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Montecalvo, Tranquill part of WPIAL Hall of Fame class

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Two outstanding Washington County athletes and coaches are part of the WPIAL’s 2019 Hall of Fame class.

Guy Montecalvo, who coached football and track and field at Washington High School and football at Canon-McMillan will enter the Hall of Fame as a coach. He also was an outstanding athlete at Washington in football and track and field.

Gary Tranquill, a highly skilled quarterback at Avella and former head coach at the Naval Academy, will enter the Hall of Fame as an athlete.

The 13th annual WPIAL Hall of Fame induction banquet will be held Saturday, June 1 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, 500 Mansfield Street, Pittsburgh.

Montecalvo and Tranquill are joined on the WPIAL HOF class by Upper St. Clair graduates Sean Lee, athlete, and Sean Casey, athlete; recently retired USC football coach Jim Render and Paul Posluszny, athlete from Hopewell, among others.

Montecalvo and Tranquill are members of the Washington-Greene Co. Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame.

The other inductees are:

  • Billy Knight, athlete, Braddock
  • Charlie Batch, athlete, Steel Valley
  • Bruce Gradkowski, athlete, Seton LaSalle
  • George Anderson, contributor
  • Larry Bruno, heritage (posthumously)
  • Joe Hardiman, official
  • Stephanie Madia, athlete, North Allegheny
  • John Woodruff, heritage, Connellsville (posthumously)
  • 1979 North Hills cross country, team
  • 1998 Rochester football, team
  • Ryan Michael Estalico, courage award, Chartiers Valley
  • Dom Giallonardo, courage award, Mt. Pleasant

Montecalvo, a rare coach in Pennsylvania to have won PIAA championships in football (2001) and track and field (1996), is Wash High’s all-time winningest football coach with a 192-71-1 record in 23 seasons with two WPIAL Class AA championships – 1993 and 2001.

In all, he coached 30 seasons, and led Canon-McMillan to a school-record eight wins twice in his seven seasons with the Big Macs.

Twenty-one of his 30 teams qualified for the WPIAL playoffs. He led Washington to six WPIAL championship games.

Montecalvo’s 30-year football coaching record is 216-97-2. He had more than 150 wins as Washington’s track coach, producing several PIAA champions and medal winners.

“I am very grateful,” Montecalvo said. “This would not have been possible without the great assistant coaches who I was blessed to work with and certainly a testimony to the young men and women who played for me and gave me the opportunity and privilege to coach.

“I am stunned and overjoyed because the WPIAL has had so many great athletes, coaches and contributors. Nothing like this would have been possible, coaching two sports, without a supportive wife (Marie).”

Montecalvo was an All-WPIAL football player at Washington and a Big 33 selection. He was a two-time WPIAL sprint champion.

He will join his son, James, who passed away in 2008 at the age of 26, in the WPIAL Hall of Fame. James Montecalvo was inducted posthumously as a courage award recipient in 2010.

“I can’t begin to live up to the things he did throughout his short life,” Montecalvo said. “He’s been in my Hall of Fame since he was a little boy. Anything, I achieved pales in comparison to what he did. He is one of the toughest people I have ever been around.”

Tranquill was a stellar athlete at Avella in football and baseball.

His athletic career is as impressive as his long coaching ca-eer. He coached at several stops with current Alabama coach Nick Saban and served as quarterback coach for the Cleveland Browns under Bill Belichick.

Attempts to reach him Thursday were not successful.

Bob Johnson, former head football coach at Trinity and assistant coach at Washington & Jefferson College, and Tranquill were football teammates at Avella and Wittenberg University.

“He was a pleasure as a teammate,” Johnson said. “Gary was an outstanding quarterback. He always knew when to make the right cuts and so on. He was a great high school athlete.”

Tranquill was a four-year quarterback for Wittenberg and lettered in baseball. He was inducted into Wittenberg’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1986.

For more information about the WPIAL Hall of Fame banquet, go to www.wpial.com.

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