Dongilli to join dad in BVA Football Hall of Fame
Submitted photo
Belle Vernon’s Jeremy Dongilli (left) listens to his head coach and dad Gary Dongilli on the sidelines during a Leopards football game in 1994.
Submitted photo
Belle Vernon graduate Jeremy Dongilli (81) is shown during his playing days at Princeton.
Jeremy Dongilli will be part of this year’s Belle Vernon Area Football Hall of Fame class to be inducted at halftime during the Leopards versus McKeesport game on Friday, Sept. 8 with a 7 p.m. kickoff.
Dongilli follows in the footsteps of his dad Gary Dongilli who was an outstanding player and then head coach at Belle Vernon and was inducted into the BVA Football Hall of Fame in 2001.
The son of a coach, Dongilli got an early start in athletics.
“I got an early start not necessarily in football,” Dongilli reported. “My first sport was skiing and I started when I was about 2-years old. My dad and my mom both like to ski and when we were little they would just take us up to Seven Springs on the weekends and go out and ski all day.
“I played baseball and my dad was my coach in Little League up until I was about 10 or 11 when he started at Yough as a head football coach. As far as football went, I didn’t start playing until junior high. My dad felt that it was a brutal sport and he didn’t like the idea of really young kids playing it. He felt that playing at a young age by the time you reached high school you were burnt out on it.
“He was a coach and I grew up around it. I was always around the teams as a water boy or whatever and I was, always at practice everyday. I was around the sport and understood the X’s and O’s long before I put on a chinstrap and helmet.”
When Dongilli got to high school at Yough he played other sports besides football.
“I played four sports,” Dongilli said. “At Yough I played baseball, ran track and played basketball. My senior year when we moved to Belle Vernon I just focused on football. I was being recruited by colleges and getting offers, so after the football season was over I didn’t play any other sports.”
Dongilli played quarterback at Yough for his dad as a sophomore and junior on squads that went 7-4 in 1992 and 4-5-1 in 1993. In his two seasons with the Cougars, Dongilli rushed for 780 yards. and passed for 1,100 yards.
When Gary Dongilli took over as Belle Vernon coach in 1994 the family moved into Belle Vernon and Jeremy prepared to play his senior season at Belle Vernon.
“It was extreme upheaval going into my senior year,” Dongilli offered. “I had been with the Yough kids and not just the football team, but my classmates my whole life. These were my friends from when I was 5-years old. I left all of that to come to a school where I knew a good amount of kids, but really not knowing anyone and being the outsider.
“Again they had their friends and their quarterback and I was the coach’s son and he’s just going to play. I had to prove myself and prove I was capable of leading the team.”
The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Dongilli had an outstanding season leading BVA to a 10-2 record and its first outright conference crown since 1980.
“It was a very successful year,” Dongilli stated. “We had great kids on that team and so much talent. My offensive line was huge for a high school line and they moved people around. Jason Murray was a sophomore, but showed why he went to Notre Dame. We had tremendous talent and we jelled right away and if we had another year I think we could have won the state championship.”
The Leps reached the WPIAL Class AAA semifinals with an unfortunate loss to the eventual WPIAL champion McGuffey, 20-13.
Dongilli had a productive senior season at Belle Vernon, passing for 1,020 yards and rushing for 600 yards.
“We were definitely a run-first option team.” Dongilli said. “My ability to read the option worked in our favor. Because of the running threat we did a lot of play action, we did a lot of rollout.”
Dongilli reflected on what it was like playing for his dad.
“It was extremely difficult at times,” Dongilli explained. “He expected a lot from me. He was much harder on me than I think he was anyone else on the team. But when practice was over it was over and he just went back to being my dad. I didn’t appreciate him as a coach until I went to college and he wasn’t my coach anymore and I was just another kid on the team. That’s when I started to appreciate what he was doing and what he had done, pushing me and driving me.”
Numerous high school awards came to Dongilli. He was an All-Keystone Conference All-Star 1st team QB, Westmoreland County Judge Charles Marker scholar-athlete award winner, and a Pittsburgh Italian Scholarship recipient.
Dongilli had university offers from Columbia, Penn, Harvard, Princeton, and an appointment at the Air Force Academy.
“Looking back, the awards were neat,” Dongilli offered. “My kids are now a little older and asking a lot of questions and what it all means. It’s kind of nice to go back and think about that and what I was able to accomplish personally, but also as a team what we were able to accomplish.”
Dongilli went on a football scholarship to Princeton University. He played four years and was switched from quarterback to wide receiver. He lettered in 1999 and earned his Bachelor’s from Princeton University with honors. He remains active in the Princeton Tigers Football alumni group and is also chairman of the membership committee of the Princeton Area Alumni Association.
“I enjoyed all of it,” Dongilli stated. “I had great teammates and got a tremendous education.”
Before beginning his legal training at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Dongilli served as a legislative aide for the Hon. Robert Ehrlich, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, later Governor of Maryland. He also clerked for the Hon. Harvey Weissbard on the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, an experience which provided valuable insight into the appellate process. He received his law degree in 2002.
Dongilli is now a partner at the law firm of Goldberg Segalla in Philadelphia. He is divorced and has twin sons, Levi and Jack, age 13.
The BVA Football Hall of Fame will be inducting its 23nd class that includes: Dennis Neupaver, a 1966 BVA graduate who was a three-year letterman and an All-Conference halfback under coach Jimmy Russell; Brad Yates, a 2004 BVA graduate who was a two-time selection to the Keystone All-Star team; Coach Brett Berish, a 1990 BVA graduate who was a wingback and defensive end for the Leps from 1987 through 1989 under coach Billy Connors and went on to have a stellar coaching career beginning in 1990 through today.
“Everything I have in life I kind of owe to athletics, and football in particular,” Dongilli stated. “Going into the Belle Vernon Football Hall of Fame is a pretty big honor considering some of the people that have gone in before me, and it’s a great honor to be part of this group.”