Mars hires former Pine-Richland football coach Eric Kasperowicz

By: Chris Harlan
Tuesday, April 12, 2022 | 7:54 PM

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Only four miles separate the football stadiums of Pine-Richland and Mars, but the journey that took Eric Kasperowicz from one to the other followed a winding road.

The Mars school board voted Tuesday night to hire Kasperowicz as football coach, bringing him back to a WPIAL sideline one year after his controversial ouster at Pine-Richland. The two milestone dates were almost exactly one year apart with community protests and a federal lawsuit in between.

On April 14, 2021, he was fired at Pine.

On April 12, 2022, he was hired at Mars.

“It was an extremely tough year for myself and my family and all of our friends,” Kasperowicz said. “I’ve got nothing but love for the entire Pine-Richland community … but it’s on to the next phase.”

He and his wife, Jen, and their children are leaving the Pine-Richland district and moving to Mars, which also gives him the chance to coach his son, Eric Jr., a freshman quarterback for the Rams last fall. Kasperowicz said he enjoyed his work as a volunteer assistant coach at Pitt last season but was drawn back to Friday nights.

“In everything that I do, family is first, whether it’s myself as a person or as a coach,” he said. “My players will tell you that, family always comes first. Ultimately, that’s where I wanted to be. I still have two young kids in school, so I wanted to finish out their careers.

“I’m excited for that opportunity at Mars.”

His youngest daughter, Emlyn, is a seventh grader and a cheerleader. His oldest, Ella, is a senior and softball player at Pine.

The Mars school board voted 7-1 to hire Kasperowicz, who’ll earn $9,022 as head coach. One board member was absent.

Mars superintendent Mark Gross said the search committee responded to community calls for “change” and believed Kasperowicz would provide “a major overhaul” for the football program.

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.

Pine-Richland raised accusations of bullying and hazing in the football program, allegations that Kasperowicz has strongly denied.

“In speaking to Eric, it was very pointed, it was very open, it was very candid,” Gross told the board. “He answered every question that we could possibly have. We were satisfied with those answers. We did our reference checks and they gave us stellar reviews.”

Gross said the committee used Thiel College athletic director Amy Schafer as a consultant in the search.

Mars was long-rumored as a possible landing spot for Kasperowicz if he returned to coaching high school football, partly because he already had roots in the district. His family owns property there and previously lived in the Mars district before his time at Pine-Richland.

Hiring Kasperowicz 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 his hire in 1992, but the Planets are coming off a down year.

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

“The whole reason this position was opened was because folks were basically saying we would like change,” Gross said.

He said Kasperowicz has “a history of proven abilities in football.”

Kasperowicz led Pine-Richland to four WPIAL titles (2014, ’17, ’18, ’20) and two state championships (2017, ’20). The Rams were state runners-up in 2014.

As Mars’ coach, he takes 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.

“As a district, it reminds me of Pine-Richland,” Kasperowicz said. “It’s the same demographic, same type of people, same families, just smaller. It reminds me of when I took over at Pine-Richland in 2013. It has a tradition of being really good but just couldn’t quite get over the hump.”

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

His coaching tenure at Pine-Richland ended in controversy when the school district conducted an investigation into allegations of hazing and bullying. Kasperowicz denied the allegations and filed a defamation lawsuit against the school district and several top officials claiming they damaged his reputation.

He dropped that lawsuit and reapplied there to be head coach when the Pine-Richland job came open this winter, but the school instead hired former Penn Hills coach Jon LeDonne in February.

“It’s tough to close the door on anything when you’re so passionate about it and you care so deeply for something and you put your heart and soul into it,” Kasperowicz said.

He acknowledged that college coaching could someday be in his future and called his time with his alma mater, Pitt, “a great experience.”

“I can’t thank Coach (Pat) Narduzzi enough,” Kasperowicz said, “but at this point in my career, high school football is where I want to be.”

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.

Tags: Mars