Somebody has to run things — Pitt’s best-known coaches

While everybody sees Carl Krauser’s signature “x” on TV and Tyler Palko’s highlight-reel… While everybody sees Carl Krauser’s signature “x” on TV 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. Here are some of Pitt’s best known.

Chris Beerman — Volleyball

Beerman has led Pitt volleyball back to prominence in the five seasons he’s been coach. Pitt won the Big East in 2003 (a feat that earned Beerman Coach of the Year honors), and has appeared in two NCAA tournaments in a row. The Panthers’ victory at South Bend, Ind., 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. She has increased the Panthers’ win total each year of her tenure. Chin is a former goalie, and her tutelage is a big reason goalkeeper Jamie Pelusi is the reigning Big East Goalkeeper of the Year.

Jamie Dixon — Men’s Basketball

When former head coach Ben Howland split for a job at UCLA three 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 the decision. 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. He currently owns a 51-15 mark through two seasons and has a stellar recruiting class signed for this coming fall.

Chuck Knoles — Swimming and Diving

After being named Arizona’s 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 tenure, including a school-record 14 wins in 1995. He is only the second head men’s soccer coach in the Panthers’ 50-year history.

Dave Wannstedt — Football

This will be Wannstedt’s first year at the helm, but perhaps no coach at Pitt has garnered more attention. A graduate assistant on Pitt’s 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.

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.