Experienced assistant ready to move into head coaching role with Ligonier Valley boys By: Friday, July 12, 2024 | 6:39 PM Submitted Ligonier Valley boys basketball coach Dante Porter The game is in his bloodline. The glimmer in Dante Porter's eye began to show in his third season as an assistant with the Geibel boys basketball team about three years ago. His father, Don, was the head coach but took on the added rigors of being the school's athletic director, so more responsibility on the bench came Dante's way, along with the title of associate head coach.
It was then he knew he wanted control of his own team. "There was a lot of creative freedom in how we prepared for games," Porter said of working with his father. "The itch started there.
" Porter, 28, a Mt. Pleasant and Saint Vincent graduate, was hired this week to take over the Ligonier Valley program, about three months after four-year coach Tim Gustin resigned. Porter, who played basketball and football in high school, lives in Somerset with his wife, former Saint Vincent softball player and Rockwood native Samantha Emert.
He has a unique day job, working as a special investigator with the Pennsylvania Turnpike. A member of the fare evasion crew, he looks into unpaid tolls. "You pay for the service of being able to use our beautiful road," he said.
"But we have people who don't think they have to pay their bills for that...
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