At TJ, success begins early
Tri-State Sports & News Service
Years of hard work that included many seasons competing for successful youth teams helped strengthen the bond of the Thomas Jefferson squad that will shoot for a third consecutive WPIAL championship when they take the field against Montour Saturday nightat Heinz Field.
SnoopDogg and Ben Roethlisberger have played roles, too.
When a few of Thomas Jefferson’s top players are at practice or just hanging out, every once in a while one will bring up a trip they made before they were high school standouts. In January 2010, linemen Devin Danielson and Dom Serapiglia and running back Justin Vigna were among the district’s youth players who traveled to California to participate in a national championship with a terrific name — the Big Dog Bowl.
Serapiglia called it “an experience that will last a lifetime,”while Danielson’s voice filled with excitement when talking about the event that took place nearly eight years ago.
“It was a great time. We bonded as a team. Just being with all my friends. That’s probably what I remember most,”said Danielson.
Here’s how the unusual tripcame about.
Thomas Jefferson won the championship in the under-10 age group of the South Suburban Youth Football League in 2009. Not long after, Snoop Dogg, who ran a tournament featuring league champions nationwide, invited Thomas Jefferson to play in the Big Dog Bowl championship in Redlands, Calif. The Thomas Jefferson team was thrilled, but how would they afford to send two dozen youngsters to California?
That’s when Roethlisberger stepped in. Serapiglia’s father, Dominic, remembered Roethlisberger visiting with players from the Thomas Jefferson Youth Football League a few years earlier. Roethlisberger took pictures with the playersand let them try on his Super Bowl ring. Serapiglia decided to contact Roethlisberger’s agent to see if the Steelers star would help out withfunding the trip. Roethlisbergerdelivered. “Mr. Roethlisberger funded the whole team for new uniforms, the plane ride, tickets to Universal, the hotel and everything,” the younger Serapigliasaid.
The Thomas Jefferson team delivered, too, beating a team from Arizona, the Glendale Bandits, 21-6, to win the BigDog Bowl.
Many of the players from that team graduated last season.Serapiglia, Danielson and Vigna, who all “played up,” arethe only ones remaining.
Thomas Jefferson’s high school team has gone 248-43 in coach Bill Cherpak’s 23 seasons. One reason for that has been the great success over the years of the district’s youthteams.
Five sophomores start on this Thomas Jefferson team, among them quarterback Shane Stump and lineman Logan Danielson. They were part of youth teams that won multiple youth championships in the Western Pennsylvaniaarea.
Cherpak said having a strong feeder system has been important, but added that winning hasn’t been the most importantaspect.
“I think the big thing is not so much winning, but enjoying playing,” Cherpak said. “When they’re young, you want them to enjoy playing. You’renot as concerned about winning as you are with having fundamentals and having fun playing. When we get them, if they have some fundamental knowledge, we can teach them what we need to teachthem.”
Devin Danielson was a ball boy for the 2008 team that won WPIAL and PIAA titles. He said he admired star players of that era like Lucas Nix and the DeCicco brothers, and thinks it’s surreal to know that younger players are now lookingup to him.
Said Danielson: “That’s crazy and I think it’s awesome.”