Upper St. Clair names Donati baseball coach
A daisy might just determine which sport Jeff Donati prefers to coach. After all he is a florist.
“It’s hard for me to pick one over the other,” he said.
Donati has been employed at Pete Donati & Sons Inc., a family-owned floral enterprise, since he was 16 playing football and baseball at Bethel Park High School. While pursuing a degree in education at Robert Morris University, Donati thought he wanted to be a teacher and a coach.
“I realized, though, that I could still coach and do what I do as a florist,” he said. “I’m probably the only coach out there that’s a floral designer.”
Donati has coached football, baseball and wrestling. He served as a longtime assistant in baseball and football at Mt. Lebanon before doubling up at Upper St. Clair.
Most recently, he has been named head coach of the USC baseball team. It is his first head coaching position. Donati will remain as an assistant football coach for the Panthers.
“I love both equally,” Donati said of his coaching positions.
“I will watch more football than baseball on television but baseball comes easy to me.”
Though he wrestled and played football, Donati excelled in baseball at Bethel Park. A two-year starter at catcher, he led the Black Hawks to a WPIAL runner-up trophy, losing to North Allegheny in the Class AAA final.
“I was just an average running back and safety in football, certainly not a hall of famer,” Donati said with a chuckle.
“I wrestled at 145 with no accolades,” he added. “Back in those days if you didn’t get through sectionals, then you went to baseball tryouts. You had to because there were at least 90 kids trying out for baseball.”
Donati dabbled in coaching, helping with the local Pony team, before he was put in charge of the BP freshman baseball team as an 18-year-old college freshman.
“I fell in love with coaching,” he said. “I did know then I wanted to coach.”
For 28 years, Donati has earned a paycheck as a scholastic coach.
In 1995, he picked up the whistle at the encouragement of former Bethel Park football coach Jeff Metheny.
Donati coached under Metheny for 12 seasons.
“He walked into one of our baseball practices and I told him I didn’t think I knew enough about it but Jeff said if I was willing to put the time in, he was willing to teach me,” Donati said.
Donati then moved on to Mt. Lebanon. While being mentored by former Blue Devils coach Chris Haering, now at Wisconsin, and Mike Melynk, Donati also raised a family. He and his wife, Brooke, reared three gifted children.
Tucker, 22, earned a history degree from West Virginia University. He interned with the Mountaineers football team and traveled to Arizona for the Guarantee Rate Bowl. He is a graduate assistant for the 2022 football season.
Sydney, 21, was a gymnast and diver at Mt. Lebanon. She attends Michigan State.
Kendall, 18, played soccer for the Blue Devils. A college freshman, she plays for Duquesne University.
While at Mt. Lebanon, Donati also assisted Mark Saghy and Patt McCloskey. His nephew, Tanner, is a member of the Blue Devils baseball team.
Donati later transitioned to USC, coaching football during longtime Panthers head coach Jim Render’s final days. Currently, Donati is the defensive coordinator under USC head coach Mike Junko.
“Football, baseball, they are the same. I enjoy coaching both of them. Whatever the season is,” Donati said. “I just like the kids. That’s the biggest thing to me.”
Relationships are key to Donati’s success. He has forged strong bonds with many of his players, many of whom remain among the contacts on his cellphone.
“I’m not a big yeller,” Donati said. “I’d rather talk to my players and have a communication back and forth. It’s about relationships and honesty. The players need to know where they stand and how a decision came to be and how it’s in the best interest of the team so there are no surprise attacks.”
Donati replaces Jerry Malarkey, who had won more than 400 games and coached the Panthers to its only WPIAL baseball title in 1992. Donati said he plans to establish his own identity while implementing his objectives for the program.
“I want to build a program that is a consistent winner every year and is fundamentally sound,” he said. “The goal is to win WPIAL and state titles.”
Jeff Donati assembled a United Nations of coaching upon being appointed head coach of the Upper St. Clair baseball team.
“We have flags all over,” said Donati.
His assistants include:
• Mark Saghy: A Mt. Lebanon graduate and USC resident, he played baseball at Duquesne University. He created the Western Pennsylvania Elite Baseball League in 2006 and has managed the Steel City Wildcats, one of the region’s most successful AAU teams.
• Jim Rider: A Bethel Park standout and McMurray resident, he coached Donati before becoming an assistant under Joe Maize at Peters Township. “He was in my wedding,” reminisced Donati. “I learned a ton from him.”
• Rudy Pokorny: He served more than a quarter century as an assistant at Peters.
• Rob Linkowski: A Mt. Lebanon product, he’s an emotional leader, Donati said.
“We are so lucky to have gotten the staff we did,” Donati said. “Baseball-wise these guys have so much knowledge. They are so well-connected and well-respected in this business.
“With this staff and the support of the administration we are headed in the right direction,” he added. “We have as fair a chance as those around us to be competitive and successful in this league.”