John Heller, Post-Gazette Chartiers Valley basketball coach Tim McConnell is greeted by well-wishers after the Chartiers Valley School Board officially voted to re-instate McConnell last night.

By Mike White
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Tim McConnell is officially back as Chartiers Valley's boys' basketball coach. That means spring workouts and pickup games for the team start tonight.

McConnell was officially rehired as Chartiers Valley's coach last night at a school board meeting that drew more than 200 residents, almost all of them McConnell supporters. The board voted, 8-1, to rehire McConnell exactly two weeks after it voted, 5-4, to fire the highly successful coach, who had a 317-88 record in 14 seasons with four WPIAL championships.

"We have open gym [tonight]," said McConnell, who attended the meeting.

Last night's meeting, at Chartiers Valley Intermediate School, got heated at times, with residents yelling at a few school board members. Board members Tony Moses and Jeff Hilty chided McConnell and some members of the media, saying McConnell used "friends" in the media to turn the saga in his favor and to make Moses look bad.

McConnell had said Moses led the charge to get him fired because he has not been happy about the playing time of his son, Mike, a junior guard who rarely plays on the varsity. McConnell then claimed Moses got other board members on his side.

"I do believe Mr. Moses is just in continuing his efforts against Mr. McConnell, for how he used Michael Moses as a weapon against his own father," Hilty said to the crowd. "This board needs to continue to monitor Mr. McConnell."

Moses, Hilty, Patti Frey, Beth McIntyre and Mary Lou Petronsky were the five who voted to remove McConnell two weeks ago. Three days later, Hilty, Frey, McIntyre and Petronsky announced they were rescinding their votes and would make it official at the next board meeting.

"I was wrong. So now I vote yes," Petronsky said at the meeting.

Jeff Choura, Patti Figorski, Tom Galluze and Bridget Kelly are the four board members who voted for McConnell two weeks ago.

Moses was the only board member to vote against rehiring McConnell last night. Although Hilty criticized McConnell, he voted to rehire him because he said that's what the public wanted. But Hilty was still critical of McConnell, saying Mike Moses is an owed an apology.

"[McConnell] chose to avoid the high road by taking the route which made him the center of attention," Hilty said.

When Moses addressed the crowd, he said his son has been "dragged through the mud."

Moses called McConnell "a great coach" before continuing.

"The issue is, in my opinion, character," Tony Moses said. "It has nothing to do with playing time. Mr. McConnell created the playing time scenario."

Ten people spoke to the board about McConnell, including residents, former player Arthur McCray, current starting point guard Eli Maravich and Chartiers Valley girls' coach Spencer Stofko. The residents spoke highly of McConnell as a coach and also the job he does as dean of students at Chartiers Valley Middle School. Stofko pointed out his goals.

"In short, I want to be Tim McConnell," he said.

Penn Hills coach Jim Rocco also attended to show his support of McConnell. Rocco said he and some other coaches talked two weeks ago about possibly drafting a letter to show support for McConnell.

"We were going to try and show public support, but the votes got rescinded so fast, we didn't have time to do anything," Rocco said. "I'm just here tonight because he's such a good man and it's just a shame that this stuff happens. But all this support you see here tonight just reaffirms that he should be back."

Maravich said McConnell has affected his life almost as much as his parents. McCray was on McConnell's first team at Chartiers Valley and his brother, Antwon, also played for McConnell.

"If [McConnell] is the center of attention, he deserves to be," Arthur McCray said.

Some board members also spoke publicly in favor of McConnell.

Besides Hilty and Moses, the only person who spoke against McConnell was Ian McNeill, a sophomore who played mostly on the junior varsity this past season. McNeill sat with Mike Moses, away from the rest of the Chartiers Valley team that attended.

McNeill's brother, Justin, played for McConnell a few years ago and Justin McNeill apparently wasn't a big fan of McConnell. Ian McNeill pointed out his brother recently sent an e-mail to McConnell from Allegheny College that was apparently critical of McConnell. McConnell called the dean of students at Allegheny concerning the e-mail.

"That just goes to show that he didn't want anyone's opinion against him," Ian McNeill said.

McConnell said after the meeting that he called Allegheny's dean of students because Justin McNeill's e-mail was "threatening."

McConnell seemed relieved after the meeting. After leaving, about 50 people waited for him outside the school. He stood above them on steps and thanked them for their support.

"It's not going to be hard moving on from here," McConnell said. "I'm doing something I love. I love working with Middle School kids. I enjoy kids in 6th, 7th and 8th grade. And I enjoy coaching basketball.

"I just want to be left alone to be able to do my jobs. It's not going to be hard at all to get started again with basketball."