Pottsville to hire Marian’s Sanfilippo as new athletic director

POTTSVILLE — Pottsville’s search for a new athletic director has finally ended.

The Pottsville Area School Board will vote Wednesday evening to hire Pete Sanfilippo as its new athletic director at a salary of $88,000 (Act 93, 12 months), according to the board agenda posted Tuesday afternoon.

The vote will come during the board’s regular monthly meeting, scheduled to start at 7 p.m. in the D.H.H. Lengel Middle School auditorium.

Sanfilippo, 46, spent the last 10 years at Marian Catholic as a teacher and administrator, serving the last three school terms as the Hometown school’s athletic director.

Sanfilippo fills the position that was vacant since the Pottsville Area School District terminated Derrell Johnson-Koulianos as director of athletics and student activities during a special meeting of the board May 7.

The board also approved the advertising for a full-time position of athletic director and a part-time position of assistant athletic director at that May 7 special meeting. The Pottsville Area School District has not filled the part-time assistant athletic director position as of this story being published.

The board will also vote Wednesday to approve the hiring of Scott Mattea as interim assistant athletic director through the agreement between the Pottsville Area School District and ESS Northeast.

Mattea, who served as assistant athletic director and activities treasurer prior to Johnson-Koulianos’ hiring, and then again after his suspension, was appointed as interim athletic director July 1. He will assist with Sanfilippo’s transition from Marian to Pottsville.

Long-time athletic director Eric Rismiller retired at the end of the 2024-25 school term.

Johnson-Koulianos was hired May 22, 2024. He was suspended in October after the district charged him with violating 11 district policies and the state school code and ignoring repeated instruction and warnings from administrators to correct his behavior, according to published reports.

A public termination hearing that began Jan. 15 and included sessions March 5 and April 8 led to the board voting to terminate Johnson-Koulianos in May. The Pottsville Area School Board had to wait until that decision was made before any action on the athletic director position moving forward could be made.