Christian Sunseri never lost the itch to be a high school basketball head coach again, and North Pocono needed someone to guide its program.
On Wednesday, the former Lackawanna Trail head coach and Mid Valley assistant coach was appointed the head coach of the Trojans after Jeff West chose not to reapply for the position he held for two seasons.
“I am extremely excited and very appreciative to the North Pocono administration, board, and athletic director for this opportunity,” Sunseri, 36, said. “North Pocono plays in (Lackawanna League) Division I, and that is definitely a challenge. They play Abington Heights, Scranton Prep, Valley View, Scranton, Delaware Valley, West Scranton and Wallenpaupack. All the programs in the division are very talented.
“I am going to lean on my experience first as a head coach in Division III at Lackawanna Trail, and my experience at Mid Valley in Division II, which had some very good programs as well.”
North Pocono finished 5-19 last season.
As a player at Lackawanna Trail, Sunseri led the team to 33 wins in his final two seasons. He attended Drexel University, where he worked with the women’s basketball program, formulating scouting reports. He was also a volunteer assistant coach with Marywood University women’s program.
Sunseri spent one season as junior varsity coach and earned his first varsity head coaching position at Lackawanna Trail in 2014-15.
In six seasons, the Lions were 47-93. However, in his final two seasons, the program improved to 25-23, including a 14-10 mark in his final year. Sunseri chose not to reapply when Lackawanna Trail administrators posted the position.
Sunseri joined Mike Abda’s staff at Mid Valley, where he served as an assistant coach and the junior varsity coach and, for one season, also guided the freshman program.
“I am looking forward to leading a program again,” said Sunseri, who is director of athletic operations at Riverfront Sports Complex. “I was fortunate enough to lead a program very early in my career. Then, I had the opportunity to coach with and learn from Coach Mike Abda, who is highly respected and successful. I am extremely excited about that experience of seeing how he built and ran a program that I think is similar to North Pocono, which depends on having multi-sport athletes.
“I’m most excited about leading a program again, building relationships with the student-athletes, and using the game of basketball to help them learn skills that will help them succeed on the floor and in life.”
After meeting with the team and prospective players, Sunseri will accelerate things and start holding open gyms.
“We will get right into summer league and camps,” Sunseri said. “There are some local high school tournaments we are looking to get involved in, too. We are going to do all of that right up until August, when the fall sports athletes have to commit to their teams. We have to play some catch-up here in the summer, and we will get rolling in November.”
There are still coaching vacancies at Mountain View, Lakeland, and Scranton.
Jim McAndrew did not reapply at Mountain View, Trevor Tellip resigned at Lakeland, and Scranton’s Tony Battaglia is taking a sabbatical.