It’s not always about the players; learn your coaches, too

While everybody sees Sam Young’s high-flying ability and Tyler Palko’s highlight-reel passes… While everybody sees Sam Young’s high-flying ability and Tyler Palko’s highlight-reel passes on television, players are only half of the story of the success of Pitt athletics. Behind every Panthers championship banner is a mastermind, and here are some of Pitt’s best-known.

Chris Beerman — Volleyball

Beerman has led Pitt volleyball back to prominence in his five seasons. Pitt won the Big East in 2003 (a feat that earned Beerman Coach of the Year honors), and appeared in two straight NCAA tournaments. The Panthers’ victory at South Bend in the 2003 Big East tournament was the first win at Notre Dame by a Big East team in history. Two of his players have earned Player of the Year honors.

Sue-Moy Chin — Women’s Soccer

Chin made her mark on the Pitt program right away. In her first season, the Panthers gave up a record low of 23 goals, while setting a new goals-against-per-game record. Chin is a former goalie and her tutelage is a big reason Pitt has featured the Big East Goalkeeper of the Year, Jamie Pelusi, in net.

Jamie Dixon — Men’s Basketball

When former head coach Ben Howland split for a job at UCLA four years ago, one of his right-hand men who followed him to Pitt wound up succeeding him. Several players requested that Dixon, although relatively young for a Division I coach, fill Howland’s vacancy, and the school has not regretted it. In his first season at the helm, he guided Pitt to a 31-5 record and a third-straight Sweet 16 appearance in the NCAA Tournament, and has kept Pitt a household name come March. Dixon has led Pitt most of the way to being one of the most-winning Division I-A college basketball programs in the last five years.

Chuck Knoles — Swimming and Diving

After being named Arizona high school Coach of the Year more times than he can count, Knoles decided to try his hand at Division I coaching. His success hasn’t dropped off since he’s been at Pitt. If you want to count the number of championships he’s won as the head coach of men’s and women’s swimming and diving, you’ll have to take off your shoes. Knoles has been named Big East Coach of the Year six times.

Joe Luxbacher — Men’s Soccer

Pitt kept a Panther in the fold by naming Luxbacher head coach in 1985. An outstanding player in his younger days (he once scored seven goals in a game), Luxbacher has led Pitt to six double-digit win totals in his time at Pitt, including a school record 14 wins in 1995. He is only the second head coach in the Panthers’ 50-year history.

Dave Wannstedt — Football

This will be Wannstedt’s second year at the helm, but perhaps no coach at Pitt has garnered more attention. A graduate assistant on Pitt 1976 National Championship team, Wannstedt has spent the last three decades coaching at the college and professional levels. He was a coach on the University of Miami (Fla.) National Championship team in 1987, and coached on Jimmy Johnson’s staff in 1992 when the Cowboys won the Super Bowl. He has also been head coach of the Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins. A solid recruiting class has him looking to improve upon the Panthers’ 5-6 record from last year.

Alonzo Webb — Cross Country

Webb took over in 2002, and in that time has taken the men’s team from last place to the upper half of the Big East. The women’s team has placed as high as second and has also won three titles in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference. Webb was named the United States Track Coaches Association Mid-Atlantic District Coach of the Year in 2003 and 2004.