Longtime Peters Township head coach Rick Tingle has coached his last game as the head of the Indians, Pittsburgh Hockey Digest has learned.
Players were informed that Tingle will not be returning on Friday and PHD has learned that Tingle was fired by the Peters Township hockey board.
PHD e-mails to the hockey board as a whole and to Ed Poon, listed as the current board president on the organization’s website, were not immediately returned. The hockey association operates independently of Peters Township School District.
Tingle’s tenure with Peters Township was one of the most successful in the PIHL. The Indians lost to North Allegheny 4-3 in overtime in the Class-3A semifinal on April 12 to end their 2020-21 season that saw Peters finish 15-4 and were the top seed in the 11-team classification.
Peters was in the semifinals when the 2020 postseason was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Indians lost to North Allegheny in the 2019 Penguins Cup title game and Seneca Valley in the 2018 championship game. The Indians won PIHL and state titles in 2017 and 2014 under Tingle, who was with Peters for 16 years as varsity head coach and spent another five years as coach of junior varsity or freshman teams.
PHD’s Brian Mitchell contributed reporting to this story.
