Student to face mentor when Steel Valley, KO meet

By JOSH YOHE, Daily News Staff Writer
08/28/2008

When Nick Kamberis played football at Steel Valley in 1988, his defensive coordinator was a promising young coach named Ray Braszo.

By Kamberis' senior season, Braszo had left Steel Valley to take the head coaching job at West Mifflin Area.

Two decades later, Kamberis is a head coach himself and will meet one of his mentors at the place their respective football journeys began long ago.

Kamberis will guide his Keystone Oaks team into Campbell Field for an early season Century Conference showdown against defending champion Steel Valley Friday night.

"It should be a great night," Kamberis said. "Coach Braszo is someone that I have a lot of respect for. He's a great football coach and I think there are a lot of similarities in our teams. We're all coach (George) Novak guys. When you look at my teams, (Bill Cherpak's) teams, Ray's teams, they are all similar. We learn from each other."

Braszo has done a marvelous job at Steel Valley, turning what was a mediocre program for many years into a winner. Steel Valley went undefeated in the 2007 regular season and beat East Allegheny in the first round of the WPIAL Class AA playoffs before losing in the quarterfinals.

This year, however, could be different for the Ironmen.

Star quarterback Ryan Sabo and a host of other talented players were lost to graduation. Even Braszo admits he doesn't know how good his team will be this season.

"I don't know," he said. "I think we can be good. We're just so young. I mean, when I say we're young, I mean it. This is an extremely young football team and you never know how young kids are going to react."

Kamberis isn't buying that Steel Valley is too young to compete for another conference crown.

"Not for a second," he said. "Trust me, that's a scary football team. They are just so incredibly talented and so athletic. They are very good. It's the kind of game that will always get your attention, especially in Week 1."s