Mt. Pleasant hires T.J. Kravits as new boys basketball coach

By: Paul Schofield
Monday, June 29, 2020 | 8:32 PM

T.J. Kravits has been involved in coaching basketball at various levels for more than 10 years.

In one season at Marion Center, he took a team that went 0-22 two years ago to 8-14 last year.

Now he hopes to take that success to Mt. Pleasant, where he plans to continue to build on what Allan Bilinsky accomplished in two seasons in the job.

Kravits was hired by the Mt. Pleasant Area School Board on Monday. The board also hired numerous other coaches, including wrestling coach Zach Snyder, girls basketball coach Scott Giacobbi, golf coach Matt Gross, swimming coach Sandy Felice and five assistant football coaches.

Kravits, 52, also coached at Franklin Regional Middle School and in youth leagues. The 1986 graduate of Brownsville and 1990 graduate of Saint Vincent owns the Goddard School in Murrysville.

“The reasons Mt. Pleasant appealed to me is the distance — my wife (Andrea Miele) is from Mt. Pleasant — and I feel there is a good chance to build a consistent program,” Kravits said. “I’m grateful the people at Marion Center gave me the opportunity to coach. I believe whoever takes over will have a good foundation to build upon.

“Mt. Pleasant is a half-hour closer. That will allow me to get down to Mt. Pleasant and build a program. We have a good nucleus returning. I saw them play last year, and I was impressed what Allan did with them.”

Mt. Pleasant finished 12-11 overall and 5-5 in the section. The Vikings lost to New Castle in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs.

Paul Schofield is a TribLive reporter covering high school and college sports and local golf. He joined the Trib in 1995 after spending 15 years at the Daily Courier in Connellsville, where he served as sports editor for 14 years. He can be reached at pschofield@triblive.com.

Tags: Brownsville, Franklin Regional, Marion Center, Mt. Pleasant