Police: Man who caused deadly crash was wanted in drug case

web1_30606790205_93e528bc36_b-1-.jpg

West Pittston native assigned to work presidential inauguration

<p>While Caitlin Hadzimichalis and Jason Rhine each took different paths to their respective head coaching positions, the two first-year head coaches will be fighting for the same goal this winter &#8212; to turn some heads.</p><p>Hadzimichalis took over at King&#8217;s after spending the past seven seasons as an assistant coach on former head coach Brian Donoghue&#8217;s staff. Rhine will head up the Misericordia program after working last season as an assistant at Division III Aurora University, in Aurora, Ill.</p><p>&#8220;It was a really exciting time (this summer), just because I&#8217;ve been here and built relationships with people on campus, not just in the athletic department, but over in the cafeteria or over in the mail room or just in the print shop,&#8221; Hadzimichalis said. &#8220;Everybody else I&#8217;ve been talking to and getting to know.</p><p>&#8220;To get their support when I was able to come back was a fun feeling, and then (I&#8217;m) really close with the roster obviously. I helped coach everyone that was here but also helped recruit the four freshmen that came in.&#8221;</p><p>Hadzimichalis took an opportunity to stay in Pennsylvania while Rhine was able to return to his home state.</p><p>&#8220;I wasn&#8217;t in a hurry to leave Illinois, but a place like Misericordia, when it pops up, it kind of raises some eyebrows, and I&#8217;m from Hershey,&#8221; Rhine said. &#8220;I considered it to kind of be a coming home-type situation. It&#8217;s a prestigious school, so (I&#8217;m hoping) it would show me where I&#8217;m at with my career.&#8221;</p><p>Though this will be the first head coaching gigs for both Hadzimichalis and Rhine, the difference in their situations is stark.</p><p>Hadzimichalis was with the Monarchs for the past seven seasons and won&#8217;t be starting from scratch. Her focus will be on building on Donoghue&#8217;s foundation, which spanned 11 years, while mixing in all the tricks of the trade she learned as a player.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s very similar in terms of some of the basics that we&#8217;re doing,&#8221; said Hadzimichalis, who played at Marywood. &#8220;We&#8217;re still running our transitions a similar way, we have to tailor our offense to the personnel that we have. We have three really good bigs right now with Olivia Hoffman, Alexis Steeber and&nbsp;Rebecca Prociak, who are all extremely different. We decided to tailor our offense with what they are good at.&#8221;</p><p>The key for Hadzimichalis throughout the transition has been continuity. She already had a good comfort level with the program, as far as the roster was concerned, and was able to pick up where she left off with her recruiting, which helped provide a smooth transition for her players.</p><p>&#8220;To kind of have that relationship already in place, not worrying about, &#8216;OK, who was coming in and what do we have to manage?&#8217;&#8221; she said. &#8220;Already knew what our strengths and weaknesses were. I knew the kids coming in, and they were relieved, too. When I finally got to call them they were like, &#8216;Oh, we&#8217;re glad it&#8217;s you. We know what&#8217;s going on.&#8217; &#8221;</p><p>Rhine, on the other hand, came in as a new face to a program that&#8217;s struggled as of late. The Cougars haven&#8217;t had a winning season since 2011-12, the year they won the Freedom Conference, beating King&#8217;s in the title game to reach the NCAA tournament for the first time.</p><p>Misericordia went 29-70 over the last four seasons under Allison Kern before Rhine took over. He used the preseason to give his players what he called a &#8220;culture shock.&#8221; And they&#8217;ve responded.</p><p>The Cougars began their season by travelling to Gwynedd-Mercy and coming home with a 3-0 record and the Gwynedd-Mercy Tip-Off Tournament title.</p><p>&#8220;Knocking off Gwynedd really helped us, I think,&#8221; Rhine said. &#8220;We had a fun night at the hotel and we just really relaxed. We didn&#8217;t get a shoot-around the next day (before playing TCNJ), so I was kind of curious to see how that would go with our team, but we came in and had fun. It just goes back to competing. I just want to have fun and compete.&#8221;</p><p>Rhine has surrounded himself with assistant coaches who&#8217;ve experienced success on the court. Coach Christine Marks was on the 2011-12 championship team and holds the Misericordia career points record. Graduate assistant Emily O&#8217;Donnell played a major role in Albright&#8217;s Commonwealth Conference title and trip to the Sweet 16 last year.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m very thankful she said yes to being my other assistant because she&#8217;s the face of this program and she&#8217;s the all-time leading scorer,&#8221; Rhine said of Marks. &#8220;She&#8217;s not the most vocal leader, and the girls understand that and know when she speaks, you listen. That&#8217;s what I&#8217;m grateful for because she has a presence and morale to her.</p><p>&#8220;You just want to surround yourself with leaders. And when I introduced my staff to (the team) at the beginning of the year, I told them, &#8216;There&#8217;s no arrogance here, but I&#8217;ve been a part of successful programs at the D2 and D3 level, my graduate assistant was at Albright last year. They made the Sweet 16.&#8217; If you surround yourself with winners, it&#8217;s a lot easier to recognize when you slide and slack a little bit, and I think (the players have) appreciated that.&#8221;</p><p>Though both teams return plenty of talent, Freedom coaches slotted King&#8217;s, which finished last season 12-13 overall and 5-9 in the conference, to finish sixth and the Cougars, who went 7-18 and 3-11, to place seventh this season.</p><p>But don&#8217;t tell Hadzimichalis and Rhine that.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;ll definitely be a lot of talking with our group about where do we want to be and who do we want to be,&#8221; Hadzimichalis said. &#8220;This year &#8212; knowing that we&#8217;ve got a good core coming back and a freshman coming in like Rebecca Prociak, who&#8217;s already battle-tested in terms of playing in big games and being able to contribute &#8212; I think we&#8217;re able to build on that obviously and surprise a few people.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Being seventh wasn&#8217;t a surprise to me, only because it&#8217;s so hard in the preseason, because you go off of last year,&#8221; Rhine said. &#8220;Nobody knows who I am yet, and two of these three wins have been against 10-year, veteran coaches and both of them have come up to me and said, &#8216;There&#8217;s no way you&#8217;re seventh.&#8217;</p><p>&#8220;I want that to be our mindset all year, as we want to surprise people. And I want to surprise people as a coach.&#8221;</p><style>
.neFileBlock {
	margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
	margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
	border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
	padding-bottom: 5px;
	padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
	font-size: 85%;
}
</style>
<div class='neFileBlock'>
<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_Hadzimichalis_Caitlin1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Hadzimichalis</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_Hadzimichalis_Caitlin1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Hadzimichalis</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_Coach-Hadz.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">King's College women's basketball assistant coach Caitlin Hadzimichalis looks on during a game last season. Hadzimichalis replaced Brian Donoghue as head coach this past summer. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_Coach-Hadz.jpg</photo1><caption1>King's College women's basketball assistant coach Caitlin Hadzimichalis looks on during a game last season. Hadzimichalis replaced Brian Donoghue as head coach this past summer. </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_jason_rhine1_faa.jpg">
<div class="neCaption"></div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_jason_rhine1_faa.jpg</photo2><caption2></caption2><photoCredit2></photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_jason_rhine2_faa.jpg">
<div class="neCaption"></div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_jason_rhine2_faa.jpg</photo3><caption3></caption3><photoCredit3></photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_jason_rhine3_faa.jpg">
<div class="neCaption"></div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_jason_rhine3_faa.jpg</photo4><caption4></caption4><photoCredit4></photoCredit4></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_jason_rhine4_faa.jpg">
<div class="neCaption"></div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo5>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_jason_rhine4_faa.jpg</photo5><caption5></caption5><photoCredit5></photoCredit5></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_jason_rhine5_faa.jpg">
<div class="neCaption"></div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo6>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_jason_rhine5_faa.jpg</photo6><caption6></caption6><photoCredit6></photoCredit6></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By DJ Eberle</p><p>djeberle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach DJ Eberle at 570-991-6398 or on Twitter @ByDJEberle</p></shirttailMeta></div>

web1_jason_rhine5_faa.jpg

web1_Hadzimichalis_Caitlin1.jpg

web1_Coach-Hadz.jpg

web1_jason_rhine1_faa.jpg

web1_jason_rhine2_faa.jpg

web1_jason_rhine3_faa.jpg

web1_jason_rhine4_faa.jpg

New coaches have high hopes for King’s, Misericordia women’s basketball teams