Coaching can be a tough, stressful job, yet Skyline men’s basketball coach Justin Piergrossi handles it with a sense of calm and perspective.

Piergrossi and the Trojans finished their season with a win against Foothill College. Their final record was 7-21 overall and 3-9 against Conference North opponents.

“Our primary goal here is to improve. That is the reason most of the [players] are here in the first place,” Piergrossi says. “That is one of our primary responsibilities as a coaching staff is to help get them better while they’re here.”

Although the Trojans at times played impatiently and turned the ball over, they were competitive and calm down the stretch, despite losing their best player, guard Darren Morrison, for the season with a torn MCL.

“He was our point guard, he was our captain,” Piergrossi said. “We really missed him.”

With big wins against Chabot, ranked sixteenth in the state at the time, and Foothill in front of a hostile crowd, the maturation coach Piergrossi helped instill in his players was evident.

The numbers on the scoreboard are important, but being a good person and teaching fine students are equally important.

“Other things besides just their skills we’re trying to work on and that is being able to be a student athlete and handle the requirements of being an athlete and a full-time college student and performing at the expectations of a student,” Piergrossi said.

The team’s improvement should be more immediate next season, as in the majority of their games, the Trojans started with as few as four freshmen, but, with the return of sophomore guard Darren Morrison, and the experience gained by returning guards Brian Ngo and Courtney Beach as well as forwards James Whitley and Mario Flaherty, the team should be focused and ready to play, hopefully, coming away with a handful more victories next season.

“We have a very good amount of experience coming back,” Piergrossi said. “That is by far going to be our strength.”

As far as expectations, Coach Piergrossi keeps things in perspective and allows the players to dictate their own levels of dedication and sacrifice, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t push them.

“They have something to do with it. They need to decide what their goals are, and how hard they are willing to work,” Piergrossi said. “We should be able to compete for a league championship with some of the guys we have coming back, that’s what I would think.”