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<p>Looks like Holy Redeemer has found its new leader.</p><p>And he appears to maintain the school&#8217;s tradition of girls basketball success.</p><p>The Wilkes-Barre Catholic school hired veteran Scranton AAU coach John Jezorwski to take over the Wyoming Valley Conference&#8217;s most dominant program after Redeemer went 9-4 in the PIAA playoffs over the last four seasons and is on a three-year Wyoming Valley Conference winning streak.</p><p>&#8220;I love playing for John, he is a great coach,&#8221; said Wyoming Area All-Star Sarah Holweg, who played under Jezorwski with the Keystone Karma&#8217;s high school AAU Travel team. &#8220;He helps you a lot. He&#8217;s fun, but when it comes to being serious, he&#8217;s on you.</p><p>&#8220;I think he&#8217;ll do very well.&#8221;</p><p>More than one player from his travel team squad agreed.</p><p>&#8220;He&#8217;s very supportive of me, and all the players,&#8221; said Scranton Prep star Jillian Paulus, who played for Jezorwski at the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) level and with the Karma. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been playing for him since sixth grade. All that time, he put in the extra hours. Whether I needed to work on my shooting, or defense, he&#8217;d be working right with me to get there. Anything I needed. He really cares about the players.</p><p>&#8220;The more time you spend with him, the more close you get.&#8221;</p><p>Wyoming Seminary star guard Maya Kornfeld may not have played under Jezorwski with the Karma &#8212; she was on one of the organization&#8217;s younger squads &#8212; but that didn&#8217;t stop Jezorwski from lending her a hand. Or some valuable advice.</p><p>&#8220;Sometimes we&#8217;d do drills, for guards, for the post,&#8221; Kornfeld said. &#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t really know how to do any of them. So he was showing me how to do all that stuff, which really helped. He&#8217;s easy to talk to.</p><p>&#8220;He&#8217;s a good coach.&#8221;</p><p>Jezorwski, a 43-year-old Scranton resident, will begin his first head coaching job at the high school level with the Royals.</p><p>He takes over a proud program.</p><p>Holy Redeemer won more than 100 games, including those nine state wins, while making three straight trips to the state quarterfinals and two consecutive state semifinal appearances in former coach Chris Parker&#8217;s five seasons at the helm. Redeemer, which won its first District 2 championship under Parker this past season, was eliminated from state play by the eventual PIAA champion during each of the last three seasons.</p><p>But Parker&#8217;s program was also riddled with accusations of unsportsmanlike conduct. Redeemer&#8217;s girls basketball team was placed on a year-long probation once by the District 2 athletic committee, which has since investigated the program two additional times over allegations charging the Redeemer coaching staff violated the PIAA&#8217;s sportsmanship code.</p><p>Despite taking the Royals to three consecutive unbeaten regular seasons as an on-court league dynasty, Parker was fired by Holy Redeemer last month. He was involved in a post-game confrontation with the Carbondale coaching staff during a District 2 Class 2A playoff game. That incident is currently under investigation by the District 2 committee, and one which Parker maintains he walked away from without responding.</p><p>But Parker&#8217;s teams had a knack for responding in big ways, especially in big games.</p><p>The Royals rolled to a 22-7 playoff record over the last four seasons, including a 13-3 mark in District 2 play, and have won at least 20 games for four consecutive seasons.</p><p>Parker&#8217;s Holy Redeemer program produced the Wyoming Valley Conference&#8217;s all-time scoring leader in Alexis Lewis, who earned a scholarship to Division 1 Iona, and this year&#8217;s WVC scoring leader Rebecca Prociak, who averaged 25 points per game. Both girls were named first-team All-Pennsylvania players.</p><p>But Jezorwski is no stranger to pressure, or success, either.</p><p>He coached the St. Gregory&#8217;s Parish Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) high school team to the 2016 state championship, and his St. Clair/St. Paul School in Scranton participated in three state tournaments during the six seasons he served as the team&#8217;s head coach.</p><p>At the high school level, Jezorwski spent six seasons as a junior varsity and assistant varsity coach at West Scranton.</p><p>And his Keystone Karma teams included Lackawanna League stars Jess Genco, who&#8217;s now at Division 1 Northeastern, Kaitlyn Lewis, who&#8217;s playing Division 1 basketball at American, along with current returning WVC All-Star Holweg.</p><p>&#8220;I know he coached at St. Paul&#8217;s for a long time. Girls who came out of that school loved him as a coach,&#8221; Holweg said. &#8220;And I love him as our AAU coach.</p><p>&#8220;I think he&#8217;ll do very well.&#8221;</p><p>Applicants for the head coaching position, which sources said included at least two Lackawanna League coaches, underwent a two-round interview process. Representatives from pastors, coaches, faculty, parents, and administration made up the interview committee, then made their recommendation.</p><p>Ultimately, that was Jezorwski, who inherits a Royals lineup that includes returning starters Talia Kosierowski and Sam Rajza and promises to get a big boost from New Jersey transfer Irelynn Jannuzzi &#8212; the sophomore daughter of former Meyers and Wilkes University scoring great Dave Jannuzzi.</p><p>&#8220;High school is very different from AAU or 8th Grade basketball,&#8221; Paulus said. &#8220;It&#8217;s definitely going to be a transition for him (Jezorwski). But he&#8217;s been wanting to coach high school for a very long time. I think he&#8217;s ready for it.</p><p>&#8220;And I think he&#8217;ll do well.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Jezorwski </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/web1_Jezorwski-1-.jpg</photo0><caption0>Jezorwski </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Paul Sokoloski</p><p>psokoloski@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Paul Sokoloski at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @TLPaulSokoloski</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Holy Redeemer girls basketball program tabs John Jezorwski as new head coach