Niagara Sports Magazine
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Perhaps one of the greatest gifts a former professional athlete can give back to his sport is to accept the challenge and responsibility of mentoring young up-and-coming athletes and passing on some of that immense knowledge. It’s an opportunity to impart wisdom from direct experience and instill it into the hearts and minds of enthusiastic youngsters coming up through the minor athletics’ systems.
Such is the case with CFL legend Rocky DiPietro, the former Hamilton Tiger-Cats receiver/slotback who is now in his fourth year as head coach of the perennially powerhouse Lakeshore Catholic Gators high school football team in Port Colborne.
DiPietro spent all of his 14 memorable pro seasons with the Tabbies in Steeltown and ultimately became one of the most recognized names in franchise history, along with the likes of Angelo Mosca, Bernie Faloney, Garney Henley, Grover Covington, Ben Zambiasi and Danny McManus. Rocky was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1997 after hanging up the cleats in 1991 at the age of 35.
With Johnstone and DiPietro at the helm, the Gators won the title in 2003; a reminder of that first glorious championship is proudly displayed in the form of a large banner on the north-side wall of the school facing the football field – “Top-ranked high school senior football team in Canada, 2003.” Another more recent proud moment for the team was having new bleachers set up on the north sidelines of the field for fans to watch the games. The Gators made their second trip to the provincial championship in 2006, finishing as runner-up. DiPietro has managed to get his squad to the championship a total of five times, including the past three years in a row – and each time it’s been a matchup with their arch rivals, Notre Dame of Burlington. The Gators came out on top in 2008, but have finished second to the Fighting Irish each of the past two years in the title game played at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.
“The championship games have been at the Rogers Centre for about 10 years now,” DiPietro notes. “It’s a great thrill for the kids to be able to play there.” It seems quite apparent that success breeds success, but DiPietro is extremely modest in downplaying the importance of his leadership, saying it has more to do with the quality of the young men on his squad than his leadership. “They learn best from each other. This area is very strong in minor football.”
To achieve such a strong program and an incredible winning record takes a lot of time, effort and dedication from the coaching staff and players.
“We’re out there practicing every day,” DiPietro continues. “The warm-up starts at 2:45 pm and we are usually out there until 5:10 pm. Our kids have been extremely committed and there has never been a problem. That in itself tells you about the great type of guys we have.”
It’s a rigorous training program, with strong attention paid to grasping the technical aspects of each exercise drill and scrimmage play. That efficiency has seen the Gators rewarded for their hard work, as the victories keep piling up.
One former Lakeshore Gator, Derek Schiavone, is now the field goal kicker and punter with the CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos. Among some of the Gator graduates now playing in the CIS include: wide receiver Zach Bull of the Western Ontario Mustangs, linebacker Dylan Roesch-Crane of the McMaster Marauders and tailback Corey Davidson and defensive lineman Mike Millar of the Guelph Gryphons. Jack Creighton, who is a senior quarterback for the St. Mary’s Huskies in Halifax, is also the son of former NHL player Adam Creighton.
As for his personal life, DiPietro lives in Pelham with wife Patty. They have two young adult sons, Joseph, a 23-year-old pilot, and Daniel, a 19-year-old Brock student.
Rocky’s wife Patty and her twin sister Peggy were part of the Brock Badgers women’s basketball team that won the Ontario Women’s Interuniversity Athletics Association championship in 1982 under head coach Pat Woodburn. DiPietro and Woodburn knew one another and Rocky had enrolled at Brock in order to get his teaching certificate – and that’s where he met his future wife. DiPietro’s sister-in-law Peggy married Mike Sheahan, and their son Riley is a former St. Catharines Falcons’ standout and first-round pick of the Detroit Red Wings in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. Sheahan is currently in his junior year with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish of the NCAA.
But that’s not it for hockey success in this family. While Rocky’s nephew Riley Sheahan looks to make the NHL in the coming years, his cousin Paul DiPietro has already been there, having suited up with three teams, including the Montreal Canadiens – and was in the lineup as the Habs defeated Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings for the 1993 Stanley Cup title.
“I followed Paul quite a lot in junior when he was with Sudbury,” DiPietro says. “We also went to the playoff games in Buffalo that year when he was with Montreal and they went on to win the Stanley Cup. It was an exciting time.”
A native of Sault Ste. Marie, DiPietro makes the trip home on a regular basis. “I get back every summer and every other Christmas. I still have a lot of family and friends up there.” When DiPietro was a kid, there wasn’t any organized football to be played. “We never had minor football back then,” he confirms. “Those of us who wanted to play football had to wait until high school. I started in Grade 10.”
Because DiPietro didn’t start playing organized football until he was about 15, there were other sports to fill the void. “I liked to play everything,” he says. “I was more of a basketball player and pretty good at it, so that was my favourite prior to football.”
After high school, it was on to the University of Ottawa where DiPietro was a key contributor to the Gee Gees football team. He then joined the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 1978, and got a first-hand view of the incoming Harold Ballard era, when the truculent owner of the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs turned his attention to the CFL and purchased the Tiger-Cats that same year for $1.3 million from Michael DeGroote. The turmoil created by Ballard off the field was a constant distraction to many players and fans alike, and his often nasty and ill-advised statements in the media made for lots of headlines in newspaper sports sections and radio sound bites. But despite constantly denigrating his team’s performance, the players somehow managed to rise above it all, put it out of their minds and reach four Grey Cup championships under Ballard’s tumultuous regime in 1980, 1984, 1985 and 1986. The first three Cup appearances wound up as losses, but the fourth time was the charm when the Tiger-Cats defeated the Edmonton Eskimos 39-15 at B.C. Place in Vancouver on Nov. 30, 1986 with Al Bruno patrolling the sidelines as head coach.
“It was a big relief to win it in 1986,” DiPietro admits. “We made three trips in a row and really wanted it. In the first game in 1984 we were up at the half, but wound up losing. The second year wasn’t really that close but the third year it worked in our favour.”
In addition to the Grey Cup ring, DiPietro has won many individual honours in the CFL, including being named the Schenley Most Outstanding Canadian in 1982 and 1989. And, he had the opportunity to play with some of the league’s top quarterbacks of all-time. “Tom Clements and I meshed really well and I also had some good numbers with Mike Kerrigan.” It was Kerrigan, by the way, who quarterbacked Hamilton to the 1986 championship. The 1989 edition of the Tiger-Cats lost one of the most exciting matchups in Grey Cup history, when they came out on the short end of a 43-40 score against the Saskatchewan Roughriders at SkyDome (now Rogers Centre) in Toronto.
Along with DiPietro, there are a number of former CFL players now living in Niagara, including Mosca, Terry Lehne, Brian Hutchings and Sandy Annunziata.
As for today’s CFL game, DiPietro likes what he sees. “It’s still an evolving process,” he states. “I was originally a tight end, but my role became bridged between a tight end and a slotback. I definitely think the game is very exciting to watch. Through our alumni, I still manage to get out to three or four games a year.”
You can also count DiPietro among those who would like to see expansion in the CFL. “I’m all in favour of it,” he acknowledges. “It creates more jobs and I believe several cities are capable of taking on a team. We (Tiger-Cats) played an exhibition game in St. John, NB in the late 1980s and it was well received.”
It’s a common belief that the CFL gets a stronger endorsement from the western markets than it does here in Ontario, something to which DiPietro concurs. “I think we’re spoiled here in the east and we take it for granted,” he explains. “I wish people could experience the fun and excitement surrounding the teams out west, especially Regina. Their tailgating parties are incredible.”
What about DiPietro’s thoughts on tailgating here in the east? “It’s hard to get that barbeque going in the underground parking.”
