Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette Luann Grybowski: Exceeded all expectations. Click photo for larger image.

Luann Grybowski used to be an avid bowler, once posting a near-perfect 298 score. What she did as coach of the New Castle girls' basketball team this season was like making a 7-10 split.

Grybowski guided her team on an improbable run through the WPIAL Class AAAA playoffs. New Castle entered the postseason on a two-game losing streak and was the No. 10 seed for the Class AAAA tournament. But the Hurricanes got hot and won the WPIAL title, knocking off perennial power Oakland Catholic in the title game.

For her efforts, Grybowski is the Post-Gazette Coach of the Year. The award takes into consideration all coaches in the WPIAL and City League.

"Coming into the season, I was thinking we would need a little luck just to make the playoffs," Grybowski said. "But this was just a group of kids with great heart who really got better as the season went on."

Grybowski, 47, led New Castle to the best season in its girls' basketball history. The Hurricanes never had made it past the quarterfinals.

While going from the No. 10 seed to champion was impressive, consider that Grybowski worked her magic despite losing two players counted on to be leaders. Tarina Nixon was all-section last season as a sophomore and averaged 14 points a game, but moved to Arizona last summer. Then, four games into this season, starting guard Nesha Hambrick moved to Cleveland.

"We had to start moving players around," Grybowski said. "Maria Joseph really did a fantastic job for us this year. She was the '2' guard from her freshman year on, but we had to take her out of her comfortable niche and move her to the point guard. She just said, 'I'll do whatever we need to do to win.' "

Senior forward Ashley Wise played well in the playoffs as did 5-foot-10 freshman center Jaleesa Sams. But defense is what fueled the Hurricanes' run. In four WPIAL playoff games, they allowed an average of only 35.8 points a game. New Castle beat Oakland Catholic, 36-32, in the title game.

"I had asked the kids what bothered them most in a game, and they told me relentless defense," Grybowski said. "So I told them that's what they had to do, play relentless defense."

New Castle finished 25-5, losing to Bethel Park in the second round of the PIAA playoffs. It was Grybowski's 25th year of coaching. She has had two stints at New Castle (1985-90 and 1994 to the present). She has been successful despite never playing high school basketball.

She graduated from New Castle in 1975, but the school didn't start girls' basketball until a year later. She went on to play softball at Slippery Rock University and also was a standout on the bowling team.

Her first girls' basketball head-coaching job was at Shenango from 1979-85. She also coached at Aliquippa for three years.

Grybowski lives in New Castle with her 9-year-old daughter.

"I have a great sports background," Grybowski said. "I just had to become a student of the game of basketball and learn."

This season, she taught the WPIAL a few lessons.