LATROBE — Jimmy Petruska was raised on coaching.

And it hasn’t taken long for the Mars graduate to elevate himself to among the best of his peers.

Petruska, 33, son of longtime Mars and current Deer Lakes girls basketball coach Dana Petruska, was recently named Presidents’ Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year.

He completed his fourth year as head coach at Saint Vincent College, where he guided the Bearcats to a 22-5 finish and the PAC championship game.

Saint Vincent lost the PAC title contest, 75-65, to undefeated and top-ranked Thomas More.

“I was surprised and shocked. I wasn’t expecting that award,” Petruska said. “It’s a thrill to be thought of that way by your peers.

“But at the end of the day, my players and assistant coaches deserve much of the credit. All of that success can’t just be put on my shoulders.”

Petruska was an assistant coach at Saint Vincent — his alma mater — himself when head coach Kristen Zawacki died suddenly of an apparent heart attack on Dec. 25, 2010. The Bearcats were 9-1 at the time.

Petruska was named interim head coach for the remainder of the season and was named permanent head coach shortly after leading the team to a 24-5 final record that year.

Zawacki had been the program’s founder and only head coach. She won 512 games in 27 years at the helm, including 22 consecutive postseason appearances and 16 straight conference championship game appearances.

“Coach Zawacki was grooming me to take over for her one day,” Petruska said. “But it wound up being in a situation nobody would ever want.

“That was a devastating time for all of us. But Coach had prepared me well by allowing me to coach during my few years as an assistant. I did the scheduling and much of the planning, was in charge of recruiting and player development.”

He’s never stopped winning. This season marked Saint Vincent’s third 20-win campaign in four years under Petruska.

He will enter next year with a 98-33 record at the school.

His collegiate coaching career didn’t start out that way. The Bearcats were 10-13 and 9-16 in Petruska’s first two years as an assistant. The program had bumped up from NAIA to Division III for the first time.

“We under-estimated the quality of our conference and Division III basketball in general,” Petruska admitted. “It took us a while to catch up.

“Still, I wasn’t used to winning only a few games in a season. Those were tough times.”

Dana Petruska, who won 268 games at Mars and has a 95-31 record at Deer Lakes, says she’s not surprised at all by her son’s success.

“He loves the competition and he’s always been into the X’s and O’s of coaching,” she said. “He’s read John Wooden books, gone to clinics, really threw himself into it.

“The way he cares about the kids he coaches is what put him over the top. And when you’re committed, you accept it all, including the tough times and losing, to build a program.”

Jimmy Petruska’s first coaching job was under his mother’s wing, as an assistant coach for her Mars girls team. He was a sophomore at Saint Vincent at the time.

“He drove from Saint Vincent to Mars every day for practice,” Petruska’s mother said. “The dedication and commitment were there right away. He quickly developed a passion for this.”

Petruska said he originally planned to be a history teacher, because he was into history and “I wanted the summer off to go hunting.”

That perspective changed in a hurry.

“My mother taught me 95 percent of what I know as a basketball coach,” Petruska said. “She showed me how to get the most out of players, defensive toughness, offensive creativity, how to manage a game, how to coach a game, all of that.

“As a young boy, I was always in the gym, going to the practices, the bus rides, hanging around the team ... I grew up on this stuff.”

Petruska said he recruits players by “selling the academics of this school, the successful athletic program, and I try to sell myself.

“I know what Saint Vincent has done for me and what it can do for others.”

His goals include graduating every one of his players and maintaining a 3.5 team grade point average. He volunteers his time to help his players with the academic side of college life long after the basketball season ends.

Half of the Bearcat roster made the Dean’s List (GPA of 3.56 or higher) last fall.

“Our players and coaches put on free basketball clinics for kids,” Petruska said. “It completes the cycle for us.

“I’ve learned you can’t count on someone else to do the job for you. We lost five games this year — three to the No. 1 team in the country,and one by one point — and we weren’t selected for the Division III Tournament. We need to keep striving for the PAC title and that automatic bid.”

Whether Petruska strives for a coaching job at a higher level in the future remains to be seen.

“Based on what he’s done where he’s at, I think he has the potential to go to the next level,” his mother said.

“I have no idea about that,” Petruska said of what may lie ahead. “I’m very happy where I’m at. I like the mission of the school, the community and administrative support I receive ... As an alumnus, Saint Vincent has a special place in my heart.

“And we still have work to do.”