Steel City Yellow Jackets Journal

The Steel City Yellow Jackets with Owner/Head Coach Ace Pippens (with plaque) celebrate after winning the ABA Championship. Photo by Thomas Leturgey by Thomas Leturgey with Arianna Rosemond With the Penguins eliminated in the NHL playoffs, Pittsburgh can now focus on celebrating the most recent addition to the City of Champions, the Steel City Yellow Jackets. The club, originated in 2014 and based in the Hilltop community of Allentown, earned its very first National Championship on April 23 by defeating Stockton, California's Team Trouble in Baltimore. The Championship Parade is set for Thursday, May 19 in downtown Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey will be on hand with a proclamation for the team. The parade coincides with a "PGH Opens Block Party". "We are excited to celebrate another championship here in the City of Champions," Mayor Gainey said in a press release. "We are excited to be able to bring together this celebration of music, arts, food, an...

ABA Championship Tournament MVP Kenny Holmes embraces his mother "Momma Zero" after the Steel City Yellow Jackets won the National Tournament. Photos from Holmes' Facebook page. by Thomas Leturgey Kenny Holmes' journey to the Most Valuable Player of the American Basketball Association's Championship Tournament is one of the most unique of the season. He started the season as Small Forward for the Newfoundland Rogues, but that wing of the ABA stalled for two weeks because of COVID and shut down entirely at the end of January. He had played a couple of years previously for the Steel City Yellow Jackets, but had joined the team in Canada at the urging of his friend, former Jacksonville Giants Head Coach Jerry Williams. When the Rogues closed for the year, they were undefeated at 6-0, and Pittsburgh's team was already 10-0. Holmes reached out to his friends and Co-Captains Tone Reddic, Sr. and Gilmore Cummings. They talked it over with Owner and Head Coach Ace Pip...

Steel City Yellow Jackets Owner Ace Pippens, here after winning the ABA National Championship, turns 47 today. Photo courtesy of Facebook. by Thomas Leturgey Ace Pippens plans on fishing for at least some of his 47th birthday, May 3. That's what the owner of the American Basketball Association (ABA) Champion Steel City Yellow Jackets should be doing, right? He'll probably bring his championship trophy along for the adventure. "It's been a great birthday gift," he said in a phone interview on Monday. A Homewood native and Churchill resident, Averill D. Pippens, who has been an owner since 2014, is in rarified air when it comes to championships in Pittsburgh. The Steel City Yellow Jackets won their first National Championship on April 23 and now there's talk of a Grant Street parade later in May. The Yellow Jackets have always been competitive, but many of the players had looked at this as their "David vs. Goliath" year. Jacksonville's 15-1 Giants,...

Friends and Co-Captains Antonio Reddic, Sr. (l) and Gilmore Cummings celebrate on the court after winning the ABA Championship in Baltimore. Photo via Facebook. by Thomas Leturgey Throughout the Steel City Yellow Jackets' 2021-2022 season, if you'd talk with Owner/CEO and Head Coach Averill "Ace" Pippens, or Co-Captains Antonio Reddic, Sr. or Gilmore Cummings and they would all individually elicit the same exact mantra, "This is our year." The Yellow Jackets have been perilously close to an American Basketball Association championship for many of the past few years. Last year the club lost in the semi-finals and vowed to be back this season. Throughout most of the ABA's calendar, the Yellow Jackets were near the top of the rankings. For some of the season, they only had the team from Chula Vista, California above them because that organization was also undefeated, but won two more games. It was through Reddic and Cummings' on-court leadership, and Pi...