HS Softball: Tide select Bowers as new head coach

Jeff Bowers was hired Wednesday as Pottsville Area High School's new head softball coach.

POTTSVILLE — Long-time travel head coach and high school assistant coach Jeff Bowers has been chosen as Pottsville Area High School’s new head softball coach.

The Pottsville Area School Board approved the hiring of Bowers on Wednesday night.

Bowers replaces Chuck Rinaldo, who retired as head coach at the end of the 2025 season. Rinaldo, who taught for 35 years in special education and in the general classroom, joined the Pottsville coaching staff in 1999 as an assistant. He became head coach in 2007 and guided the Crimson Tide for 19 seasons. Pottsville went 230-162 (.587) during his tenure.

“When I found out that Coach Rinaldo was retiring, I applied. It’s something I always aspired to,” Bowers said by phone Wednesday night. “Fortunately I was selected by the board to be his successor.”

The 49-year-old Bowers is the Chief of Police for the borough of Minersville.

He led the highly successful PA Synergy travel team for nine years and spent the last two seasons as an assistant on Rinaldo’s staff. This past season, Bowers served as the head junior high softball coach at Pottsville Area. Bowers said having the junior high program in place and his desire to work with younger players in the offseason months will strengthen the foundation of the varsity program. He said that he hopes that his program teaches more younger players the fundamentals of the game so that when they reach the varsity level they can hone their skills and add more of the strategy of the game.

Bowers’ daughters, Mia and Ava, were both four-year starters for Pottsville Area during the 2020s.

Bowers said that he wants to get more girls starting softball at a young age to “build that culture.” He has plans to gather his team to play in a travel tournament or two in the late summer or early fall.

“I want to make it fun but also a learning experience,” Bowers said. “Getting the kids to want to be there is half the battle.”