There are some relationships in sports that are simple. Player and coach. Win games. Shake hands. Move on.

Then there are relationships that are much more complicated. That’s how I would describe mine with Coach Jim Rocco. Even today, after all these years, I don’t think we ever really had a relationship. But one thing I’ll always do is give him his flowers.

 

Taking Over an Impossible Job

People forget how difficult Coach Rocco’s first head coaching job really was. He was a young coach taking over his alma mater, Penn Hills. And he wasn’t replacing just anybody. He was replacing a legend, Coach Paul Seneca.

When you replace someone like Coach Seneca, expectations are simple: “You’ve got all this talent. Don’t mess it up.”

Coach Rocco didn’t. He won. He captured multiple WPIAL championships and eventually a state championship. That’s an incredible career.

Looking back, I think he handled the pressure better than people gave him credit for.

 

Before He Was My Coach

My story with Coach Rocco actually started years before I played varsity.

When I was in fifth grade, Coach Seneca already had me playing summer league games with the JV and varsity players. People around Penn Hills believed I was special at a very young age. But whenever Coach Seneca wasn’t there and Coach Rocco was running things… My brother Jake and I rarely played.

To this day, I don’t know why.

Maybe our personalities just didn’t click. Maybe he saw things differently. I honestly don’t know. I never asked.

 

My Freshman Year Still Bothers Me

I’m competitive. Maybe too competitive. That’s why one part of my career still bothers me.

As a freshman, I averaged around 45 points a game on JV. Honestly, it became a joke to me. I wasn’t being challenged. Meanwhile, I watched kids I had grown up playing against getting meaningful varsity minutes at other schools.

I barely played varsity.

I finished my freshman year with only 23 varsity points. When people look at my career, they see the 2,318 points. What they don’t realize is that I scored 2,295 of those points in just my final three seasons.

I still wonder sometimes what those numbers would’ve looked like if I had played varsity from Day One. That’s just the competitor in me.

 

We Won… But We Didn’t Always Listen

Coach Rocco deserves credit. We won a lot of basketball games. He trusted his players. He gave us freedom. He let us play. Looking back, I also think our team didn’t always respect him the way we should have.

Part of that was because he was young. When you’re a teenager, you don’t always appreciate how hard a coach’s job really is.

There were games we should’ve won. Not because of coaching. Because we didn’t always buy in the way championship teams have to.

That’s on us.

 

My Recruiting Process

One thing that always stood out to me was how little Coach Rocco was involved in my recruiting. Major Division I schools were recruiting me. Yet I never felt like he played a significant role in helping guide the process.

Years later, I heard from people around recruiting that when coaches spoke with him about me, he wasn’t exactly my biggest advocate. Whether that’s true in every conversation, I can’t say.

But that’s what I heard.

It always made me wonder what could’ve been different.

 

The Principal Who Saved My Senior Year

One person I can never thank enough is my principal, Dr. Neapolitan. Without him, my senior season might have ended very differently.

Coach Rocco wanted to suspend me for two games over an off-the-court incident at school. The situation fell into a gray area. Dr. Neapolitan stepped in. If he hadn’t, we may not have even made the playoffs.

No playoffs means no WPIAL championship. No WPIAL championship means I never break the WPIAL playoff scoring record.

People remember my senior year because of what happened on the court. But behind the scenes, Dr. Neapolitan played a huge role in making sure any of it happened. I’ll always be grateful for that.

 

A Family Connection I Never Knew

One of the strangest moments came during my senior year. The athletic department secretary, Ms. Gigliotti, who was Italian, told me something I had never heard before. She said my Uncle Andrew Schifino was Coach Rocco’s godfather.

If you’re Italian, you understand what that means. A godfather isn’t just a title. It’s family. It carries tremendous importance.

The crazy part?

Coach Rocco never once mentioned it to me. Not one time. I never brought it up either. I always thought that was odd.

 

A Record… And Silence

When I graduated, I had broken every scoring record at Penn Hills. I helped Coach Rocco win his first WPIAL championship. Along the way, I became one of the most accomplished basketball players in school history.

One thing that always stuck with me was Coach Rocco’s father. He attended virtually every game. I saw him constantly. But he never once said a word to me. Never congratulated me. Never acknowledged what I had accomplished.

He’d simply walk by.

Maybe that was just his personality. Maybe it wasn’t personal. I’ve always found it interesting.

 

Our Paths Kept Crossing

After Penn Hills, I went to prep school. Never heard from Coach Rocco.

I went to West Virginia and started making a name for myself nationally. Suddenly, he came back into my life. And I welcomed him. That’s just who I am.

He even came to a few of my games at WVU. Then my career took a hard turn when I was dismissed from West Virginia.

After that… Silence. Again.

Did it bother me? Not really. By then I was becoming a grown man. Life moves on.

 

I Thought It Would Come Full Circle

Years later, I became a head coach myself. I even reached out about scheduling a scrimmage. Nothing ever came of it.

When Coach Rocco eventually stepped down at Penn Hills, I honestly thought I had a chance to coach my alma mater. I had been successful at Steel Valley. I loved Penn Hills. I wanted the job. Maybe more than anything, I thought my former coach—whose first WPIAL title came with me as his best player—might endorse me.

That endorsement never came. It hurt.

Not because I felt entitled to the job. Because I thought that’s how the story might come full circle.

It didn’t.

 

No Hard Feelings

People reading this might think I’m bitter.

I’m not. Life is too short for that.

The truth is, without Coach Jim Rocco, I don’t have the high school career that I had. He trusted me with the basketball. He gave me freedom. He let me be me. For that, I’ll always be thankful.

Did I wish we had a closer relationship? Absolutely.

Did I wish we had talked more over the years? Of course.

Did I wish things had been different? Yes.

But not every player and coach are meant to have a father-son relationship. Sometimes you simply share a chapter of each other’s lives. Coach Jim Rocco and I shared one that included championships, records, unforgettable memories, and one incredible era of Penn Hills basketball.

For that alone, he’ll always have my respect.

Sometimes giving someone their flowers doesn’t require pretending everything was perfect. Sometimes it simply means recognizing the role they played in your journey.

And Coach Jim Rocco will always be part of mine.