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Thursday, December 05, 2002

By Rich Emert

This will be the 15th year for the PIAA football championships and Mike Campolo's record is still intact. Campolo played tailback for Central Catholic in the first PIAA Class AAAA title game in 1988.

Mike Campolo celebrates after scoring the winning touchdown in the PIAA AAAA-championship footbal game. (Dave Mengle, Post-Gazette)

Central Catholic defeated Cedar Cliff, 14-7, at Penn State's Beaver Stadium with Campolo, a junior, doing most of the work. He rushed 33 times, which is still a PIAA championship game record, for 116 yards and scored on two 2-yard runs.

Central Catholic did not win the WPIAL title that season. It lost to Upper St. Clair, 7-0, in the final. But many WPIAL coaches and school administrators did not support the PIAA football playoffs at the time, and Upper St. Clair decided not to participate. Central Catholic filled the void and won the title.

A Churchill native, Campolo went on to play fullback at IUP. Now 30, he is an assistant coach at IUP and lives in Indiana.

Q: What was it like, winning the first PIAA Class AAAA title?

A: It was a great experience. A lot of people think we weren't the true state champions because we lost to Upper St. Clair in the WPIAL final. But for us, it was a second chance, and anytime you win any type of title it's nice.

Q: The PIAA championships were not such a big thing then, right?

A: It was a big deal for us and the game was on TV on Channel 4. TV made a big deal about it and had broadcasters who had done college games do the championships game. They came out and did interviews before the game and everything, and that gave everything a college atmosphere.

Q: The game was played at Penn State, but there weren't many fans, right?

A: I thought there was a nice crowd there. Of course, when you play in 90,000-seat Beaver Stadium, a couple thousand fans doesn't seem like much. But we had a lot of people there cheering us on.

Q: Was playing at Penn State neat?

A: It was, and we practiced the day before at their indoor facility, which was new at the time. I remember Coach Joe Paterno came and spoke to us the day before the game, and we went through the [Penn State] hall of fame there. Yes, playing there was a thrill.

Q: You transferred from Central to Woodland Hills the next year. Why?

A: I just wanted to go to school with all the kids I grew up with. That was the reason I left Central Catholic.

Q: You played for Woodland Hills the next year, right?

A: I did and we had a pretty good team, but we lost in the playoffs. I still keep in touch with Coach [George] Novak at Woodland Hills and called him the other day to wish him good luck in this year's [PIAA] championship game.

	Campolo is now an assistant coach at IUP.

Q: Was coaching something you always wanted to get into?

A: It was, and I was lucky enough to end up back at IUP where I played and to work for Coach [Frank] Cignetti. After I graduated, I coached at Serra High School for a year and at Bethany and spent three years at Duquesne University before coming back here. But I've got a lot to learn and I'd like to coach another position.

Q: Have you gotten into the recruiting aspects of coaching?

A: We start that this week and I have the City League schools in Pittsburgh. But I've already been working at that. On Fridays, I've been going to schools and meeting the coaches and getting ideas about players.

Q: You coach the running backs at IUP. What other position do you want to coach?

A: I'd like to coach the offensive line. That's my mentality. I can relate to those guys because they are the type of people who just show up for work every day. They aren't ego guys. They get bloody and sweaty.

Q: How disappointing was IUP's loss to Grand Valley in the NCAA Division II playoffs?

A: Unless you win the national title, any loss is going to be disappointing. Our goal at IUP is always the same ... to win a national championship. Other schools may be happy winning the PSAC or just making the playoffs, but we want to take it as far as we can. The problem is that we are limited to 22 full scholarships by the conference while other schools, like Grand Valley, have 36.

Q: How much of a difference does that make?

A: It only sounds like 14 scholarships, but it's really 28 players when you talk about giving a partial scholarship and the athlete getting the rest [of his tuition and board] based on family need or whatever. Twenty-eight more players on scholarships is a lot. That's like the difference between a Quad-A and a [Class AA] high school team.