Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League

 
Physical education teacher. Drivers education teacher. Assistant athletic director. Girls basketball coach. Middle school boys basketball coach. Girls softball coach. Athletic director. Ninth-grade boys soccer coach. Faculty manager. Name a job a Peters Township, and there’s a good chance Joe Maize worked it during his four decades at the school. But one stands out: baseball coach. Maize successfully led the Indians baseball team for 35 years and built the program into one of the WPIAL’s best since taking over in 1985. He won more than 400 games, eight section titles, two WPIAL championships and reached the state finals twice before retiring in 2019. His career record was 422-241. Some programs may fade over time, but Maize’s certainly did not. In fact, since 2003, the Indians won 71% of their games. But his success isn’t measured in wins alone. He’s seen more than 100 former players continue their baseball careers in college and eight former Indians went on to play professionally. Three reached the Major Leagues: Chris Peters (Pittsburgh Pirates), Brian Simmons (Chicago White Sox/Toronto Blue Jays) and Jordan Jankowski (Houston Astros). Peters Township qualified for the WPIAL playoffs 17 times under Maize and reached the finals on three occasions. The Indians won consecutive WPIAL titles in 2007-08 and were runners-up in 2011. At the state level, Peters Township was the PIAA runner-up in 2004 and 2005. He earned six coach of the year awards including multiple honors from the Tri-County Athletic Directors Association. In his final season, the Big 56 Conference named him coach of the year in Section 3-6A. Maize was Peters Township’s girls softball coach from 1978-84 before making the move to the baseball team. While coaching baseball, he also had stints as a middle school boys basketball coach (2012-13) and ninth-grade boys soccer coach (2012-13). Maize also contributed his efforts to the WPIAL including as a member of the soccer steering committee for 34 years.