Equipment Manager

Every game in the NHL, players have the equipment they need. For the Flyers, head equipment manager Derek Settlemyre makes this possible. Settlemyre also will make that happen for Team USA in the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Opening ceremonies are Friday and the Americans' first game is Tuesday, Feb. 16, against Switzerland. "I do all the budgeting and ordering for all the equipment," Settlemyre said. "Everything you can think of I'm in charge of, maintaining all the equipment, packing it and taking it on the road, making sure everything is always with us. " In 1993, after graduating from Coker College in South Carolina, Settlemyre took a job with the Florida Panthers, where his father, Dave, was the head equipment manager.

KITTANNING, Pa. - A Pennsylvania Department of Transportation worker who feared being late when he turned around to retrieve the wallet he forgot at home was just in time to save four people from a burning house he saw on his way to work. Brant Cirrincione said he would not have seen the burning house along Route 28 in Boggs Township about 7 a.m. Wednesday had he not been running 10 minutes late because of his wallet. He beat on the windows and doors of the house, and had a neighbor call 911 to report the house fire.

Take one for the team. That's what right winger Rick Tocchet did for the Flyers last night. After seeing his ice time dwindle from 10 minutes to to six over the last several games, Tocchet asked coach Bill Barber to take him out of the lineup against Toronto last night at the First Union Center so that seldom-used defenseman Chris McAllister could get some ice time. "I just felt the role of the fourth line - it really doesn't play a lot, so I wanted to get Chris McAllister in the lineup," Tocchet explained.

John A. DiGregorio Sr. lettered in baseball and basketball for the Class of 1948 at what is now Murrell Dobbins Career and Technical Education High School. Though marriage and family responsibilities cut short his dreams of a life in sports, he worked part time in the region for one amateur and minor-league team after another. It took until he was 40, his son John Jr. said, to fulfill his dream of a full-time career in sports. Last Thursday, Mr. DiGregorio, 79, equipment manager for the men's athletic teams at Temple University from 1970 to 1994, died of stomach cancer at his home in Ridley Park.

Michael "Kid" Conway, 81, of Ambler, a retired Fairmount Park mounted patrolman who enjoyed a second career as equipment manager at St. Joseph's University, died of lung cancer and pneumonia Friday at Abington Memorial Hospital. He lived in Wyndmoor until moving to Ambler four years ago. Mr. Conway was inducted into the soccer and basketball halls of fame at St. Joseph's University, where he was equipment manager from 1965 until 1985. He was honored because of his attitude toward the players on Hawk Hill, said his son, Jim Conway.

John Pillar from Woodloch Springs Country Club in Pike County shot a 3-under par 68 and captured the Philadelphia PGA's Glenmaura Classic yesterday at Glenmaura National Golf Club in Moosic, Pa. Pillar's 3-stroke victory over Aronimink's Corey Phillips and Growcraft Golf's Jim Booros on the 6,910-yard course in Lackawanna County led a field of 74 area professionals in the section's sixth points event of the season. Bellewood's Tony Perla captured the senior competition with a 76. GAP JUNIOR BOYS North Hill's Doug Anders is top seeded in the 16-player field for the Golf Association of Philadelphia's junior boys' match-play championship, which begins this morning at Downingtown Country Club.

Cornelius P. McKenna, 63, the head equipment manager of Drexel University's athletic department, died Wednesday after a heart attack while he was on the job in the school's equipment room. Mr. McKenna, a resident of the city's Feltonville section for the last 35 years, died at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was taken after Drexel trainers failed to revive him. John Semanik, the school's athletic director, yesterday called Mr. McKenna's death "a great loss" to the 12,000-student university, which offers 12 men's intercollegiate sports.

THE HOUSTON Texans look like the new bullies in the AFC - at least for now. Matt Schaub threw two touchdown passes, Arian Foster ran for two scores and the Texans dominated a showdown of the conference's top two teams, routing the Baltimore Ravens, 43-13, on Sunday. Johnathan Joseph returned an interception 52 yards for a touchdown and the Texans (6-1) finally beat Baltimore, which had won all six previous meetings and eliminated them from last year's playoffs. Schaub completed 23 of 37 passes for 256 yards and the Texans set a franchise record for points in a game and finished with 420 yards.

COACH NORV TURNER said nobody from the San Diego Chargers used Stickum in a Monday night loss to the Denver Broncos on Oct. 15 or in any other game. He also said it's a towel, not a substance, being investigated by the NFL. Turner was reacting Monday to an investigation by the NFL into whether the Chargers used a banned sticky substance during a 35-24 loss to Peyton Manning and the Broncos in which San Diego blew a 24-0 halftime lead. "Nobody in this organization has used Stickum in any game," the beleaguered coach said Monday.

FORMER EAGLES safety Brian Dawkins said he wouldn't change the way he played regardless of the NFL's crackdown on big hits. Dawkins who announced his retirement last month played 13 seasons with the Eagles and three with the Denver Broncos. On Thursday, he told NFL.com's "Cover Two" podcast that - if he had to do it all over again - he would play the same tenacious style and isn't worried that the hits he gave and received might affect his health in the future. "Concerns?

NEW YORK - Not only is the Flyers' schedule condensed early in the season, but six of their first eight games are on the road. The Flyers are 1-4 on the road after Tuesday's 2-1 loss to the New York Rangers. "Play home or away, it shouldn't change your game plan or the way you play," captain Claude Giroux said before the game. "You just have to go out there and make sure you show up. " Giroux acknowledged that didn't happen in the team's previous game, a 5-1 loss at Tampa Bay on Sunday.

COACH NORV TURNER said nobody from the San Diego Chargers used Stickum in a Monday night loss to the Denver Broncos on Oct. 15 or in any other game. He also said it's a towel, not a substance, being investigated by the NFL. Turner was reacting Monday to an investigation by the NFL into whether the Chargers used a banned sticky substance during a 35-24 loss to Peyton Manning and the Broncos in which San Diego blew a 24-0 halftime lead. "Nobody in this organization has used Stickum in any game," the beleaguered coach said Monday.

THE HOUSTON Texans look like the new bullies in the AFC - at least for now. Matt Schaub threw two touchdown passes, Arian Foster ran for two scores and the Texans dominated a showdown of the conference's top two teams, routing the Baltimore Ravens, 43-13, on Sunday. Johnathan Joseph returned an interception 52 yards for a touchdown and the Texans (6-1) finally beat Baltimore, which had won all six previous meetings and eliminated them from last year's playoffs. Schaub completed 23 of 37 passes for 256 yards and the Texans set a franchise record for points in a game and finished with 420 yards.

KITTANNING, Pa. - A Pennsylvania Department of Transportation worker who feared being late when he turned around to retrieve the wallet he forgot at home was just in time to save four people from a burning house he saw on his way to work. Brant Cirrincione said he would not have seen the burning house along Route 28 in Boggs Township about 7 a.m. Wednesday had he not been running 10 minutes late because of his wallet. He beat on the windows and doors of the house, and had a neighbor call 911 to report the house fire.

FORMER EAGLES safety Brian Dawkins said he wouldn't change the way he played regardless of the NFL's crackdown on big hits. Dawkins who announced his retirement last month played 13 seasons with the Eagles and three with the Denver Broncos. On Thursday, he told NFL.com's "Cover Two" podcast that - if he had to do it all over again - he would play the same tenacious style and isn't worried that the hits he gave and received might affect his health in the future. "Concerns?

  SORRY I MISSED you guys last week. With a late away game on Monday, I was overwhelmed with only a day to sleep, train, attend meetings and support an event for Eagles Fly for Leukemia, which helps children with cancer. It feels good to be on top of the NFC East. But it really does not mean anything to us at this point. There is still much of the season to be played and we cannot get ahead of ourselves. We haven't played the Cowboys yet, who seem to be on the up-and-up.

Every game in the NHL, players have the equipment they need. For the Flyers, head equipment manager Derek Settlemyre makes this possible. Settlemyre also will make that happen for Team USA in the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Opening ceremonies are Friday and the Americans' first game is Tuesday, Feb. 16, against Switzerland. "I do all the budgeting and ordering for all the equipment," Settlemyre said. "Everything you can think of I'm in charge of, maintaining all the equipment, packing it and taking it on the road, making sure everything is always with us. " In 1993, after graduating from Coker College in South Carolina, Settlemyre took a job with the Florida Panthers, where his father, Dave, was the head equipment manager.

John A. DiGregorio Sr. lettered in baseball and basketball for the Class of 1948 at what is now Murrell Dobbins Career and Technical Education High School. Though marriage and family responsibilities cut short his dreams of a life in sports, he worked part time in the region for one amateur and minor-league team after another. It took until he was 40, his son John Jr. said, to fulfill his dream of a full-time career in sports. Last Thursday, Mr. DiGregorio, 79, equipment manager for the men's athletic teams at Temple University from 1970 to 1994, died of stomach cancer at his home in Ridley Park.

So this football coach at Delaware Valley College comes into your home, recruiting you, and he tells the story about having eggs and sausage for breakfast, and how the chicken was involved in this breakfast, but the pig was committed. He was looking for committed ballplayers. You might have wondered how far exactly the commitment goes the other way. But you can't anymore, not if you play football at Delaware Valley. Coach G.A. Mangus, in his third year, showed his players a couple of weeks ago, on a Saturday afternoon at King's College.

Take one for the team. That's what right winger Rick Tocchet did for the Flyers last night. After seeing his ice time dwindle from 10 minutes to to six over the last several games, Tocchet asked coach Bill Barber to take him out of the lineup against Toronto last night at the First Union Center so that seldom-used defenseman Chris McAllister could get some ice time. "I just felt the role of the fourth line - it really doesn't play a lot, so I wanted to get Chris McAllister in the lineup," Tocchet explained.