Falcons' Koscinski Named New Park View Basketball Coach

By Paul Tenorio

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Briar Woods Assistant Coach Mike Koscinski accepted an offer today to become the new boys' basketball head coach at Park View, said Patriots athletic director Joe Breinig Jr.

Koscinski will replace former coach Jeff Schneider, who resigned in June to accept a teaching position in North Carolina.

Koscinski has served 14 years in a number of roles -- including freshman and JV head coach and varsity assistant, as well as athletic director in New York and Virginia -- but this is his first head coaching position.

"It's different making the suggestions than making the decisions," Koscinski said. "I'm looking forward to working with the guys, I know there's a great group coming back so I'm excited to work with them."

Koscinski served as an assistant under Mike Benson at Briar Woods for the past three years and said his familiarity of the district through scouting should help him at Park View.

The nucleus of players in the Park View program, he said, will also be key as he looks to build upon Schneider's success.

"I think we can go at it from day one," Koscinski said. "I just want to build upon the success they've had and maintain that and maybe take it to another level. There are some guys I'm really excited to coach and some ability I'd like to bring out and help develop these kids."

Schneider went 50-44 after taking over the Park View program in 2004-05, and was 35-13 in the past two seasons -- going 16-7 in 2007-08. Koscinski inherits a Patriots team that lost four senior starters in Thomas Mulabah, Danny Foley, Brett Dufford and C.J. Leizear, but returns guards Marcus Freeman, Josh Jones and Jordan Owens. Still, Breinig Jr. expressed confidence in Koscinski's ability to maintain that level of success.

"Mike had an outstanding interview and has a number of years experience," Breinig Jr. said. "We felt he was the best fit as far as to continue what Jeff built, as well as bring his own ideas to the table, and continue the winning ways and success we've had at Park View in our basketball program."

Koscinski thanked Benson for his support throughout the interview process and said he learned much from helping build the Falcons program over the past three seasons. Briar Woods has struggled to get up to speed with the rest of the Dulles District, but notched the school's first two victories last season in non-district games against Emmanuel Christian and showed signs of progress under Benson and Koscinski in 2007-2008.

"[Briar Woods is] going and improving, it'll be nice watching them succeed because I was a part of it for three years. But at the same time I don't want them to have [success] the two nights we meet up," Koscinski joked.

Koscinski expects to meet with the Park View team in the coming days, he said.

Matt Brooks contributed to this story.

Tagged: basketball, Park View High School

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