One of Central New York’s most accomplished high school football coaches has lost a long battle with cancer.
Al Merola, who led the Solvay Bearcats for more than three decades and earned 210 career victories along the way, died on Saturday at St. Joseph’s Hospital at the age of 73.
From 1970 until his retirement following the 2003 season, Merola guided Solvay to a long string of league titles, plus a pair of Section III Class B championships.
So dominant were the Bearcats at times that its home field, Earl Hadley Stadium, set amid three large hillsides, came to be known as “The Pit”, where few visiting teams found success.
In 2007, the year Merola was inducted into the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame, he was diagnosed with bladder cancer and underwent a pair of surgeries at the Sloan-Kettering Center in New York City.
For a while, the cancer went away, and Merola was declared clean as late as 2010 before, a few week ago, a new scan showed a return of the cancer, and his condition worsened.
Merola’s ties to Solvay ran deep. His son, Albert Jr., was an assistant coach, and another assistant, Phil Merrell, succeeded Merola and coached the Bearcats from 2004 to 2010.
He is survived by his wife, the former Doreen Miori, and his children, Albert Jr., Roselle Merola-Bartolo and Nila Merola, plus four grandchildren. A wake is set for 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at Thomas J. Pirro Funeral Home in North Syracuse, with a funeral service set for St. Cecilia’s Church in Solvay.
