The Pittsburgh Riverhounds began their week with a Press Conference at Falconi Field, which I attended.
The facility is located within an hour South of Pittsburgh, just off exit 15 of I-70 in Washington, Pa..
Home of the Washington Wild Things minor league baseball team, Falconi Field had logos of their home tennant everywhere, except in the locker room, where pictures of the hounds hung on the walls.
Unfortunately, the room was only about half full and just two notable news organizations were evident, the Tribune-Review and WTAE-TV.
I had been down here once before, when the hounds had hosted an Open House with players available for autographs and fan tours as part of it, although some of the stands were blocked by tape, limiting viewers to the aisle.
Before I get sidetracked, the Press Conference, located down the hall from the front office (at the front of the stadium), had a few speakers, including Director of Communications, Christine Bailey and General Manager Ross Vecchio, who introduced the hounds mascot, AMO (Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio), Hall of Famer Paul Child (former hounds coaching assistant, Spirit head coach, Spirit player, etc.), head coach Ricardo Iribarren and his assistant coaches.
Child, who is now the ambassador to the hounds, which means he will be seen on future tv commercials and heard on future radio ads, spoke about the team's future, his hopes for the potential, and how he found out of his job.
Each member of the media was given a folder containing information about the new team and their new attitude, as expressed on the cover of the folder, which had the logo of the Wild Things. Refreshments were in the rear.
Interviews were conducted following the official introductions, after which I headed back home.
On Saturday, the hounds held their first tryouts at the UPMC Southside, which was located on the banks of the Monongahela River, a few blocks from the Birmingham Bridge. It was actually the practice site of the NFL Pittsburgh Steelers.
The facility itself, which had a security guard at the parking lot, was about the size of an airport hangor, with a football field of artificial turf inside. I was amazed at the size, just as I entered the structure I was practically stepping onto the field of play. The players consisted of team Orange vs. Blue and head coach Ricardo Iribarren was holding a clip board as he strolled along the field during the action.
I noticed no scoring, after arriving an hour after the starting time. The players gave it their all and the goalkeepers were very impressive. The closest to a goal came after the teams had switched ends, when the Blue team was attacking. A shot seemed to find the roof of the cage, or maybe hit the crossbar, since the players had no reaction to it.
When it was over, they converged at midfield, where Iribarren talked with them and invited those he was interested in to return tomorrow.
After which I caught up with the head coach and asked him about the players competing and his thoughts on the scrimmage;
Coach; "Players, players young, players with experience and international players too, so we'll see. It was very good, quality tryout and we'll see some nice ones tomorrow and we'll have invitation tryouts tomorrow, so hopefully, after tomorrow we'll have a great idea and some of these guys can play with us."
Was there anyone that stood out?
Coach; No, no, we like the way they played today and we'll watch them again tomorrow. We'll see another two players that we know, they have more experience and see how they perform from there and after that we'll make a decision."
The weather for the press conference was cloudy with flurries, it was cold this am and cloudy, but warmed up a bit and the sun emerged.
The next tryouts are scheduled for tomorrow same time and place.
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