New coach looks to rebuild hockey program, culture at Franklin Regional

By: Paul Schofield
Saturday, September 27, 2025 | 11:01 AM

Franklin Regional hockey has a new coach this season, the program’s third in three seasons.

Nathan Connelly, who coached previously at Trinity, Shaler and West Virginia, was hired to replace Brian Bearly, who resigned after the 2024-25 season.

Bearly, a Franklin Regional grad, plans to coach an 18U team.

Connelly inherits a team that played in PIHL Class 3A and finished with a 6-10-1 record and just missed the playoffs. Prior to last season, the Panthers were one of the top teams in Class 2A under former coach John Winebrenner.

They were PIHL Class A champions in 2017 and 2018.

“I was hired to change the culture here,” Connelly said. “I am excited about the opportunity.”

Franklin Regional graduated nine seniors from the 2024-25 squad. But the Panthers do return a talented team and a group of players eager to compete.

Among the returnees are senior forward Joey Casella (9 goals, 5 assists), senior forward Ryan Crouse (8 goals, 3 assists), sophomore forward Grant Williams (3 goals, 4 assists), senior defenseman J.J. Tensuan (2 goals, 6 assists) and senior forward Brendan Yohe (5 goals, 3 assists).

Also back are junior defenseman Carter Yohe, senior goaltender Grant Novotny, junior defenseman Jacob Keefe and senior defenseman Michael Pint.

A bright spot in the preseason has been junior forward Liam Murphy, who was the leading scorer in the St. Margaret preseason tournament.

“When we need a goal, Liam got it for us,” Connelly said. “He is an exciting player. He is a ball of energy.

“I was pleased how we played at St. Margaret. We won our pool by defeating Butler, North Allegheny and Penn-Trafford. We lost to Peters Township in the quarterfinals.”

Graduating were Luke Anderchak, Liam Copeland, Ashton Rothrauff, Tyler Spears, Max Williams, Nolan Savinda, Patrick Kochanowski, Marc Gray and Nick Matus. Spears and Matus were the leading scorers.

Connelly graduated from Avella in 2014, and Penn-West California in 2018. He played goalie for Trinity, which co-op with Avella.

After college he was an assistant coach at Trinity for four years, was the head coach at Shaler for one season and got the Titans in the PIHL playoffs for the first time in five years and its first playoff win in six years.

Then he got a chance to coach the West Virginia University ATHA Division 2 team when it won a title and finished as runner-up a second season.

“My job at Franklin Regional is to rebuild the program,” Connelly said. “We do have a good nucleus returning. We are going to have a mixture of returners and youth. I have some freshmen pushing for playing time.

“We have the pieces to be successful. The goal is to win the Pens Cup. I would be happy to just make the playoffs and see what happens.”

Connelly said Seneca Valley has a strong team and should be the favorite in Class 3A this season.

“We want to make some noise,” Connelly said. “I want to build the team into good players but help then become successful in life.”

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: Franklin Regional