Justin Piergrossi is in his twentieth season as head coach at Skyline College. Since the day he arrived, the Trojans have concentrated on recruiting and developing local players to fill its roster. During his tenure, 233 out of 259 players who completed a season were from Skyline’s defined recruiting area. The emphasis on local players has provided an excellent opportunity for many young men to develop on and off the floor. Since 2004, 96% of the players who completed two years in the program earned their Associate's Degree or transferred to a four-year school. In addition, numerous players have moved on to continue their playing career at the university level (81% on scholarship), while nine players have signed professional contracts. Piergrossi’s former players have appeared in the NCAA Tournament or NAIA National Tournament on sixteen different occasions. You can read about the success of his players at the four-year level here.
Piergrossi developed an offense based on spacing and ball movement, which has led to a high level of offensive efficiency for the Trojans. Skyline finished top 10 in the state in 3FG% in four of the last seven seasons- 2016-17 (7th), 2018-19 (8th), 2022-23 (9th), and 2023-24 (5th).
Piergrossi has also guided the Trojans to many academic honors. Skyline has been a finalist for the prestigious Scholar Team Award on six different occasions, winning the award in 2009-10. The Scholar Team award is the highest athletic/academic award presented in California. In addition, Skyline players have been named the top Men's Basketball Scholar-Athletes in Northern California in back-to-back-to-back-to-back years (2018-19, 2019-20, 2021-22, 2022-23) by the California Community College Men's Basketball Coaches Association. Piergrossi’s players have also been named to the Dean's List 159 times.
Piergrossi arrived at Skyline after serving five seasons as an assistant to Hall of Fame coach Phil Mathews at the University of San Francisco. On the hilltop he coached a total of fourteen players who went on to play professionally (Kenyon Jones, Russell Hinder, LyRyan Russell, Ali Thomas, Hondre Brewer, Darrell Tucker, John Cox, Shamell Stallworth, Kenny Barnes, Jovan Harris, James Bayless, Tyrone Riley, Jerome Gumbs, and Alan Wiggins, Jr.). USF players also earned a number of distinctions during his time, including one WCC Player of the Year, four 1st Team All-Conference selections, one All-Conference honorable mention, and one WCC Newcomer of the Year. In 1999-2000 Piergrossi was part of a USF team that achieved the school’s highest regular season win total in three decades.
In his time at USF Piergrossi’s duties gradually shifted from day-to-day operations of the program to opponent scouting and the recruitment of student-athletes. He played a key role in the advance scouting of many of the Dons’ upsets during his tenure, including Michigan, BYU, Ohio State and Fresno State. He also recruited the team MVP in each of his last two seasons (Andre Hazel and Alan Wiggins, Jr.). In addition to his duties on the court, Piergrossi served an equally important position off the court. His role as an academic mentor proved invaluable as USF claimed one of the highest graduation rates in the country year after year.
Prior to joining Philip Mathews’ staff at USF, Piergrossi served as an assistant coach at Hanover College in Hanover, IN. At Hanover he was part of a perennial Division III power, working for Dr. Michael Beitzel (three-time Midwest District NABC Coach of the Year, NABC Outstanding Service Award and Guardians Award for Advocacy recipient). Piergrossi concentrated on Hanover’s team defense, which ranked 9th in the nation in points allowed per game in 1997-98.
Piergrossi also interned for the Philadelphia 76ers front office in 1996-97 and volunteered for the University of Connecticut Men’s Basketball Team during its 1995-96 Big East Championship season. He was well known on the summer basketball camp circuit as well after working a number of the top camps on the east coast and in the midwest.
Piergrossi hails from Bloomfield, Connecticut. While at Bloomfield High School, he had the honor of playing for one of the most respected and successful high school basketball coaches in Connecticut state history- Joe Reilly. A member of the New England Basketball Hall of Fame, Reilly won over 500 games and five state titles during his 35+ years of coaching. Following his playing career at Bloomfield, Piergrossi went on to earn his undergraduate degree at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in Sports Management and Finance. He also earned his Master’s degree in Sports and Fitness Management from the University of San Francisco.
