How retiring Butler Eagle sports editor John Enrietto left impact in community: ‘He’s an icon’
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John Enrietto's retirement from the Butler Eagle. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle (6/28/2024)
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John Enrietto's retirement from the Butler Eagle. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle (6/28/2024)
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John Enrietto's retirement from the Butler Eagle. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle (6/28/2024)
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John Enrietto's retirement from the Butler Eagle. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle (6/28/2024)
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John Enrietto's retirement from the Butler Eagle. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle (6/28/2024)
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John Enrietto's retirement from the Butler Eagle. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle (6/28/2024)
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John Enrietto's retirement from the Butler Eagle. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle (6/28/2024)
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John Enrietto's retirement from the Butler Eagle. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle (6/28/2024)
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John Enrietto's retirement from the Butler Eagle. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle (6/28/2024)
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Former Butler football assistant coach Ralph McElhaney, right, shakes hands with Butler Eagle Sports Editor John Enrietto to congratulate him on being named Butler Football’s Hometown Hero for 2021.
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Butler Eagle sports editor John Enrietto is the 2021 Butler Football Hometown Hero inductee and will be honored prior to the Golden Tornado's home football game vs. General McLane Sept. 24.
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Butler boys basketball coach Matt Clement, left, presents Butler Eagle Sports Editor John Enrietto with the program's 6th Man Award at the end-of-the-year banquet Sunday.
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Butler Eagle Sports Editor John Enrietto waves to the crowd Friday night at Art Bernardi Staduim in Butler.
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Butler Eagle Sports Editor John Enrietto speaks as he was inducted into the 2024 Butler County Sports Hall of Fame during induction ceremony at BC3 Founders Hall on Saturday April 27, 2024. (Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle)
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Butler Eagle Sports Editor John Enrietto speaks as he was inducted into the 2024 Butler County Sports Hall of Fame during induction ceremony at BC3 Founders Hall on Saturday April 27, 2024. (Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle)
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There’s a certain skill in authoring stories.
Maybe even more so in spinning them out of scribbles.
Longtime Butler Eagle sports editor John Enrietto, who retired from his post of more than 26 years Friday, knew exactly how to untangle his hastily-written gibberish into accurate explanations and quotations, all while capturing the emotion of a moment.
At first, though, Butler track and field coach Mike Seybert had his doubts.
“He’s doing the interview with me after one of our meets and I see his paper,” Seybert recalled. “To see if he has the accurate stuff down, I look down and go, ‘I don’t think he’s even writing anything down!”
The Golden Tornado’s wrestling coach, Scott Stoner, was similarly dumbfounded by Enrietto’s method of note-taking.
“It is literally squiggles on a page,” Stoner said. “John would scribble that stuff down and I was like, ‘There is no way this guy is going to remember what this is or what we were talking about.’”
Slippery Rock University football coach Shawn Lutz likened what was jotted on Enrietto’s notepads to a foreign language. The inscriptions couldn’t even be classified as shorthand, but rather Enrietto’s style all its own.
“I didn’t understand his writing when he would take notes,” Lutz said. “He would write shorthand. I was like, ‘I could never read that. ... That looks like Chinese to me. How do you do that?’”
Yet, Enrietto always got it right.
For more than two-and-a-half decades, he promoted the tales and achievements of teams and athletes in the area with an unmatched enthusiasm and output.
He took pride in knowing the ins and outs — the difference-makers, the up-and-comers, things that added even more meaning to what he was covering.
“Rather than just do the stats, he wanted to get an angle,” Seybert said. “It made me excited the way that he was bringing every sport to the eyes of the community.”
He’s done so with a noticeable ardor, gracefully toeing the line between professionalism and supporting those he writes about.
“From WPIAL championship games to crazy double overtime games ... when he comes to interview me, he’s like he was sitting in the student section,” said Butler basketball coach Matt Clement, who Enrietto also covered as a professional baseball player. “It’s genuine excitement for the people he’s following. ... It’s like he takes pride in the Butler people being successful in sports.”
Enrietto also grew close to former SRU football coach George Mihalik, who thinks so highly of the longtime sports reporter and his wife, Darlene, that he said the two will always be part of the Mihalik family.
“We got together at tailgates after games, he came over to my house for celebrations after victories and it was always professional,” Mihalik said. “There were times I knew that John had to report certain things and scenarios, and I respected that about him. ... That never affected our relationship off the field.”
It’s not far-fetched to state Enrietto spent more time seated in his office chair, in front of his computer, than on the couch in his own home. He wasn’t one to bellyache about it, either. Enrietto’s been known to say his job never once felt like work.
“He was tireless,” Stoner said. “For us as coaches, we spend a lot of time away from our family. But I know he spent a lot of time away from Darlene because he felt the need to be there for special things.”
The dedication in his work was evident. It earned the respect and admiration of coaches and athletes alike.
“He really cared about what he was writing about and what he was covering,” Seybert said. “You can tell if a writer enjoys his job by how he writes and the flavor that he does.”
“He’s an icon,” Lutz said. “The GOAT in terms of a guy that just is a professional, a perfectionist. I use the word ‘relentless.’ He has that relentless approach.”
With a tower of stories, Enrietto’s production and wisdom won’t easily be replaced.
“I don’t think they’re going to make guys like John these days — who are loyal, dedicated, a family guy that’s honest and sincere,” Lutz said. “He brought his A game every day.”
“I’m making a pact with John,” Clement said. “Whenever I retire from (coaching) Butler basketball, I want him writing the article ... because he rode all the ups and downs with me through it.”
