Could coach Jeff Ackermann turn around another basketball program in Baldwin?

By: Chris Harlan
Monday, May 4, 2020 | 1:30 AM

Baldwin’s boys basketball team hasn’t won a WPIAL playoff game since 2003. The Highlanders reached the postseason only four times in the 17 years since, with four first-round losses.

Clearly, there’s room to improve.

This past winter they went winless in the section, a year after finishing 1-9. But Baldwin is expected to soon hire a coach with a track record for quick turnarounds.

Jeff Ackermann resigned as Pine-Richland’s coach after six seasons and accepted the job at Baldwin, according to sources. The hire won’t be official until the school board votes Wednesday night.

The move takes the Brentwood native back to the South Hills.

Ackermann’s 19-year resume shows an ability to turn average programs into WPIAL contenders rather quickly. It’s impossible to predict whether that success can be repeated at Baldwin, but both Moon and Pine-Richland won WPIAL titles within his first three seasons.

Ackermann owns five WPIAL titles and one state title.

But this next job arguably would be his biggest challenge yet. Baldwin reached the WPIAL finals only once in school history, as the Class 4A runner-up in 1985.

“I wouldn’t be surprised (if he succeeds),” said former Moon basketball star Brian Walsh, who’s now director of basketball operations for the Indiana Hoosiers.

Walsh won two WPIAL titles with Ackermann and credits his former high school coach for motivating him and others to work hard.

“He loves the game, so he’s kind of contagious when it comes to that,” Walsh said. “He was always working in the gym, whether it’s December or out of season. He’s a basketball junkie, which is great. Right away you feel connected to him if you love the game like I did.”

When Moon hired Ackermann in 2001, the Tigers owned a lackluster basketball tradition, no WPIAL titles and were struggling. They’d gone 6-30 in the section combined over the three previous seasons with overall records of 5-16, 5-17 and 8-15.

In Ackermann’s first season – 2001-02 – Moon went 14-10 overall and 7-5 in the section, a record that improved to 17-7 and 11-3 in his second season.

In Year 3, Moon won WPIAL and PIAA titles — the first of three consecutive WPIAL titles for Ackermann’s teams (2004-06).

“He’s a likeable guy, but he’s going to coach you hard,” said Walsh, the state Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior. “He’s a big stomper. He’s a big screamer. He’s not afraid to call you out. That’s really valuable nowadays when other coaches might be afraid to coach you hard.”

A decade later, Ackermann found similar results at Pine-Richland.

When Pine hired Ackermann in 2014, the Rams owned no WPIAL titles, hadn’t won a playoff game in seven years and went 64-86 in that seven-year span. In Ackermann’s first season, the Rams went 17-6 and reached the WPIAL playoffs.

In Years 2 and 3, Pine-Richland won WPIAL titles and was the WPIAL runner-up in Year 4. Ackermann’s experience made him the right coach at the right time, said Rams assistant coach Bob Petcash.

Ackermann would be Baldwin’s fourth coach since 2002, when Kyle DeGregorio guided the Highlanders to their most-recent playoff victory. DeGregorio coached the team for nine seasons (2002-11), followed by Joe Urmann for seven (2011-18) and Eugene Wilson (2018-20).

Baldwin went 14-29 under Wilson with a 1-19 section record.

“When Jeff came (to Pine-Richland), he said: ‘I’m here to win championships, not just to coach varsity basketball,’” Petcash said. “He had the kids really buy in and understand they can win.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Baldwin, Pine-Richland