Mario Donnangelo will be missed

Word spread throughout the Lehigh Valley on Monday that the local sports world lost a great friend with the passing of Mario Donnagelo.

Someone I trust told me that Mario, the former Salisbury High principal and longtime soccer and basketball official, died in his sleep. If so, it is comforting to know that such a good man went so peacefully, and without a long-term illness. Mario deserved to go out with grace because this was a guy who exuded grace and class his entire life.

We may not agree on much, if anything, in local sports debates but we can all agree that Mario was a terrific guy, a terrific ambassador for what high school athletics should be all about.

Every member of The Morning Call sports staff has at least one or two Mario stories to tell and acts of kindness by him that we'll always remember.

Many of us did speaking engagements for him at various high schools.

All I can say about Mario is that if he could help you in any way, he would. And he'd do it without expecting anything in return.

The last couple of years at the state basketball tournament at Penn State, I'd basically tell Mario: "Hey, we've got no local teams here again to write about. If you know someone from the Lehigh Valley who has a story to tell, send them in my direction."

And Mario was only too happy to help. He loved being involved, loved being connected to people.

Perhaps the saddest thing about his passing to me is that I know he loved going to the IronPigs games. He loved taking his grandson out to the ballpark. Over the previous two years, I must have bumped into Mario and his grandson a dozen times over at Coca-Cola Park.

Typically, Mario always had a smile and a joke for me.

"Why aren't you up eating the free food in the pressbox with your buddy Schuler," he'd say to me if he saw me down on the concourse level.

I know he loved Coca-Cola Park and desperately wanted the PIAA to consider holding state playoff games there. Mario, of course, was a PIAA official for many years and even after retiring, he had to stay involved.

When the PIAA brass came to look at Coca-Cola Park last summer, Mario was their tour guide.

You see, Mario was proud of anybody and everything that came out of the Lehigh Valley. He was a Bethlehem guy, but loved the whole area and seemed to know everybody as well.

Again, he was a great ambassador for us, and the Lehigh Valley sports world has lost a great friend.

From Keith Groller