Jason Trout humbled to be part of Pitt-Greensburg’s 1st Hall of Fame class
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He is the second-leading scorer in boys basketball at Greensburg Salem High School, having topped the list for a nine-year period from his graduation in 1993 until 2002, when his record was broken.
His 2,160 career points in men’s basketball at Pitt-Greensburg from 1996-2000 represents the most at the Hempfield-based, NCAA Division III school.
Jason Trout averaged an all-time best 20.8 points per game during a four-year career at UPG, where he also holds records in rebounds (926), blocks (193) and minutes played (3,452) while earning first-team all-conference honors three times.
Yet, in a somewhat curious critique, his college coach, Matt Furjanic, said Trout “was always team-oriented.”
What’s not surprising is the two men are part of UPG’s first Athletics Hall of Fame class for lifting the Bobcats program to new heights.
The 1999-2000 team, their last together at the school after Furjanic took the reins in 1995, when the school transitioned to NCAA membership, compiled a 21-9 record and captured its second consecutive Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference championship.
“He wasn’t selfish, and that showed in his shooting percentage (career 54.1),” Furjanic said of Trout. “He wasn’t always worried about being the leading scorer in every game because he wanted to win.”
UPG formally will induct its first Hall of Fame class during a celebration Feb. 18 at the school.
Others inductees are Jen (McIntosh) Luciew, a women’s soccer player from 2002-06; Carol Gelet, who coached the women’s basketball program from 1999-2009; Dan Swalga, the first athletics director in school history, holding the position from 1992-2006; the 2002 men’s soccer team; and the 1969-70 men’s basketball team.
In a statement, UPG athletics director Jeromy Yetter expressed excitement for the trend-setting class and anticipated recognizing others down the road.
“The dedication, commitment and accomplishments of our former student-athletes, coaches and staff members need to be celebrated,” he said. “While the selection of this first class may have been challenging, it was exciting to know that we have so many great candidates to consider for our future inductions.”
Trout said he is humbled by the honor, calling it “a great accomplishment” and “a compliment that I would have never guessed would happen, to tell you the truth.”
At 47, Trout doesn’t forget much about his days on the hardwood at UPG — and that includes the others who were around him.
“If you want to win,” he said, “you have to have a good team. A lot of my teammates had trust and confidence in me, and I in them. A lot of times guys don’t buy-in. It’s not as easy as everyone thinks.”
When Swalga, then the AD at UPG and a former Robert Morris women’s basketball coach, helped engineer the school’s move to NCAA status, he hired Furjanic, a former Robert Morris men’s basketball coach, to lead the Bobcats men’s team.
Furjanic wasted no time assembling a roster built to compete in Division III, and Trout, he said, was the centerpiece.
“He might be, probably to this day, the best basketball player Pitt-Greensburg ever had,” Furjanic said. “To get a player like him, when you’re starting a Division III program, was fantastic. He was a great guy to coach.”
Trout’s daughter Gabriella, who turned 7 on Friday, seemingly understood her daddy’s accomplishments.
“It’s funny, you know,” Trout said, “she says to me, ‘You must have been pretty good. You have all these awards.’
“She’s really tall already. Her mom is 5-7 and she’s close to her chin. I’m hoping she wants to play ball, where I can train her. But when I mention it, she says, ‘No, Dad, I really don’t want to.”
Regardless of where that idea ends up, Gabriella’s place in Trout’s life is no small detail.
“She a big reason I pushed through,” he said. “I’ve had good and bad. She’s the person that when things are going bad, she mellows me out.”
Trout’s first daughter passed away at 13 months. His son Javon, at the age of 3, overcame cancer that stunted his growth before he went on to excel in golf at Hempfield High School and UPG, where he was an all-conference performer, winning AMCC Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year and being selected as the first recipient of the Bobcat Courage Award.
Furjanic compiled a 68-61 record in five seasons as coach at UPG, leading the team to two ECAC regional postseason appearances (The AMCC at the time lacked the required number of teams to qualify for the NCAA Tournament.).
Luciew, a 2006 graduate, was the AMCC Newcomer of the Year in women’s soccer and also earned all-conference honors twice.
Gelet led the Bobcats women’s basketball program to an 11-year record of 220-114, earning AMCC Coach of the Year in 2001 and ‘02 and piloting the team to three NCAA Tournament appearances.
The 2002 UPG men’s soccer team (19-2), coached by Ted Wawrzyniak and assisted by John Curley, became the school’s first in any sport to qualify for an NCAA Division III Tournament and the first to win an AMCC championship. Eight of its players earned all-AMCC honors.
The 1969-70 men’s basketball team represented the first organized team at UPG. John C. Hunter served as coach and was assisted by Gus Corso.