Michael Pilsitz

March 17th, 2026

The Illusion of a Dynasty

Looking back, When I took the head coaching job at Steelton-Highspire High School, people assumed I was stepping into one of the best situations in Pennsylvania high school basketball.

From the outside, it looked like a dream job.

The Rollers had won four state championships in the past 10 years, and the program carried a reputation for toughness, pride and winning. The banners hanging in the gym suggested a machine that would keep producing success no matter who was coaching.

But the truth was something very different.

In 2006, the Steelton-Highspire basketball program wasn’t a dynasty.

It was a rebuild, with a staff maintaining the sweat equity required to sustain a culture of winning. All the while, staring defeat in the eye.

The program was coming off the 2005 AAA State Championship season, legendary head coach Rick Binder had left unexpectedly for Reading High School. Four starters and a loaded bench had graduated taking with them a career 125-18 record and 6,000 career points. 4532 of those points coming from the first and only duo in Pennsylvania to score 2000 points a piece, Tristan Crawford and Tramayne Hawthorne had taken their talents to the Division I level.

When the coaching position opened, only four people applied.

Around town the message from the fan base was simple:

“Tradition Never Graduates.”

The expectations never wavered. The notion that other high schools success in sports is fragile, “not ours” was as strong as ever. In Steelton at the time, Basketball Championships were delusionally tied with the water and the hills. Not generations of great players and synergy of a program. For most places, When those players graduate, the illusion of a powerhouse can disappear overnight.

Not in Steelton.

That was the exact situation we walked into.

Not a dynasty

A Rebuild.

From Players to builders

For me the job wasn’t just another coaching opportunity.

I had grown up inside the Steelton program.

From Chasing balls in the 80’s for Marty (Benkovic) and Jack’s (Hoerner) players – to donning the blue and grey for Kenny Richter during his 90’s title runs.- to learning the coaching profession as a man beside my mentor Rick Binder. I had a front row seat as the District and State titles amassed against opponents five to ten times our size.

I had seen what Championship basketball looked like up close.

But I had also seen something else that outsiders didn’t understand.

Championship programs aren’t built on talent alone.

They are built on standards, relationships, and culture.

and when players who carried that culture graduate a program has two choices:

1. Hope lightning strikes again, or
2. Produce a system that produces winners year after year.

Before even applying for the job, my first order of business was making sure my longtime friend and fellow Roller Mike Attivo would join my staff.

When we accepted the job in 2006, we knew which path we had to take.

We were not inheriting a dynasty.

We were starting from scratch.

The First Lesson for Young Coaches

If there is one lesson I want young coaches to understand, its this.

Believe in yourself, Believe in the people you surround yourself with and work endlessly on your craft to develpp that confidence.

The health of your program may be judged by wins and banners by others.

However, understand coaching is about maximizing a teams potential from year to year. Learn to define individual and team growth as successful building blocks.

Your job as a coach is to build the foundaton for what happens next for your players in life.

From the beginning, middle to end of a season well coached teams get better.

In Steelton Banners and Rings told the world what happened yesterday but for us we knew the foundation of another title run would be laid in blood, sweat and tears.

Every program faces the same moment:

The stars graduate

The gym gets quiet

And people start whispering that the run is over.

Can this staff get it done?

That moment isn’t the end.

It’s the beginning of “YOUR” program’s real identity.

A lot of coaches are successful with great players.

The real challenge – and the real reward – is building something when nothing is guaranteed.

That was the challenge at Steelton-Highspire in 2006.

and it would become the long road to Hershey.

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