Jul 24, 2017 By Eleanor Bailey 11 min read

No question playing football for Upper St. Clair High School meant much to the alumni assembled, particularly those who toiled under Jim Render.

For during a recent function at the St. Clair Country Club to raise funds for the school’s stadium renovation project, which includes securing naming rights to the field for the legendary skipper, there were tears of gratitude and gracious praise for Render, who transformed teen-aged boys into successful men, some captains of industry and some stars in the athletic arena.

“When you are 16, you don’t know that he is molding you,” said Dallas Cowboys’ linebacker Sean Lee, USC Class of 2005. “But, what he is doing is preparing you for the future. He’s grinding you through adversity so every challenge that you face after high school, you are prepared.

“What more can you ask of a coach than to build a tradition that a community can share in, and mold his players into people who can succeed after high school.”

For 40 of the 60 years that USC football has existed, Render has done exactly that. He is one of only four coaches in the programs history. Bill Merritt, Joe Moore and Fred Wickstrom preceded Render, who has compiled a 390-134-6 career record. (See sidebar story.) Heading into the 2017 campaign, Render has guided the Panthers to five WPIAL and two state championships and 22 conference titles, including 10 in a row from 1988-97.

In addition to Lee, Render has sent protégés into the NFL. For example, Jon Bruno punted one season for the Pittsburgh Steelers after excelling at Penn State. Doug Whaley, who excelled also as a Panther at Pitt, served in the management end of the business. He was the general manager of the Buffalo Bills until April 30, 2017. Josh Helmrich, who earned a degree from Yale, is the director of strategy and business development for the NFL.

“I felt lucky to play here and be part of the program from a young age,” said Helmrich, who served as a ball boy in middle school before quarterbacking the Panthers for two seasons in high school.

“Football in general and Render in particular gave me the confidence I needed to believe in myself and to pursue my goals. It’s true in school, in sports, in life,” Helmrich continued, “you need that to succeed. And, you also have to be ready to work. Every ‘Renderism’ is true.”

“Do right” is the expression Render and his football disciples follow, even today.

“The guy had simple sounding messages that were full of wisdom,” said Steve Tazza, USC Class of 1984.

While Tazza, who excelled in basketball and baseball as well as football at USC, never heeded Render’s advice to ice his legs at age 17, he follows that directive now at age 40. “Even when his advice was mistimed,” Tazza said with a laugh, “he ended up being right. The United States Naval Academy standout also observed that the “shortest, most profound thing” Render has said was do right. “He’s still saying it,” Tazza noted.

“We all know people who have led incredibly admirable lives, sacrificial lives, that live by those two words, do right. For that,” Tazza predicted Render’s coaching career will never end. “Ever,” he emphasized.

Today, Tazza does right as the Chief Executive Officer for Veteran Opportunity Partners. While he works in Philadelphia, he often reverts back to his gritty football moments for inspiration. He often recalls how the underdog Panthers snapped Aliquippa’s 32-game home winning streak at a stadium dubbed “The Pit.”

“That’s the thing about football. Those years are a blink when you go through what you go through but you can pick up right where you left off. Football has incredible reach and it puts you in the path of men who are better than you and you don’t run away from that. Whatever football is going to ask, its going to ask in earnest. It peels back all the layers. It does not matter from where you come, it just matters what you bring. The time-beating lesson for me is when you put young men together and they find themselves and give themselves up entirely to one another, that is something outside of themselves, you don’t have happiness. You don’t have pleasure. It’s something that far exceeds that. It’s pure joy. Football shows you an opportunity to experience something that you would never know without knowing football.

“You’ve got to live life in the present moment. That is where contentment lies,” Tazza continued. “Great lives are formed through suffering and obedience, humility and unconditional love. A life well-lived is a life made whole by making and keeping firm commitments. Showing up when you are supposed to, when you are needed, without excuses and without reservations,” he added.

When Tazza says those words aloud, he pictures football and Render standing in the corner nodding. They know something about all those things.

Demanding work and the best they had to give enabled Render to mold players into winners and to fashion the tradition of putting the U in USC football.

“He has this saying about luck,” said Terry Hammonds, who attended the College of William and Mary and was a fraternity brother of Pittsburgh Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin. “It’s when preparation meets opportunity. That was always true. You don’t go through life without facing adversity. Everything is not going to go your way always. But if you put the work into it, then you will always be prepared.”

After playing football the Panthers and the Tribe, Hammonds prepared for his career. He attended Georgetown University’s Law School and works as an attorney in Charlotte. He lives in North Carolina with his wife, Tara, and their daughter, Anabelle, an artist, actress and pianist. “I’m comfortable with that,” he said of her not being an athlete. “She has a gift. I enjoy everything that she does.”

Hammonds enjoyed his career at USC and said he learned valuable lessons about life through sports and by being coached by Render.

“When I think about the quality of athletes we had and all the lessons we learned. Do your homework and team comes before the individual above all,” he said. “It applies in life, too. No matter what you are into, it’s team always. Go about your job. Surround yourself with good and bring out the best in them. It’s not about “look at me.”

When they played football at USC, the players were Panthers, not individuals. While some like Kevin Orie ad Jerrry Berteotti went on to excel in Major League Baseball for the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers organizations, they remember the good times while toiling today within their identities as successful businessmen.

For example, Brian Shannahan is a real estate developer, specializing in converting properties such as Cool Springs into multi-use business complexes. Mark Gentile, who quarterbacked the 1988 state championship club, works for P.J. Dick. He lives in the Pine-Richland School District with his wife, Vicki, and their two children, Caroline, 11, and Cate, 9, who play lacrosse and basketball as well as run cross country. Berteotti is the owner of Pizzaz Italian Restaurant in McMurray. Orie works as an in-studio analyst for Roots Sports, covering the Pirates.

“Playing USC football and for Coach Render instilled in us the desire to win. He would get the best out of us,” said Berteotti. “He’d tell us we’d remember these days all our lives and some of these guys are still my best friends,” added Berteotti, who lives in Peters Township with his wife, Shelly, and two children, Alino, 5, and Angelo, 1.

Joe, Jim and Mike Thomas are not only friends, they are brothers that played football at USC and that experience molded them into successes. Joe attended Akron. He lives in USC and is a deputy sheriff for Allegheny County. Jim Thomas is a lawyer, specializing in labor and employment. He is married to Gianna and they have two children, Amelia, 5, and Nathan, 3. Mike works in construction for Advanced Builders. He, too, resides in USC with wife, Tracey, and three children, Nick, 23, Noah, 19, and Ashley, 15.

“Football and Coach Render instilled in his players a work ethic and the effort that it takes to be successful,” they said.

Work didn’t hinder Nick Cullen or Cullen Hawkins from being successes through their years at USA as well as at Virginia Tech.

Cullen returned home recently to visit his parents, Nick and Arlene, and play golf at Valley Brook Country Club. He works for Goldman Sachs and lives in Westfield, N.J. with his wife, Mindy. Cullen has an 18-year-old son. Though he is 6-2, 200 pounds, Jake Cullen does not play for the Hokies. “He’s enjoying the college life,” said Cullen, who started three years at Virginia Tech.

Cullen, who also played baseball at USC, said his high school experience “definitely” prepared him for life.

“I have to give a lot of the credit for that to Coach Render. For the great mental attitude I have and the success he instilled in the program,” said Cullen, who also has a daughter, Macey, who plays high school soccer and lacrosse. “Coach Render taught us how to win and how to be tough. Those two things carry you through life.”

Tradition carries USC through, says Hawkins, who works in real estate and resides in Charleston, S.C. with his wife, Janie, and three children, Laken, 8, Revi, 6, Caleb, 4.

“Tradition and Jim Render,” Hawkins said is the nucleus for the success USC experiences. “It’s the reason why we were and are winners.”

Render instilled that belief in his charges. Lee noted that every level of football has its special aspect. College has the pageantry and throngs of fans. Often he played in front of crowds in excess of 100,000 at Penn State, which competes in the Big 10 Conference. In the NFL, the skill level is so high that it forces you to be the best version of yourself. But, Lee said, that nothing can replace the intimate nature of playing high school football with the friends you grew up with, in a community that cares about football and with a coach like Coach Render.

“What made our experience unbelievable was Render’s passion for the game and the teacher he became because of that. And the motivator that he is,” he continued. “He made us believe that we could win at the highest level.

From the minute he stepped into high school, Lee played at the highest level. He started as a freshman. Having graduated in 2005, he missed, however, USC’s undefeated state championship run in 2006, but he did help the Panthers win a WPIAL basketball title.

Lee said that he loved walking into Render’s office because it was cluttered with different type of football teams, magazines from the past, letters from coaches, films. And, Render was constantly working to become a better coach. Through four decades of coaching, his passion for the game afforded him flexibility.

“He adapted,” Lee said. “What really makes him special is the ability to take the ceiling off his football teams and force us to believe we can win championships.

“After he does that, he took the standards for how we work and how we prepare and he pushed it to the highest level and he held us to it every day. People think with a winning tradition that you are passing down winning but what you are passing down are the standards that you uphold every day. The tradition we have here, the tradition that coach built, has permeated through our entire community.”

Lee said he remembers emulating the big boys as a 10-year-old youth when they watched game films. “We didn’t know what we were watching but we knew USC football did that. It was a thread that tied together the community. It’s an experience that generations of football players can share.”

And, Render takes the lion’s share of responsibility for that.

“He paid attention to the details,” said Mark White, who won a state title in the discus while also playing football at USC. He also excelled at Georgia Tech. He resides in New England with his wife, the former Chris Joyce, whose father, Jeff quarterbacked USC’s undefeated 1964 team, years before Render’s arrival. The Whites have two children, Colin, who plays hockey for the Ottawa Senators, and Nicki, 23.

“What I learned from playing at USC and for Jim Render that has helped me throughout life is to pay attention to the small things. The details,” White said.

Being patient is one of those details. J.T. Render learned that particular from his dad. It helps him raise his own children, Ruby, 7 and Roman, 5.

“When you have kids,” said the younger Render, “you appreciate all that he’s taught you as a parent and as a coach. You take the good with the bad and you have choices to make, good and bad, but above all have patience and do right.”