UHS Hall of Fame, Bates and the late Dupey
As high school football hits the third week of the season there are a few behind-the-scenes topics worthy of mention.
Those would be the Uniontown Hall of Fame, Chris Bates and the late Jerry Dupey.
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Uniontown will honor its Academics, Arts and Athletics Hall of Fame class before tonight’s game at approximately 6:30 and the official induction brunch will be held 10 a.m. Saturday.
It’s the 10th class and includes Rob Anderson, Dr. Mallard T. George and John A. McMillen II under Academics, Suzanne Machesky Smallwood, Lynda S. Waggoner and Rebecca Kaufman Taylor under Arts, and Munsey/Muncie brothers George, Bill, Nelson and Chuck, Larry Bush and Frank S. Rushnock under Athletics, along with Jim Render under Coach, David E. McCrackin under Special Recognition and the 1963 UHS band under Team.
The festivities will have an old-time feel to them if you venture over to the Uniontown Hall of Fame tailgate before the game as board chairman Tony Mercadante will be bringing out the old Mugsey’s Sno-Cone machine from the 1950s and 60s that he’s had in storage.
Not a bad idea on another hot day with an expected high of 81 degrees.
The Hall of Fame crew will head to Bogey’s at Duck Hollow Golf Club later Friday night.
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A familiar face was missing during opening night of the high school football season when Laurel Highlands played Uniontown at Bill Power Stadium.
Jerry Dupey, longtime videographer, wasn’t there to film another matchup between the local rivals.
Uniontown’s P.A. announcer fittingly offered a tribute to Dupey, who died on July 17 at the age of 81, to the fans in attendance.
Dupey, a former firefighter who also was a member of the Knights of Columbus and Elks Lodge in Uniontown, served as a security guard for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pittsburgh Pirates in addition to his filming contributions.
There were countless times I would see him toiling with his video recorder before a football, basketball or baseball game I was covering, trying to get the best angle of the action he could so local fans could watch the event live or a replay of it later.
Depuy didn’t just record high school but also sports of all ages. His obituary said he filmed Fayette County events for 31 years, totaling over 3,000 games for local youths for the South Union Township Sports Network.
If there was a particular basketball game he filmed that you were watching that had its postgame interviews cut off, well, some clumsy reporter tripped over his wire that night and inadvertently unplugged him.
Jerry forgave me for that blunder. He was a valued contributor to community sports who will be greatly missed.
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Mapletown opened its season with consecutive wins but there was something different about the statistics that were emailed in from those two games.
The name of Chris Bates is no longer the sender.
Sports reporters know how valuable a very competent, accurate scorekeeper can be, especially nowadays when they usually have to also shoot photos and might miss a play here or there.
No one was better than Bates, who stepped down at the end of the Maples’ glorious 11-1 season a year ago in.
Statisticians are always appreciated but there are a few who like to pad the numbers for their team’s players. Bates, however, was the most honest, accurate scorekeeper I’ve ever dealt with.
Mapletown coach George Messich expressed his gratitude for Bates.
“He was my stat keeper for 35 years and I don’t think you could find anybody who did a better job than Chris Bates,” Messich said. “I never had to call a game in because he was always there.
“And I know a lot of people add yards to their kids’ stats, but not Chris. There were times where I thought my kid had 100 yards and took him out and Chris would come up to me and say, hey, he’s only got 97. There was no rounding up with Chris and I respected him and give him a lot of credit for that. He’s first class.”
Last year Bates declared he was relinquishing his post and mailed out a packet with a bevy of information, including full stats on the 2023 season and individual accomplishments and career game-by-game sums of star Landan Stevenson, year-by-year won-loss records, team and individual records and accomplishments, and career coaching records.
I was amazed as I looked through it all.
Kris Adkins was trained by Bates to be his replacement and he has done an admirable job so far filling such huge shoes.
Sports Editor Rob Burchianti can be reached at rburchianti@heraldstandard.com or on X at @rvburch.