VARSITY
Anthony Raco: Coach Raco is entering his 10th season with the Seneca Valley Hockey Association. He began his hockey career playing for the Mt. Lebanon Hornets beginning at the age of 8. Upon graduation from South Fayette High School he began his post secondary education at Edinboro University with playing for their hockey team from 1997-2001 earning his degree in Health/Physical Education with minoring in Athletic Coaching. He began his coaching career with as an assistant coach for Shadyside Academy’s girls Prep team. Raco coached at Shadyside for only one season before finding his way into Seneca Valley’s Hockey Association. There he became the head coach for the Freshman team for 2 year and then head coach for the Junior Varsity team for 2 years. Raco became the Varsity coach in the 2012-2013 season. Raco also facilitates Dry Land Conditioning in the summer months. During his time Raco has won 2 Varsity St. Margaret’s tournaments in 2012 and 2015. He began his teaching career at Pressley Ridge as the Health/Physical Education teacher from 2006-2011 and then helped develop the Pressley Ridge Career Development Center where he works as their Behavior Health Educator. His philosophy of coaching hockey players is “Success is getting players and coaches to work together. Playing as a team rather as an individual only leads to greater things. I want players to push themselves beyond what they think they only have to offer. Attack your weakness and make it strength. Be able to make sacrifices and commit to the process. Hockey is a team game and needs to be played the right way. I want our players to learn how to develop not only hockey skills but also be students of the game. We want our players to have a high IQ. That’s what separates great teams from average teams. Learn about people, develop life skills, and most importantly have fun. That’s why we play this game.” Raco resides in McCandless with his wife Amy and their 3 children: Mia, Khloe, and Easton.
Erik Galis:
Tyler Mesisca: Coach Mesisca comes to the Raiders, after having a decorated career, for Seneca Valley, as a student-athlete. As a SV graduate, Mesisca letter four years, for the Raiders. During those four years, he helped lead the Raiders to the 2009 & 2010 Penguins Cup Finals, the 2008 & 2009 St. Margaret Tournament Champions, and the 2009 St. Margaret Tournament MVP. He was also the Raider Team Captain and MVP, in 2009. After his decorated playing career, Mesisca attended Slippery Rock University, where he continued to play hockey and study K-12 Health and Physical Education. He helped lead SRU to a Conference Championship (2011), was Conference Rookie of the Year (2011), 2nd Team All Conference (2013), Assistant Captain (2014), and ended his playing career as the 3rd All Time Leading Scorer. Mesisca's passion for hockey continued as he has received a USA Hockey Level 3 Certification. Most recently, Mesisca was hired, as a Physical Education Teacher, at Haine Middle School, where he will be working with 5th and 6th graders. His philosophy, "My philosophy is to develop hockey players through the practice of a lot of skill repetition. I want my team to be highly skilled and progress over the season. It’s important to stress skill development in practice and to play at a high tempo pace. Aside from skill development, the next most important asset of coaching is to make sure your players have a good attitude and a good work ethic, on the ice and in the classroom. Being a teacher, I know the importance of academics along with being a student athlete."
JUNIOR VARSITY
Ryan Lamberger: Coach Lamberger is a Pittsburgh native with five years of coaching experience. He began playing hockey in the Pittsburgh area for the Arctic Foxes then moved to the Philadelphia area where he continued his playing career. He came back to Pittsburgh to attend Duquesne University and after graduation he began coaching for The North Pittsburgh Wildcats U16A Major team. Two years later he joined the SVHA and has been with us for the past three seasons, the last two as the head coach of JV1. In addition, Ryan is also a partner and instructor at Next Step Hockey LLC which provides hockey lessons and player development for players of all ages.
Jake Salak
Dominic Sarachine
MIDDLE SCHOOL
Jeff Mattys
Chad Parise: Coach Parise joins the raiders coaching staff after graduating from Kent State University in the Spring of 2016. After lettering and serving as an assistant captain for the Seneca Valley Raiders varsity team in 2011, he took a year off of school to pursue his hockey career playing for the Pittsburgh Junior Penguins in the Tier 3 Junior A NA3HL. After playing juniors, Parise committed to Kent State University where he continued to play hockey and majored in Visual Communication Design with a minor in Photo-Illustration. Parise lead rookies in goals his Freshman year and was voted an assistant captain by his teammates his Sophomore, Junior and Senior year. Before graduating in 2016 Parise accepted a job as the lead Graphic Designer for Sparq Designs, headquartered in Pittsburgh. While his passion for hockey remained, Parise got his USA Hockey Level 1 certification and joined the raider coaching squad. His philosophy, "My philosophy is to better a players all around development focusing on all aspects of the game. I want my players to always be focused on improving themselves and to know you can always be better. Work ethic and drive will ultimately full your passion on and off the ice."
Jacob Sarachine:
Todd Raible: Coach Raible returns to the Seneca Valley Ice Hockey Program for the 2017-2018 season as the Middle School 2 Head Coach. Coach Raible has been around the game of hockey since the 70s, when he began playing, both deck and ice hockey, in the greater Pittsburgh area. After attending and playing Ice Hockey, for the North Hills Indians, Raible continued his education and playing career, at the University of Pittsburgh, where he studied Business/Computer Science and received a Master of Science in Telecommunications, while playing winger/center, for the Pitt Club Men's Ice Hockey Team. As a senior, in college, Raible took over the responsibilities, of the Club President and his passion for hockey only grew from there. Currently, Coach Raible is a Product Manager, for UPMC Enterprises and has worked similar roles at Carnegie Learning, Fore Systems, Macaroni, Ericsson, and Verizon. Raible has also coached and represented, Seneca Valley, North Pittsburgh Youth Hockey Association and Steel City Renegades. Along the way, Raible earned a Level 4 Coaching Certification through USA Hockey. His general philosophy is to help all players grow as people, players, and team mates. Teaching them as much as I can about the game, about life, about being a good team mate, and being a good person. To continue to respect themselves, their coaches, their team mates, their parents and the game of hockey. All the while, preparing them for the next steps, in hockey and in life, while continuing to have fun along the way.
Gregory Kutschbach:
