Tampa Catholic has hired its boys basketball coach, Don Dziagwa, as the school's new athletic director. He officially begins in his new position Tuesday.
Dziagwa has been at the school for 25 years, the past 23 as the boys basketball coach. In that time, the Crusaders have won 388 games, made 17 trips to the region playoffs, tallied eight district championships, made four visits to the state final four, and won a Class 3A state championship in 1995.
Dziagwa was interested in the athletic director job a little over a decade ago, but the school's principal at the time did not want a coach as the AD, and the head Crusader was not ready to stop coaching. But principal Thomas Reidy had no such reservations this time around.
"This was probably a lesson in perservance,'' said Dziagwa, a Marshall University grad. " When it came open this time, I was very interested in it. As interested as I was 11 years ago."
Dziagwa's 36 years of experience coaching made him an ideal candidate, as well as his long tenure as a Crusader. He said his primary goals will be to serve the coaches at the school, "to see what we can do to make their programs better and see what they need." He also hopes to focus on exposure for the school's athletic programs, something he has done by scheduling out-of-state trips at prestigious tournaments for his basketball teams in the past.
Dziagwa replaces Freddie Langiotti, who was fired two weeks ago after 14 years at Tampa Catholic.
Langiotti returned a message left last week by the Times with a text message, saying the firing was "unexpected" and that it was not related to the ongoing Florida High School Athletic Association investigation of Tampa Catholic over alleged recruiting violations involving football players from Pasco County.