HS BASKETBALL: Mountain View coach Joe Gibbons steps down
Apr. 17—Joe Gibbons helped bring excitement and championship experiences to Mountain View boys basketball.
Now, after seven seasons, he resigned as head coach Monday.
In a personal Facebook post, Gibbons, 33, announced his decision to step away from the program.
"It is time to move on," Gibbons said. "I am forever indebted to Mountain View for giving me this opportunity when I was a 26-year-old kid seven years ago. I'd like to believe we have had a run of some success. We won a league title and reached the state playoffs for the eighth and ninth times in program history.
"The community, the administration, the parents, my staff and especially the players were all phenomenal."
Gibbons was a standout player at Holy Cross High School and also played at Penn State Scranton. At Holy Cross, he averaged 5.1 points per game when the team reached the PIAA Class 2A quarterfinals. He also served as a volunteer assistant coach for Mike Fazzi for one season and was an assistant to Chris Sload for the three seasons at Penn State Scranton.
He has also coached and been active in AAU basketball.
Gibbons replaced Spencer Lunger, who resigned and is the coach at Tunkhannock.
In his seven seasons, Gibbons guided Mountain View to the Lackawanna League Division IV title in 2020. It was the first division title for the program since 2007. The Eagles also reached the District 2 Class 2A championship game, where they lost to his alma mater, Holy Cross, in 2020 and 2017. Both seasons, they qualified for the PIAA playoffs.
Gibbons thanked the Mountain View administration members, "Dr. Michael Elia, Dr. Mark Lemoncelli, Alex Paschuk, Jan Price and Rick Loman," for their support.
He also offered thanks to his coaching staff, which included Jamie Wescott, Casey Jenkins and Rob Weber, along with all of his players.
While uncertain of his future, Gibbons hopes to get back into coaching under the right circumstances.
"I would like to coach somewhere in some capacity," Gibbons said. "It has to be the right fit. I will take some time now to reflect and see what is ahead."
Gibbons is the fourth boys basketball coach to resign this offseason.
Holy Cross' Al Callejas Sr. did so after the season and has already been replaced by his son, Al Callejas Jr. Scranton Prep's Andrew Kettel and Elk Lake's Rich Emmons also resigned.
Emmons' decision was made official at last week's school board meeting.
He also stepped down after seven seasons and led the Warriors to three Division IV championships. Emmons, too, posted on Facebook, where he thanked his players, the administration and assistant coach Ray Lasher.
Emmons' son, Hudson Stengel, is going to be entering ninth grade at Susquehanna where he will play basketball and the former coach cited a desire to watch him play as a factor in his decision.
"Playing for Elk Lake and having an opportunity to coach here was really special to me," Emmons said. "I know what the program means to the community."
Contact the writer: jbfawcett@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9125; @sportsTT on Twitter
