Published: July 03, 2008 11:48 pm            

Eric Knopsnyder | Wrestling team doubly blessed

Pitt-Johnstown wrestling fans can rest easy. Even if his new role as interim athletic director pulls the Mountain Cats’ Hall of Fame wrestling coach away from the program at times, there’s another local legend to ready to fill the gaps.

Pat Pecora has a well-earned reputation as one of the top wrestling coaches in the country, at any level. Losing his expertise and insight, even if only for an hour a day, could have done irreparable harm to program.

Luckily for the Mountain Cats – and thanks in no small part to Pecora – UPJ has the perfect person on staff to make sure there is no dropoff: Assistant coach Jody Strittmatter.

Strittmatter won a pair of Division II national titles for Pecora before moving on to the University of Iowa, where he was a two-time All-American at the Division I level.

Eventually, the Cambria Heights graduate returned to his roots, landing an assistant coaching job on the UPJ staff. He worked long hours and made little money, but his role steadily increased, with Pecora depending more and more on him.

After helping mold Albert Miles into a national champion this season, it could be argued that Strittmatter is as good of a coach as he was a wrestler.

On Thursday, Pecora credited Strittmatter with helping him make the decision to accept the interim AD role at UPJ in addition to his coaching duties.

“Without Jody, I don’t know if I could pull this off,” Pecora said.

Instead, Pecora feels comfortable giving Strittmatter more responsibilities. He’ll have an on-campus office, run the Mountain Cats’ morning workouts and take a more active role in recruiting. Strittmatter will also have more day-to-day involvement with team members, including checking up on how they’re doing academically as well as socially.

“He’s going to be able to fill any gap that I have while serving as athletic director,” Pecora said. “I’m going to have to devote part of the day to being the wrestling coach and part of the day to being the athletic director.”

Strittmatter was quick to point out that Pecora will still be the head coach.

“He’s still going to be in charge,” Strittmatter said. “It’s just that my involvement will be a lot more.”

That’s a good thing for UPJ. Strittmatter has been nothing but loyal to the Mountain Cats – it was with Pecora’s blessing that he left for Iowa nearly a decade ago – and he’s given no indication that he was planning to leave anytime soon.

But Strittmatter also runs the highly successful Young Guns Wrestling Club, and it would not have been inconceivable for him to eventually want to work with the club full time.

With his expanded role at UPJ, that looks less likely to happen. That’s doubly good for the Mountain Cats. Not only do they increase their chances of keeping an extraordinary assistant coach, but they also have better odds at continuing Pecora’s success even after he steps down as coach.

“I look at Jody as someday being the man to take over the program, whenever that might happen,” Pecora said.

So Pecora hasn’t even been on the job for 24 hours, but he’s already lined up a great young coach to replace one likely in the twilight of his career?

Sounds like the start of a pretty good run as an AD.



Eric Knopsnyder is the sports editor of The Tribune-Democrat.

        

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