When the Riverhounds were launched in 1999, it was a return of top-class professional soccer to Pittsburgh. But when assembling a team to compete at that level, some of the players the Hounds needed were right in their backyard.
Gary DePalma was one of those players, an Upper St. Clair native who came home to Pittsburgh to break into the pro ranks and became a six-year fixture in the Hounds’ early successes. The midfielder still ranks among the best to put on the Riverhounds colors, and his contributions over six seasons earned his spot in the Riverhounds SC Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024.
DePalma is the second Pittsburgh-area player selected to the Hall of Fame, joining former teammate Justin Evans of the inaugural 2019 class. He was a decorated college player, earning First Team All-American status in 1995 and a Third Team selection in 1997 at Division III Virginia Wesleyan, but the leap to the pro game didn’t happen immediately for DePalma.
“I finished school and then tried out for the Hampton Roads Mariners and got cut the day before the season started, right at the last second,” DePalma said of his first A-League experience in 1998. “I still had some school left to do, so I decided to stick around down there.
“Before I tried out, I actually went down and played with (future Hounds coach John) Kowalski; he invited me and a friend to practice with the Tampa Bay Mutiny when he was down there. So that was the first time I really got to connect with John and get to know him.”
When the next year rolled around, DePalma was still looking for a team. As luck would have it, the A-League’s newest club was coming to his hometown with Kowalski at the helm.
“Once I heard Pittsburgh was starting a team, I got a call from (general manager) Dave Kasper about signing, and it couldn’t have been more perfect, really. I wasn’t going back to Hampton Roads, but I still wanted to play. Being able to go back to Pittsburgh, where I grew up, was a cool moment to get that phone call,” DePalma said.
Once in Pittsburgh, DePalma had to prove that he could stick at the next level as an attacking-minded midfield player, one who scored 40 goals as a college player.
His first season saw him appear in 24 of 28 league matches, sometimes as a starter but also off the bench. But in just 807 minutes of action, DePalma showed his ability to create offense with three goals and seven assists — second on the team — and as one of the hometown players, he carved out a lasting role with the Hounds.
“A lot of us came into it without many expectations. There were a lot of rookie players on that team, and then a handful of veterans,” DePalma said. “Nobody knew what to expect. It was a ‘Who are these teams we’re going to play against?’ kind of thing. … The difference, then, we practiced all over the place. We were at Duquesne for a little bit, out at Quaker Valley. I can’t say it wasn’t run professionally, because it was, but the soccer infrastructure wasn’t close to what it is today.”
As the team got more established, so did DePalma.
His minutes more than doubled in his second year with the team, and that continued in 2001 after he was drafted but unsigned by the Dallas Burn of MLS. Though that third year was famous for the team’s run to the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals, the highlight, according to DePalma, came in the postseason.
The Hounds that season slipped into the playoffs as the last qualifier out of the Northern Conference, pairing them with the higher-seeded Charleston Battery in a two-legged playoff. But DePalma scored in a 2-1 Hounds win in the home leg on Sept. 20, then two days later stunned the Battery with a third-minute goal that helped propel the Hounds to a 3-1 win on the night and a 5-2 aggregate victory.
Though the Hounds would lose in the next round to the eventual champion Rochester Raging Rhinos, DePalma still had more highlights to deliver in three more seasons with the club.
In 2004, when the team dropped from the A-League to the USL Pro Soccer League, DePalma and David Flavius remained as the only two players continuously with the Hounds since 1999. That would be DePalma’s final season in Pittsburgh, but he was still an impact player with five goals and four assists while playing 19 of 20 matches.
“Starting off with Kowalski and (Paul) Child and that group in the A-League, doing well, it set a standard. There was a lot of turnover with players, but also turnover with coaches — in three years, we went through three coaches,” DePalma said. “My last year, we dropped down a level, and that probably played into me leaving. I wanted to play at the highest level I could. But for me, to keep it going, was just passion for the game and enjoying being in Pittsburgh. Somebody’s paying me to play soccer here? Heck yeah, I’ll do it.”
At the time he finished with the Hounds, he left as the team’s all-time leader in appearances (157) and assists (23), and in 2024 he remains fourth and fifth in those categories, respectively.
DePalma’s career continued through 2006 in the indoor game, as he played for the Detroit Rockers, Philadelphia KiXX and Cleveland Force during and after his time with the Hounds. He retired from playing and moved to State College, Pa., where he started his family and worked outside of the game.
Over the past decade, he has reentered the sport by serving as a youth coach and technical director with Celtic Soccer Club in Central Pennsylvania. And this week, he will return to Pittsburgh to be honored for his playing career as a member of the Class of 2024.
“Justin (Evans) is one of my best friends, and I loved playing with him, so to get the news from him was very special,” DePalma said of getting the Hall of Fame call. “I was shocked, really, to hear my name is still in the record books, things like that. I don’t really think of the game like that. It’s more about the moments, the people, but these kind of honors bring all that back, and it makes it so much more special.”
