Leechburg girls coach inherits young squad, sees hope

By: Michael Love
Friday, August 8, 2025 | 5:24 PM

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Rich Marshall has experienced opportunities at every level during his basketball coaching career.

He was a Division I men’s assistant at Clemson and Arizona State, and he helped Clemson win the only ACC championship in program history in 1989-90 under head coach Cliff Ellis with standouts Dale Davis and Elden Campell leading the way.

Marshall also coached at Florida Southern and Thiel in the late 1990s, among other stops. He ventured into the WPIAL for the 2016-17 season as the girls coach at Ellwood City.

He also worked to help resurrect the women’s program at Penn State New Kensington with a truncated 2018-19 season.

Now, Marshall is back in the Alle-Kiski Valley and back in the WPIAL as the new coach of the Leechburg girls basketball team.

“I am grateful for and appreciate the opportunity to lead the Blue Devils girls basketball program,” said Marshall, who most recently coached the boys team at Lordstown High School in Ohio.

“I am looking forward to meeting the team.”

Marshall was hired at the Leechburg School Board meeting July 30. He hopes to get more up to speed next week when he returns from a family vacation in Ocean City, Md.

“I’ve had numerous conversations with (athletic director) Mark (Duriancik), and I spoke at length on the phone with Dan Lookabaugh who will be retained as the varsity assistant coach. He’s actually run a couple of combined high school-junior high open gyms for the girls.”

Marshall said with a small school like Leechburg, most of the girls who play basketball in the winter will first play a fall sport.

The fall sports season begins Monday with the opening of official preseason practices.

“I will go and watch the volleyball matches where most of them play, but I am not going to work with any of the girls involved with a fall sport until they’re done with their fall sport,” Marshall said.

“I think we might have a select group of two to four girls who will come out for basketball who are not playing volleyball or anything else in the fall. I want to hold weekly skill sessions for them just to get them acclimated and involved in the fall. It is a gradual process.”

Marshall said his goals for the program are attainable.

“There is a similar vision for the program between the administration and the coaching staff, and it is a nice to know there will be strong support from the administration,” he said. “Whatever level you are coaching, that is an important thing.”

Marshall will be Leechburg’s third coach in three years. Allen Langston came on board for last season after Andre Carter stepped away from the Blue Devils program to become the athletic director at Riverview.

“With that, the goal is to establish continuity in the program,” Marshall said.

With a roster of nine players, Leechburg finished last season 2-17 overall and 2-12 in Section 1-A against the likes of playoff qualifiers Union, St. Joseph, Aquinas Academy and Springdale.

“Our success will not be determined in just wins and losses,” Marshall said. “I believe we will improve on last year’s win total, but to me it is a gradual process. Will we be getting better individually and collectively day by day, week by week, and month by month as we progress through the season? With games, there will be two points of emphasis. The girls will play hard, and they will play together.”

Marshall said he was able to watch more than a dozen games from last season online.

“From what I saw, last year’s team did play well together. Some of the scores were misleading. There was one game where they were down two points with three minutes to go, and they lost by 12.”

Marshall said a key to winning more games is to have more girls in the program.

“Depth hurt them at times,” he said.

Marshall said 11 girls have made a commitment to play this year with one or two others possibly coming on board.

Leechburg will be young with three seniors — Abby Shea, Addie Zanotto and Hayven Lookabaugh — and Marshall said a majority of the team will be freshmen and sophomores.

“We would like to get to between 12 and 15 girls, and I think that is realistic,” said Marshall, who credits former coaching colleague and current Springdale girls coach Mike Dudjak for guiding him to the Leechburg coaching opportunity.

“That would be a significant difference from what they had a year ago. The best recruiters for this program will be the girls in the program, talking to their friends and classmates.”

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: Leechburg