Dave Burich
Dave Burich began his outstanding basketball career as a player and coach at Sharon High School.At Sharon, he was a two-year letter-winner. One of his most memorable games came when Sharon ended rival Farrell's 21-game win streak with a 55-54 victory in overtime. He also ran cross country.
His playing ability grew at Edinboro-Shenango Valley Campus where he was a two-year letterman and a two-time Commonwealth Campus Conference 1st Team All-Star. He was the league scoring leader both seasons in 1971 and '72. In the conference championship victory over Clarion-Oil City he scored 30 points to spark the team to a 102-69 rout. In the second year winning the title, Burich finished the year with 121 field goals in averaging 16.4 points per game.
He went on to a lengthy and successful career in teaching and coaching. He served as an assistant to the legendary Edward J. McCluskey at Farrell from 1974-77 and coached at several junior high as well as junior varsity levels. Farrell won two Section 3 championships and in 1976 finished 3rd in the state.He was assistant at Farrell from 1978-79 to Coach Tony Farnell. He went on to coach at Sharon under Coach Alex Chrobak from 1979-83. Dave went on to Meadville High School as assistant girls coach 1983-84, then assistant boys coach the same year as the team won the league title.
He served as head basketball coach at Brookfield School District from 1984-87, his Warriors winning the section championship in 1986 and finishing district runner-up. Returning to Farrell, he was assistant under Coach Frank Sincek in 1987-88 when the Steelers won the section crown.Dave went back to Sharon as assistant boys mentor under Coach Jerry Banaszak from 1988-94, twice winning District 10 titles. He worked as girls assistant at Sharon under Coach Gene Sarazen from 2003-11. The Lady Tigers won region and District 10 championships in 2005 and finished D-1 runners-up 3 other times, while twice winning region titles.
In independent basketball, he was a key member of the Croation Fraternal Union-Pittsburgh, winning the national championship 4 times. He also coached Little League baseball.He has served as a director of the Mercer County Hall of Fame for several years and is chairman of the annual Steak Fry and Auction which helps fund the Tom Burns Academic All-Star Awards each year.