011.

Tatrn also was enshrined in the Alle-Kiski Valley Sports Hall of Fame in 2013 while he still was coaching.

“While he was my biggest critic at times, he was also my biggest cheerleader,” said Brady Schuler, a member of the 2011 WPIAL and PIAA title teams and later a Deer Lakes boys coach for a couple of seasons starting in 2017.

“He would always be the first in line to congratulate us when we would achieve our milestones. He cared so much and wanted us to reach the highest level of success. We had a motto for the 2011 season, ‘Work Will Win When Wishing Won’t.’ Those seasons when I played at Deer Lakes were some of the best times of my life, and it really stuck with me. I carried into adulthood all of those lessons Coach taught and all of those experiences with him, the other coaches, and my teammates.

“Being a captain for that team to later being a coach myself, I attribute a lot of that to coach Tatrn. He would be like, ‘Here is a letter of recommendation. Go get yourself a coaching job.’ ”

Tatrn’s volleyball success was not contained to just the Deer Lakes boys as he also guided the girls teams at Deer Lakes and Pine-Richland to multiple section titles and WPIAL-playoff appearances.

He also coached football and girls basketball at Deer Lakes. He helped lead Deer Lakes girls basketball to a 45-7 combined record in his final two years with the team.

Terry Gaston was a senior setter and a captain on the 1978 PIAA championship team, and he later coached in the Deer Lakes boys volleyball program.

“Practices were hard,” Gaston said. “They were three hours, and they were like football practices. We ran, we jumped, we were on the floor, and we loved it. We loved it because we knew it led to us winning.”

Gaston recalled a special trip to Montreal for a tournament after the 1978 state-title win.

“We were playing college teams,” Gaston said. “It was really good competition. We went to so many places that I don’t think we would’ve gotten to see or experience without (Tatrn).”

Gaston coached the Deer Lakes girls varsity volleyball team for eight years and also served 12 years as the boys middle school coach.

“My son started playing in seventh grade, and coach Tatrn asked me if I could start coaching the middle school team,” Gaston said. “That was my first group, and they were the ones that went on to win the state championship in 2011.”

Gaston was on the varsity bench as an unpaid assistant in 2011. He watched the Lancers, including his son, Jeremy, a four-year starter and senior outside hitter on that team, roll to the WPIAL title game.

Deer Lakes defeated Montour for the WPIAL title at Chartiers Valley and then went on to the PIAA Class 2A tournament and topped District 10 champion Saegertown for the state title at Penn State.

“(Coach Tatrn) was a tough cookie, all the way to the end,” Gaston said. “It was tough for him to coach later on with the way you had to coach kids and the things you couldn’t say anymore. That’s a good thing, not a bad thing. But if you wanted to learn the game, and were able to put up with some criticism, you were going to become a player. If you had athletic ability, he knew how to get that out of you to the fullest. He had a knack for getting kids in the right places and for having all of them playing well together as a team.”

He is survived by his wife of 18 years Judy (Christy) Tatrn, his daughters; Dr. Aimee Tatrn, DVM, Lori Thiry and Lisa Gaston and her husband James Queen and grandchildren Lila Thiry and Waylon Queen.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Deer Lakes