Westmoreland campus clippings: Norwin grad Nick Nguyen to coach college golf

Nick Nguyen is set to take over the coaching reins for a golf team he used to lead into the postseason.

A Norwin graduate, Nguyen is the successor to the retiring Joe Martin at Thomas Jefferson University, a Division II school in Philadelphia.

Martin is stepping down after 14 seasons. Nguyen, a 2018 Thomas Jefferson alum, was his assistant for the last four years.

“This is a great opportunity for Nick to begin his collegiate head coaching career,” said Tom Shirley, the school’s assistant vice principal of athletics. “We are excited to afford him that opportunity at his alma mater.”

Nguyen was a three-time team MVP and a two-time winner of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Top XV Award as the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average at the conference championship.

A captain as a junior and senior, Nguyen earned a degree in engineering with a concentration in systems and industrial engineering before garnering his master’s in program management from the Naval Postgraduate School. He works as a systems engineering process quality assurance engineer at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Philadelphia.

Track and field

Seton Hill: Detroit native Jamal Johnson will take over the Griffins’ program after serving two seasons as head coach at Mansfield.

Johnson also spent four years as an assistant cross country and track and field coach at Southern Indiana. He began coaching in 2014 at Wayne Memorial High School (Mich.). He also formed the Intensity Track Club.

He is a graduate of Eastern Michigan.

Wrestling

Saint Vincent: The Bearcats strengthened the coaching staff of their first-year program with the addition of assistants Joe Alessandro and Chad Schleming.

Head coach Dom Nania welcomed the pair, known throughout the Westmoreland County wrestling community.

Alessandro, a Greensburg Central Catholic graduate, wrestled at Hempfield and then Seton Hill, where he was a national qualifier.

As a fifth-year senior, he transferred to Division II Pitt-Johnstown and earned a pair of All-America honors.

He coached at Norwin briefly before becoming an assistant at Saint Andrews University in Laurinburg, N.C.

“He is a person of high character and will be a huge role model to our student-athletes,” Nania said. “His addition to our staff gives us an amazing resource for our young men.”

Schmeling, meanwhile, was a longtime high school assistant, head junior high coach, and youth coach at Latrobe.

A Latrobe and IUP graduate, Schmeling was a two-sport standout in high school before injuries stunted his college career.The Unity resident is a special needs teacher at Latrobe.

“Coach Schmeling’s passion for the sport of wrestling is unmatched,” Nania said. “Being a mentor for young students, both academically and athletically, is such a valuable resource for a new program. We are lucky to have someone like Chad in our community making a difference, and now on our campus doing just the same for our student-athletes.”

SVC will take to the mat for the 2023-24 season.

Baseball

Seton Hill: Clay Martin is set to join the Griffins’ staff next season after head coach Marc Marizzaldi announced his hiring.

Martin formerly served as an assistant and director of baseball development and operations at Eastern Illinois.

“We had an outstanding pool of applicants and Clay stood out as a perfect match for our program,” Marizzaldi said. “His combination of regional recruiting experience and a high-level understanding of pitching development were unique and outstanding. And he’s a winner with two World Series trips under his belt as a player.”

Martin also coached as an assistant for two seasons at Westminster of the PAC, where he played collegiately, at Washington & Jefferson. He was one of the top relief pitchers in program history, carding 13 career saves. He appeared in 52 games for the Presidents, who made two appearances in the NCAA Division III World Series in his career. They were the national runners-up in 2017.

Women’s soccer

Valparaiso: Senior midfielder Kiley Dugan (Penn-Trafford) was picked as player to watch this season by the United Soccer Coaches. Dugan has started all 50 games over the last three seasons and made the All-Missouri Valley Conference Freshman Team, and was an All-MVC Third Team pick as a sophomore, and earned all-conference second team honors last season. Also last year, when she recorded a pair of assists, she also made All-Region Second Team.