‘Dunn’ deal for Charleroi

After building an illustrious career over the past few decades as a head basketball coach for numerous WPIAL programs, Joseph Dunn Jr. is ready for a new challenge as the new leader of the Charleroi boys basketball program.

Dunn is the winningest coach in the history of Trinity and Mount Pleasant’s boys basketball teams. He started his head coaching career at Seton LaSalle, where he compiled a 43-31 record from 1983 to 1986. Dunn then moved to Mount Pleasant from 19861992 and 1994-2000, putting up a 145-129 record over that span. He won the WPIAL Coach of the Year award in 2000 for his efforts in his last season with the Vikings, and he also took a program that hadn’t had a winning season to three section titles and multiple playoff appearances.

He then moved to Trinity from 2001 to 2014, totaling a 142-118 record while making several trips to the playoffs and helping numerous players move on to have careers at the collegiate level.

His last coaching job was from 2017 to 2021 as an assistant at Trinity, but Charleroi superintendent Ed Zelich reached out to Dunn for assistance on the Cougars’ coaching vacancy and then decided to ask the longtime coach himself. Dunn will be replacing Joe Greer, who he said has been extremely cooperative and helpful in the early stages of switching hands. Greer had a productive 8-14 season last year but had to step away citing family-related concerns.

“Dr. Zelich called me and asked me if I could help him sort through some candidates, and as our conversation ended, he asked, ‘Well, what about you?,’” Dunn said. “I told him I wasn’t looking right now. Then the next day he called me and asked about reentering the coaching world.”

He showed appreciation for Zelich, whom he called a “visionary leader,” as well as Bill Wiltz, who had coached the Cougars for 17 years prior to Greer last season.

“(Wiltz) has a profound and enduring legacy,” Dunn said. “His former players speak so highly of him in terms of what he did for them basketball-wise and what he did for them life-wise. This program is his heritage, we’re just building on what he did.”

Dunn had a career in education as an administrator and teacher for over 40 years. He’ll be looking to continue his work as an educator with Charleroi.

“All my coaching jobs I’ve had before, I had a full-time teaching job with it,” Dunn said. “As much as I love basketball and coaching, teaching and being a principal are more important jobs. I’m under the belief that the basketball court is an extension of the classroom, and I’m always eager to coach, or teach, students and athletes.”

Since 2016, Dunn has worked as an athletic consultant for the company that he created, Beyond the Bench LLC in Washington. As the CEO, Dunn has offered coaching development courses as well as skill instruction among other services.

“Your program ceiling is dependent on two things: the character of your players, and their skill level,” Dunn said. “If one of those areas is missing or lacking, you’re never going to achieve what you want to. The character part is evident from the second you meet the Charleroi kids. You can say the same thing about the history of Charleroi people; the Magic City has a reputation of hard work and industriousness.

“You have to assess and figure out what you need immediately to improve. Making an immediate improvement is all about skill development. Ball-handling and scoring skills are key.”

Dunn is eager to get to work with his squad in the coming months and instill a hard-working culture around staff stability, mastering fundamentals and communication.

Joining Dunn on staff will be long-time coaching partner Johnny Lee, Jim Diaz as the JV coach, and Ramont Small and Anthony Bristol. Dunn said that he was happy to keep Charleroi guys on the staff because student-athletes naturally gravitate towards them.

“You have to enjoy working with students,” Dunn said. “Everything is relationships. Relationships are built on trust, and trust is built on mutual respect. Kids aren’t always going to see things the way that coaches do, because they’re kids. But I don’t believe that any kid is uncoachable, I think that some kids require a lot more coaching and understanding.”