Sports

Plum's Rulnick Taking Reins as Pitt Head Coach

The longtime coach of Plum's varsity hockey team, Stu Rulnick, will take on the head coaching job for the University of Pittsburgh starting with the 2011-12 season.

The University of Pittsburgh hockey team will have plenty of purple and gold influence this coming season.

Plum's longtime varsity hockey coach Stu Rulnick is taking the reigns of Pitt's American Collegiate Hockey Association Division 1 team for the 2011-12 season, along with assistant coach Jerry Bass.

Rulnick, who has coached at Plum for 13 years, is taking over for former Pitt Coach Tom Rieck, who stepped down in March. Rulnick had previously announced the 2010-11 season as his final as coach for Plum hockey and the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League.

He heard from Pitt about the head coaching position around the time when the Mustangs took on North Allegheny in their final playoff attempt.

"I was really surprised when Pitt called," he says. "I was born and raised two blocks from Pitt, so the opportunity to coach there is amazing."

The former Plum coach says he is most excited about working in the university's competitive environment in which players are fighting for playing time and a spot on the roster.

Rulnick styles himself as a disciplinarian and transformed Plum as the most penalized team when he started to the least penalized. He had his fair share of penalties back in the day, though, and cites the physical aspect of the game as one of its draws.

He started playing hockey at age 14 for Carrick High School, combining physical toughness with solid scoring.

"I just fell in love with hockey when I started," he recalls. "You're skating on an eighth-of-an-inch blade across ice."

His coaching career began later, in his mid-20s, when he agreed to help a friend coach.

He was hooked after his first season. Over the years, Rulnick has coached for multiple teams, including Duquense University and Eastern Hockey, or the Allegheny Hockey Association as it's now called.

Most recently, Rulnick served for a second time as the head coach of Team Pittsburgh, part of America's Hockey Showcase, a tournament held April 12 to 17 at Robert Morris University. Rulnick's team made it to the final match-up, playing against New England, and lost with just one point less than the opposition at 4-3.

The Pitt hockey team won't begin on-ice practices until August, but Rulnick is working on scouting and recruiting in the meantime. He also plans on starting dryland practices to keep local players in shape during the off-season using the New Jersey Devils' dryland program, which he implemented at a lower intensity for Plum players.

Although Rulnick has followed Pitt's league, he is cautious in developing any particular plan of battle until he has a fully-formed team.

"I can't set any system until I see what type of players we have," he says.

Rulnick, who is vice president of site development for The Meritage Group, is a long time resident of Plum. His son, Josh, is a teacher at Wilkinsburg School District and his daughter, Deanna, a teacher at Kiski.

Rulnick continues to pursue coaching because it's rewarding to see a player's transformation over a season and over his or her career, he says.

"It's so gratifying when they come up to you years later and still call you coach."


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here