Western PA School Fires Entire State Championship Staff Amid Hazing Claims

An Allegheny County high school has fired its entire football staff five months after its latest state championship amid allegations of misconduct in the locker room.

WPXI's Jillian Hartmann reports the entire Pine-Richland High School football staff, including head coach Eric Kasperowicz, were let go on Wednesday (April 14.)

Kasperowicz was informed that his position would be advertised in an email exchange with athletic director Sean Simmons, TribLIVE reports.

Pine-Richland went 85-18 and won four WPIAL championships and two state titles -- including a state championship last fall -- during eight seasons under Kasperwicz.

However, school administrators spent recent weeks investigating allegations of hazing or misconduct in the locker room, which included questioning current and former football players.

TribLIVE reports Kasperowicz was initially scheduled to meet with school officials on 8:00 p.m. Wednesday, but was fired in an email sent prior to the meeting.

An email from Simmons informed Kasperowicz that his assistants would also be fired and would need to reapply after a new coach was hired, sources confirmed to TribLIVE.

Kasperowicz served as Pine-Richland's football coach while also teaching at his alma mater, North Hills.

“This will probably be one of worst firings in WPIAL history,” said Pine-Richand senior football player Charlie Mill. “I don’t know how you can fire a guy who wins two state championships.”

Mill and fellow senior Cole Spencer confirmed they were among the players interviewed by school administrators in relation to the allegations and both said most of the claims were from before they attended the high school and neither witnessed anything alarming.

“To my knowledge, nothing really crossed the line with players doing things to other players,” Spencer told TribLIVE. “It was always between two best friends messing around. It was never anything that crossed the line. But I guess maybe other people said and saw otherwise.”

“Not one time in my Pine-Richland career did I see anything where I said, ‘This is real bad,’” Mill added. “I think a couple of instances that (administrators were asking about) weren’t even at the school. Some of the complaints happened at the cafeteria. And a lot of these allegations were when I was in middle school.”

Photo: Getty Images


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