Fatzinger resigns; Csensits is new boys hoops coach at Central Catholic

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/

FROM KEITH GROLLER

Central Catholic has engineered what it hopes will be a smooth transition with its boys basketball program.

On Tuesday morning, the school announced that Rich Fatzinger has resigned after two seasons as CCHS coach and also announced that Dennis Csensits, a former college coach at Dickinson College who had been Fatzinger's assistant the past two seasons, has been named the Vikings new coach.

"I am really excited about the opportunity," said Csensits, a 1986 Allen High graduate who played high school ball for the legendary John Donmoyer and then went on to play college basketball for Jim Hutnik at DeSales.

"I want to thank Coach Fatzinger who has been wonderful to work with the last two years and really put a strong foundation in place that we can use as a springboard moving forward. I met with principal [Yvonne McCarthy] and athletic director [Mike Kopp] on Monday and I'm very thankful that they're going to give me the opportunity to run the basketball program."

Even before joining the Central staff, Csensits built a vast coaching resume.

He was a graduate assistant at Gettysburg College and was an assistant coach at Randolph-Macon, The Citadel, the U.S. Naval Academy and Colgate before becoming the head coach at Dickinson for seven seasons (2002-09).

He was out of coaching for one season and took over as major gift officer and director of athletic advancement at DeSales before getting back on the bench at CCHS.

He will keep his position at DeSales and doesn't forsee any issues with doing both jobs successfully.

"I've learned so much about high school basketball from Rich and I really enjoy Central Catholic," Csensits said. "There's a great sense of community here, a lot of pride. He has done a great job of establishing the traditon of Viking basketball."

Csensits said he wants his teams "to get after people on the defensive end and force the tempo to get as many easy baskets as we can."

Central figures to be one of the preseason favorites in the Lehigh Valley Conference, assuming that current juniors Muhammad Ali Abdur-Rahkman, David Stevens, Jean Lee Baez and Jimmy Vaughan all return. Junior Mike Kammerer also figures to be a big part of the program.

"It's a good group of kids to work with and in many ways they're just scratching the surface of how good they can be," Csensits said. "We have some real good assistants in place in coach [Toomey] Anderson and coach [Andy] Heimbach. We definitely have a good group in place moving forward."

Fatzinger was 33-20 over the past two seasons with a pair of District 11 3A titles. Each of his teams won one state playoff game.

Fatzinger, who said he suggested that Csensits be his successor, will remain the athletic director at Penn State-Lehigh Valley in Center Valley.

"As long as I'm teaching or coaching in some capacity, it fulfills me," he said. "We're doing a lot of things at Penn State-Lehigh Valley, including a leadership program we're looking to expand.

"I enjoyed my two years here. A lot of time when people leave a position it's because things are bad. I'm actually leaving because things are good. That may be a weird way to say it. We came in with high expectations and goals and there were some things we had to get straight and with the commitment of the players we were able to get the program back where I hoped it would get to.

"I didn't know how long it would take, but it moved pretty quick and that's a tribute to the coaching staff we put together and the kids."

If there was a disappointment, Fatzinger said it was not being able to qualify for the Lehigh Valley Conference tournament.

"If there was something that I wish we would have accomplished, but didn't, it would be not making the league tournament," Fatzinger said. "That's a goal that's reachable for them and one they should strive for."