Zolak remembers Montana well
Submitted photo
Scott Zolak in a Patriots uniform.
Scott Zolak
When Scott Zolak, who would go on to become an NFL quarterback, was quite young, he was exposed to a pretty good high school quarterback, Joe Montana of Ringgold. “It’s how football was born in my blood,” Zolak recalled. “And, of course, with my dad [Paul] being on the Ringgold coaching staff I was the water boy back in ’74, and I would run on the field and get the tee when Joe would kick off. It was kind of a cool thing, being a kid — I was seven.
“It’s funny, but Chucky Miller, a running back, was the kid I idolized the most when he was at Ringgold.” Zolak admitted he was too young to fully appreciate Montana’s talent back then. “When you’re seven, eight, you don’t really think that much. You’re kind of looking at the flowers over in the field or something. It was just cool to be around the team.”
As years passed Zolak did get opportunities to interact with Montana “when he came back home, and when I was at Maryland when he gave me that ball [and signed it], ‘See you in the NFL one day,’ and that was pretty important to me.
“When he was with the 49ers, it was always good to see him, spend time with him. He never forgot me or my dad, and that was always real important. Joe has always been so good to me, so good to my dad, even in Joe’s retirement. My dad’s been invited to a lot of the things by Joe, Sr.”
Unfortunately, the two former Ringgold quarterbacks never played against each other in the NFL. “He was hurt when they came to New England and we [the Patriots] were out there in San Francisco in the preseason once, I think.”
On those occasions the two would chat about hometown stuff, said Zolak, including one of Montana’s aunts, Eleanor Johnson. “We always have those [fun, interesting] aunts who live back there living in those small steel towns. She was great. She always kept us updated on what Joe was doing with the family and the kids.”
One of Montana’s sons, Nick, was the quarterback for prestigious Oaks Christian High School. There he was a teammate with Trey Smith, son of actor Will Smith, and Trevor Gretzky, son of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky. After playing for the Washington Huskies, Nick was Tulane’s quarterback in 2013. His brother Nate played for West Virginia Wesleyan in 2012, two years after seeing action as a walk-on for Notre Dame where he completed 9-of-18 passes. By way of comparison, his father threw 515 passes (25 TDs) for the Irish.
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In Bucky Phillips’ junior year his high school basketball team was one he believed was “the best team Monongahela ever had. At that time, only one team made the playoffs [from each section]. We were up by 15 at Uniontown when Wilfred Minor was dribbling up the sideline near mid-court and Rodney Fedorchak pushed him. We never found out why. He was a very smart and nice guy [and the son of a reverend] — somebody must have given him a cheap shot. They threw him out of the game.
“After that Ray and Ed Parson just took that game over and we ended up losing by 10 and Uniontown went on to win the WPIAL. And we had a much better team. That was a good life lesson for me.”
After Phillips was through as a basketball player, he would go on to coach the sport. He said Andre Smith, who played in the late 1970s, was the best basketball player he ever coached. Phillips even labeled Smith “the best all-around athlete that ever came out of Mon Valley Catholic. He was about 5′ 6″, 5′ 7″ at the most, but what an athlete. He was also a phenomenal football player. You’ll hear people say the best Mon Valley Catholic player was Jonathan Green, who came shortly after Smith and gained more yards, but Smith was a much better athlete because he was a standout in both sports, a three-year starter back when sophomores didn’t start.”
Green, in fact, wound up as the all-time leading rusher at MVCH with 4,719 yards. As a senior he rambled for 2,020 yards, averaging 10 yards per carry. Later he became an All-American at Waynesburg where, in 1987, he became the school’s second running back to crack the 1,000 yards rushed barrier.
Phillips continued his discussion of Smith, “It didn’t turn out too well for him in college — he ended up going to Clarion State College, and he wasn’t happy there as a wide receiver.” He then switched sports and became Clarion’s point guard for one season.
Phillips said that while Patsy “Dino” DeBerardinis was MVCH’s best basketball player, Smith excelled in basketball and football, gaining around 2,000 yards for the Spartans.
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Speaking of DeBarardinis, veteran sports official Carl Crawley wondered if things would have been different if the Donora native had played for the Dragons instead of for MVCH. Would he have supplied the little extra oomph Donora needed to win the state championship in basketball back in 1968? Donora lost only once that year, falling to the eventual champs, Laurel Highlands, in the WPIAL finals.
Clearly DeBerardinis, who often played basketball with Dragon stars in the summer, would have fit in well and would have given some additional scoring punch to Donora’s lineup.