Jordano’s philosophy a good fit for Pitt

Joe Jordano leads a simple life.

On a good day, you will find him smoking a cigar Downtown… Joe Jordano leads a simple life.

On a good day, you will find him smoking a cigar Downtown in the lounge at Morton’s after eating a steak dinner.

Any other day, you’ll find him in the office at Fitzgerald Field House or on the diamond at Trees Field serving as the head coach of Pitt’s baseball program.

“That’s about how simple my life is,” Jordano said, with a smile.

His path into coaching was a simple one as well. When the opportunity arose, he jumped on it.

Eighteen years ago, Jordano was working as a sales representative for Good Year Tires, and on one fateful day he headed home to Erie, Pa., to tend to his ill father. While at home, he was playing some semi-pro baseball with a local team. A couple of the players on his team also played for Mercyhurst College and mentioned the fact that their team was searching for a new head coach.

Jordano let it be known that he’d love to coach the team. A few weeks later he had the job.

“It wasn’t by design,” he said. “It just happened.”

What is by design is how Jordano turned around both Mercyhurst’s and Pitt’s baseball programs.

After being hired at Mercyhurst, he converted an underachieving team into a nationally respected baseball program. While at Mercyhurst, he never had a losing record, finishing in the top 25 five times and advancing to the NCAA Tournament four years in a row.

After 10 years at Mercyhurst, an opportunity to coach for Pitt arose, and Jordano jumped on it, just like he did with his coaching job at Mercyhurst.

Pitt’s program was in need of a coach who could take the Panthers to the next step, and Jordano was just the man for the job, with his coaching philosophy that he instills in all of his assistant coaches and players.

“It’s a sound offensive philosophy,” assistant coach Joel Dombkowski said. “We’re going to make the most of it. We’ve enhanced our program [at Pitt]. We want to be in position to win a championship every year.”

And, as of late, Pitt has been in that position.

Jordano is coming off his best season at Pitt, finishing with an overall regular-season record of 38-16. He led them to the Big East Tournament but found himself being tossed out after two games and watching St. John’s earn the NCAA Tournament bid instead.

Despite the early trip home, Jordano has taken a program out of the depths of the Big East Conference standings. He has notched a 110-54-1 record in the past three years.

Jordano’s success at Pitt starts with the stability of his staff. Dombkowski has been coaching with him all seven years at Pitt. He is Jordano’s top assistant and is in charge of offensive and outfield instruction.

“Joe gives me a tremendous amount of responsibility,” Dombkowski said.

He played catcher at Mercyhurst under Jordano and joined the coaching staff after graduation. When asked how long he has been with Jordano, he laughed and jokingly said, “Too long.”

Along with Dombkowski, Jordano’s staff consists of assistant coaches Dan Ninemire and Todd Schiffhauer. Schiffhauer is new to the staff, but Ninemire was, like Dombkowski, an assistant at Mercyhurst before coming to Pitt. This core group of coaches is putting together the perfect game plan for success.

So what tricks does Jordano have hidden up his sleeve?

“There really isn’t a secret,” Jordano said. “You identify kids that can improve your program. Then you recruit the heck out of those kids.”

Jordano has excelled in the recruiting process, which is made tougher because Pitt’s baseball facilities are not the best in the Big East and there is a shortage of scholarships.

With those reasons in mind, Jordano knows that he’s going to have to sell his program by telling potential freshmen how it really is. He said he is not searching for the kids looking for pretty things. He said he wants the kids who are going to work extremely hard to better themselves as players and as students.

“It takes a special kid to play at Trees Field,” Jordano said. “It takes a blue-collar, hard-nose, tough kid to play down there.”

But Jordano feels that the quality of the baseball field doesn’t mean that much when it comes to winning.

“I can tell you a heck of a lot of programs that have beautiful facilities that aren’t too competitive,” Jordano said.

And it’s all about being competitive, which the Panthers are. Jordano has an aggressive approach to the game, and it has paid off in the box scores. Offensively, the Panthers were tied for first place in the Big East last year, leading the way with a team batting average of .315.

Jordano gets his aggressive coaching philosophy from one of his legion coaches whom he admires: Joe Cooke. He liked the way Cooke approached the game with a “no fear” attitude.

“We won a game in the legion playoffs 2-0 by having back-to-back suicide squeezes,” Jordano reminisced. “He was not afraid to do things like that.”

So how good is Jordano?

“His record speaks for itself,” Dombkowski said.

As a coach, he has a winning percentage of .635. His accolades surpass the number of potholes in the city of Pittsburgh, with his latest being the 2004 Big East Head Coach of the Year.

Jordano loves the challenge coaching offers him. He explained how each year is a new process in which he strives for perfection

“Coaching gives you a start and a finish,” Jordano explained, “which allows you to regroup and take another step towards that perfection. And instead of it being a perpetual cycle where it never ends, with our profession, you can start, see what you’ve done, stop it and then make adjustments.”

Jordano said the major challenge is working with different people each year. But challenges are what Jordano looks for. He’s a very ambitious man, which can be seen not only on the baseball diamond, but also on the golf course.

“I’m a very competitive golfer,” Jordano said. “I remember as a kid, my dad was an avid golfer. He used to put golf on TV and I was like, ‘My god, this is as boring as it comes.’ Now I can’t wait to watch it.”

Jordano also loves to watch his two sons, Matthew, 5, and Joseph, 4, play ball. He spends a lot of time with his family.

“They’re awesome. Joe just started tee-ball,” he said, with excitement.

So what’s easier, coaching or raising two sons?

“Coaching,” Jordano said, laughing. “No question!”