Butler High School assistant football and basketball coach Chris Andreassi has been named varsity boys basketball coach at Knoch High School.

A teacher at Knoch since 1990, Andreassi, 46, replaces Les Shoop, who retired this season after 37 years of coaching.

"This is the only boys basketball head coaching position I've ever applied for,"Andreassi said. "This is my dream job."

Andreassi has been an assistant football coach at Butler the past two years and has been boys junior varsity basketball coach with the Golden Tornado since 2002.

He is giving up both of those roles to take the Knoch varsity basketball reins.

"Coach Shoop won 510 games in his career. I'm looking for my first one,"Andreassi said. "I'm going to focus on taking care of this program."

Andreassi was hired by unanimous vote during Wednesday night's South Butler County School Board meeting. He officially inherits the position July 1.

Andreassi has been a basketball and football coach since 1987, but has never been a varsity head coach. He was the freshman girls basketball coach at Knoch in 1990-91, coached the seventh grade boys there from 1991-95 and was the freshman boys coach from 1995-2000 under Shoop.

"Les was very under-rated as an X's and O's guy,"Andreassi said. "When you played a Les Shoop team, you always knew what you were getting.

"I could always pick his brain. I learned so much about basketball from that guy."

He said he also learned a lot from current Butler boys basketball coach Joe Lewandowski.

"Joe's learned very quickly how to compete at a very high level of basketball,"Andreassi said. "He knows what it takes for a kid to be a player today.

"I feel like I've learned from two schools of thought there. I've got a lot of respect for both of them."

Andreassi has also coached junior varsity basketball at Moniteau and was freshman basketball coach at East Brady High School in the late 1980s.

His brother, Steve, is the boys varsity basketball coach at Karns City.

"I know all about the passion Chris brings to coaching and his desire to succeed,"the Karns City coach said. "He doesn't do anything halfway."

Lewandowski described Andreassi as "a first-class guy who has dedicated his life to coaching.

"Chris comes from a coaching family,"Lewandowski added. "Les Shoop was a classy coach who was always there for me when I had a question, always supportive.

"Chris is cut from that same mold. We're ecstatic that he got this job. No coach is more dedicated to a program than he is."

Andreassi was a defensive back and quarterback coach under Butler football coach Garry Cathell. He was also a varsity assistant football coach at Knoch from 1994-2003.

Before applying to succeed Shoop, Andreassi applied for only two other varsity head coaching positions: the Butler girls basketball post after Jonna Burke left and the Knoch girls basketball post after Todd Durand's position was opened.

He insists he now has the only head coaching job he's ever truly wanted.

"Knoch is a great place to work and there are great kids in this school,"Andreassi said. "I'm where I want to be. It's incredible. This is a big night for me."

Shoop won 299 games in 24 years at Knoch. The Knights finished 16-9 this past season, losing in the second round of the WPIALClass AAAplayoffs and in the first round of the PIAATournament.