Chris Klimchock is happy to be home. But now it’s time to get to work.
Klimchock is in his first season as Pitt-Greensburg’s men’s basketball coach, making a return to an area where he starred in high school and college.
After spending eight years as an assistant, including the last five at Penn State Behrend, Klimchock knew he was ready to make the jump. And the stars aligned in Westmoreland County.
“Being from Greensburg was a big part of it, and the awesome community that’s here, the people I know and what a tight-knit community Greensburg is,” said Klimchock, who shined at Greensburg Salem before graduating in 2009. “And also, I’ve always wanted to be a college head coach. That’s been a goal of mine since I was pretty young.”
Klimchock, who played collegiately at Edinboro and Saint Vincent, is only 31 years old. But that didn’t stop UPG athletic director Jeromy Yetter from bringing him in to lead the program.
“It means so much to me that (Yetter) has faith and trust in what I can do,” Klimchock said. “His belief in me, it fuels me. To have that support has made this an easy transition.”
The Bobcats played a shortened season last year, with only seven games in March.
“A lot of these guys haven’t played real basketball in basically two years,” Klimchock said.
That said, the program does have some strong recent success. UPG went 20-6 in the 2019-20 season and was picked third in the AMCC preseason poll this year.
“Our expectations are still to be at the top of the conference at the end of the year, making a run in the conference tournament and playing our best ball come February and March,” Klimchock said.
Klimchock plans to bring a style that will be exciting to watch. He wants to play up-tempo offensively, allowing anyone on the court to touch the ball and make a play.
“Just sharing the ball in general, offensively, I think that puts pressure on the defense,” he said. “Defensively, overall connectivity, helping each other out and taking pride, staying in front of your guy, are the components we’re looking for.”
Through two games — losses to Carlow and Washington & Jefferson — a scoring leader for Pitt-Greensburg certainly had been established. JoJo France poured in 48 points to start the year, including 26 against Carlow.
“JoJo, he’s an ultimate competitor,” Klimchock said. “You won’t find someone who cares about it more, who wants to do the right thing every time. He’s been absolutely great for us so far.”
Despite being only two games into the year, seven players had already earned a start for the Bobcats.
“The guys who aren’t starting are ready to come in and play,” Klimchock added.
“It’s been competitive in practice, where guys are stepping up each day and proving themselves worthy. We’re glad to see so many guys making an impact.”
Klimchock and the Bobcats have been practicing for about a month, allowed to first gather for practices Oct. 15. So there have been some growing pains early.
But the first-year coach likes the chemistry within his group.
“We’ve got a long way to go,” he added. “There’s been some good signs of things we’ve done. But there’s been some weaknesses that have been pointed out that we need to get back and hammer out the details.
“These guys are close, on and off the court. You can see how much this means to them. There’s an overall togetherness, feeling like a family. I think that’s going to take us where we need to go.”