By: Chris Harlan

Wednesday, May 25, 2022 | 01:12

Dante Calabria, a former WPIAL basketball star who won a national championship in North Carolina, was hired Tuesday to coach the boys at Bethel Park.

A 1992 Blackhawk graduate and WPIAL Hall of Fame inductee, Calabria has coached at the college, professional and prep levels, most recently as an assistant at Barry University in Miami Shores, Florida. He also played 16 professional seasons abroad in Italy, Spain, Greece and France.

“His resume speaks for itself,” Bethel Park athletic director Dan Sloan said. “It’s exciting to be able to show our kids a guy who came from this area and got to where he made it, played at a great Division I college under legendary coaches, played professionally, and then rose through the ranks.”

Calabria played for Dean Smith in North Carolina, but Smith isn’t the only legendary coach on his resume. Calabria was an assistant on staff to Larry Brown in the Italian Lega Basket Serie A and previously assisted the late Rollie Massimino at Keizer University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

“He was one of a couple of legendary guy coaches,” Sloan said.

Sloan said Calabria’s parents still reside in Beaver County and he moved back to western Pennsylvania to spend more time with his family.

As Bethel Park coach, Calabria replaces Josh Bears, who stepped down after seven seasons. The Black Hawks went 16-7 overall last season, 5-5 in Section 2, and reached the first round of the WPIAL Class 6A playoffs.

The team drops to 5A next season.

Sloan said the school received about two dozen applicants for the position.

“We had good candidates to choose from, including head coaches sitting down,” he said.

Calabria will receive $8,700. Sloan said Calabria is now in the process of completing the required paperwork.

“As soon as that is over, we expect him to be in the gym ready to go,” he said. “He and I have already talked about some summer leagues and the participation of children.

Calabria scored 2,200 points at Blackhawk and was inducted into the WPIAL Hall of Fame in 2014. At North Carolina, the 6-foot-5 guard won an NCAA championship in 1993 and also reached the Final Four in 1995.

As a professional player, Calabria was a five-time all-star in Europe and also played for an Italian national team that won the 2005 European Championship.

Among his first coaching stops, Calabria was an assistant coach at UNC Wilmington, head coach at Cus Jonico Taranto of the Italian Basketball League, and coach at Montverde Academy, a prep school in Florida.

Calabria joined Massimino as an assistant to Keizer and later replaced him as head coach. Calabria led Keizer to a 20-11 record and an appearance in the NAIA Tournament. He then worked with another Championship coach when he joined Brown’s staff in Italy.

Massimino won an NCAA title with Villanova in 1985. Brown won both NCAA and NBA titles.

Chris Harlan is an editor of the Tribune-Review. You can contact Chris by email at [email protected] or via Twitter .

Keywords: Bethel Park