Roman’s Pellicciotti is glad to get another shot at crown

THE MORE THINGS stay the same, the more they change.

We give you Dan Pellicciotti, who this season again will participate in the Catholic AAAA football championship game.

One different aspect will be his primary position; linebacker as opposed to tight end. The other will be his uniform.

As an eighth-grader, Pellicciotti, now a 6-1, 215-pound senior, at first had every intention of attending Roman Catholic, as many of his Roxborough buddies wound up doing. With academics and his perception of better football in mind, he instead chose St. Joseph's Prep.

Guess who transferred at the midway point of last school year.

Guess who now says he feels "blessed" about earning another chance to win a title "because I know most guys don't get more than one."

The AAAA plaque will be presented Friday night at Northeast after Roman battles La Salle, the defending state champ, in a game to start at 7 o'clock. (The AAA final, featuring Archbishop Wood and Cardinal O'Hara, will be held Saturday, 7 p.m., at Plymouth-Whitemarsh.) Pellicciotti will line up as a middle linebacker in Roman's 4-4 alignment, trying his best to be the high school version of the Eagles' Stewart Bradley.

"He has that full skill set," Pellicciotti said. "Makes all the reads. Gets back into pass coverage. Comes up and stops the run. He's very versatile, which I try to be."

Coach Joe McCourt said Pellicciotti, a first-team coaches' All-Catholic honoree, has been Roman's top defensive player this season.

To some degree that's surprising because Pellicciotti (pell-uh-shot-ee) had not played linebacker since his freshman season, and had barely seen defensive time at all last fall due to injury.

"Going into sophomore year, coach Brooks [Gil, the Prep's boss through '09] thought I'd be better at defensive end," Pellicciotti said. "I was happy to help the team, but I felt that was kind of unfortunate, really. I always felt linebacker was much more my best position. At defensive end, down in a stance, I never felt comfortable making my reads.

"My first day here last year, I had a meeting with coach McCourt. I told him, 'I can help out this team at linebacker, if you give me a shot.' "

A little brassy, right?

"I'm assuming he believed me," Pellicciotti said, flashing a filled-with-braces smile. "It seemed like he had confidence in what I was saying. He did give me that shot."

Said McCourt: "We were unsure where to put him at first, since he'd been a d-end at the Prep. But we tried him at inside linebacker and it's a great fit. He has that high motor."

Back to Pellicciotti: "I definitely love the hitting part of linebacker. Ever since I was little my dad told me to be a physical player. That's my best attribute, physicality."

Pellicciotti said he and his brother, Brett, a junior backup linebacker and likely his replacement next season, transferred to Roman for financial reasons, with a hint of academics mixed in. The boys' sister, Paige, is currently a junior at Holy Family University.

"It was getting tough for my parents to come up with all that tuition money," Dan said. "Plus, I was struggling a little schoolwise. I was getting stressed out about it. We decided it would be better to come over here.

"My grade school coach, Bill Morris [formerly of Immaculate Heart of Mary, in Andorra], is here at Roman now, so that made me feel comfortable. And I knew a lot of these guys from playing with them or against them."

Morris admits to being a big Pellicciotti fan.

"I ran for state representative last spring, and lost," he said. "He was one of the first people to contact me. I thought that was very nice."

Roman's defense features ends Jack Gallagher and Jack Schanz, tackles Corey Bronson and Tyrone Brown, linebackers Anthony Johnson, Abdul Basil, Marcus Kelly and Pellicciotti, cornerbacks Taishan Tucker and Darryl "Breath" Mintz and safety Dennis Regan. Kerry Shields (T) and Abdul Majeed (DB) also see playing time.

There's major work to be done in practices this week. Back on Oct. 1, La Salle captured the teams' regular-season meeting by 43-17. Plus, there's an X-factor for this one - La Salle's quarterback could be passer Matt Magarity (sidelined recently by a concussion) or running threat Kevin Forster.

"We're assuming we have to prepare for Magarity," Pellicciotti said. "He can make all the throws and they do have good receivers, but [Villanova-bound running back] Jamal Abdur-Rahman is their bread-and-butter.

"If Forster does wind up back there, you're looking at more option and zone reads. No matter what, we have to play smart."

Now back on track academically, with all A's and B's, Pellicciotti is trying to decide between two high-contrast majors, criminal justice and pre-med. Mississippi State recently made contact and along the way he has heard from Temple, Robert Morris and James Madison.

"They all seem interested," he said. "Hopefully, they are."

That's down-the-road stuff. Friday night is the one-and-only focus.

"La Salle knocked me out of the playoffs as a sophomore, too," he said, referring to a semifinal setback. "They say the third time's the charm, right? I'm hoping that comes true." *