Jerry DiPaola stories, Page 129
Mike Eruzione has kept the U.S. hockey team’s miracle alive for 40 yearsVideo
Mike Eruzione hasn’t seen either of the movies about the “Miracle On Ice” in 10 years. “I know the story,” he said, smiling. Only three times in 40 years has he allowed himself to watch the replay of the U.S. ice hockey team’s upset of the Soviets in Lake Placid...
Mike Eruzione’s grandson gets lesson on Mario Lemieux, hockey history
Through their love of hockey and golf, Mike Eruzione has become close friends with Mario Lemieux over the years. One night not long ago, Eruzione, his wife, Donna, and their 6-year-old grandson, Michael, attended a Boston University game with Lemieux, his wife, Nathalie, and their daughters. Lemieux’s son, Austin, was...
Pitt’s Justin Champagnie, teammates tackle long season by staying hungryVideo
Pitt sophomore guard Trey McGowens recognized the look on Justin Champagnie’s face as the 18-year-old freshman left the court Saturday at Petersen Events Center. “Kind of like the same I had in the Louisville game (last season),” McGowens said, “when I hugged coach walking off the court (after scoring a...
Pitt coach Jeff Capel has learned, taught more than basketball in his 45 years
Jeff Capel makes all the tough calls during a Pitt game. Zone or man-to-man? Don’t forget to box out. Shoot the 3. Pull it back and run the weave. Those are basketball-related matters he has employed as a player and designed and taught as a coach for most of his...
Changes to Pirates pitching staff could take time
The question didn’t require an immediate answer, but Derek Shelton had one ready. “Who’s your opening day starter?” the Pittsburgh Pirates’ first-year manager was asked at PiratesFest, two months and two days before the season begins March 26 in Tampa. Shelton’s answer: “You got an opinion?” Everyone does, of course,...
Justin Champagnie scores 30, leads Pitt to win over Georgia TechVideo
If things seemed beyond ordinary during and after Pitt’s 73-64 victory Saturday against Georgia Tech, here’s a couple of reasons why: • Jeff Capel felt the need to apologize to his team for getting a technical foul late in what was at the time a five-point game. “That was really...
Pitt coach Jeff Capel on losing: ‘I don’t like the feel of it’
Jeff Capel has been a winner on a variety of levels. He won a North Carolina high school championship as a player. As a coach, he came home from international competition, including the 2016 Rio Olympics, with gold medals around his neck. On Mike Krzyzewski’s staff at Duke, he was...
Pirates hope post-surgical Gregory Polanco can be big part of reshaped outfield
Two seasons ago, the Pittsburgh Pirates had an outfield of Corey Dickerson, Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco — all on the under side of 30 with specific, serviceable skill sets. • Dickerson, the left fielder, was on his way to a .300 season. • Marte ended 2018 with an impressive...
Pirates infield shows promise, but with lots of room to grow
All you need to know about Ben Cherington’s and Derek Shelton’s expectations for the Pittsburgh Pirates is the team’s second-most-productive run producer doesn’t have a lock on his job. Chances are, Colin Moran will be difficult to unseat at third base (at least early in the season). He hit .277...
How Pitt administrators helped Pat Narduzzi decide to remain Pitt’s coach
When news of the coaching vacancy at Michigan State reached Heather Lyke’s office in Petersen Events Center, she made the most logical, reasonable and — as it turns out — crucial move possible. She called Pat Narduzzi. “I wanted to make sure he knew we wanted him to be at...
Pitt lands cornerback, kicker on signing day
Pat Narduzzi has lived, worked and fretted through several national signing days during a college coaching career that spans three decades. Now, under NCAA rules adopted three years ago, he gets to do it twice per year. But the 53-year-old Pitt coach rolls with the times and said, “Sometimes, you...
Kicker identifies himself as `Pitt football commit’ on Twitter
Kicker Ben Sauls, who gave Iowa State a verbal commitment last week, now identifies himself on his Twitter account as a “Pitt football commit.” He can make his Pitt commitment official Wednesday by signing a binding letter of intent. Sauls, who attends Tippecanoe High School in Tipp City, Ohio, committed...
Pitt set to face Irish scoring machine
The reality Pitt must contend with Wednesday night when it visits Notre Dame is the simple fact the Irish can score. They are second in the ACC with an average of 76.8 points per game. But Pitt has been good at keeping opponents’ point totals at a reasonable level. The...
Duquesne’s Keith Dambrot works closely with players to tap potential, regulate passionVideo
Long after the end of practice Tuesday morning — while most of his teammates were catching a snack or perhaps a nap before the flight to St. Louis — Duquesne’s Marcus Weathers was working on his jump shot. Never mind that he leads the Dukes in scoring (14.5 per game),...
Pirates’ Kevin Kramer motivated by daughter’s birth
If Kevin Kramer was a shallow thinker without much ambition, he might have welcomed MLB’s roster expansion from 25 to 26 players. He might have seen it as an easier way to sneak onto the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 2020 roster. But Kramer, 26, responded to a question about 26-man rosters with...
Notre Dame’s Mike Brey takes lessons learned into game against Pitt
After Notre Dame lost to Syracuse, 84-82, last month, Irish coach Mike Brey was looking for help anywhere he could find it. It was one day after Brey’s high school coach, the legendary Morgan Wootten, died at age 88. Brey played for and coached with Wootten at DeMatha Catholic in...
Johnson’s ‘big-time’ plays lead Pitt to 62-57 victory against MiamiVideo
Xavier Johnson can smile about it now. But there was some serious business going on — with one voice raised — between Pitt’s sophomore point guard and his coach late in the Panthers’ 62-57 victory over Miami on Sunday in front of a crowd of 9,759 at Petersen Events Center....
Pirates outfielder Bryan Reynolds: A tough out everywhere he goesVideo
The words did come out of Bryan Reynolds mouth. A quick review of his interview at PirateFest confirmed it. “Pitchers have been trying to get me out for a long time,” he said. That’s what the Pirates’ second-year outfielder said. But before anyone accuses Reynolds of pumping out his chest...
Can Pitt reach 10 victories in the ACC?
The question facing Pitt as it ventures into the second half of its ACC schedule is this: Can the Panthers win 10 conference games? Never mind Pitt has done that only once in six previous seasons (11-7 in 2014), and the Panthers have averaged fewer than five in the others....
Pitt’s Au’Diese Toney plays with heavy heart after loss of his grandmotherVideo
When Au’Diese Toney reached for his phone after scoring a career-high 27 points against Duke, he saw a series of texts and missed calls. Some of them puzzling. Pitt lost 79-67 on Tuesday, but people wanted to congratulate Toney, anyway. And why not? He recorded more points than any Pitt...
Duquesne’s Keith Dambrot makes plea for increased fan support
In a season where the displaced Duquesne basketball team is playing so-called home games in three different venues around Allegheny County, a crowd of 7,001 showed up Wednesday night at PPG Paints Arena. It was loud. It was engaged. And many of those in attendance made the four-hour drive from...
No moral victories for Duquesne in close loss to No. 7 DaytonVideo
Keith Dambrot likes to smile, have fun, tell a few jokes. But he’d be the first to take issue with any Duquesne fan in the crowd of 7,001 who left PPG Paints Arena on Wednesday night feeling good about the Dukes’ 73-69 loss to No. 7 Dayton. The game turned...
Pitt assistant baseball coach mourns loss of ‘absolute gem’ in Kobe Bryant crashVideo
John Sansone doesn’t have time for social media. The Neshannock graduate could make time, but he’s more interested in getting his coaching career started in his first year as an assistant on Pitt’s baseball team. So, he didn’t immediately know what happened Sunday on a hillside in Calabasas, Calif. He...
New Kensington native David Girardi living out Super Bowl dream with Chiefs
During the football season, David Girardi doesn’t see much sun. He arrives at work in morning darkness and leaves well after the sun goes down. Tough duty, sure, but he embraces it like found gold. This week, however, the sun is out — literally and figuratively. Girardi and his employers,...
Chris Doleman, former Pitt player and Pro Football Hall of Famer, dies of brain cancer
Chris Doleman, one of the NFL’s most feared pass rushers of all-time and one of nine former Pitt players to earn induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, died Tuesday night after a prolonged battle with brain cancer. Doleman was 58. Doleman, a defensive end and outside linebacker, was...
