Jed Karpinski

• Post by: mcalibrary
• January 11, 2024
• Comments off

INDUCTEE

Being a small school, Mount Carmel Area has always had to rely on its athletes participating in more than one sport. During the late 70’s, Ed Diminick, Paul Szymanski, Bob Zavarick, Dan Glowatski, and Bobby Joe Niglio were a few of those three-sport stars. Jed Karpinski is surely another that can be added to that list. Jed was a three-year letterman and two- year starter at wide receiver and defensive back for Coach Jazz Diminick. As a senior, he led the team with 31 receptions for 715 yards and 6 TD’s and a remarkable 23.2 yard average. For his career, Jed pulled down 49 receptions for 1,070 yards and 11 TD’s. At the time he became only the second player in school history to register over 1000 yards in receptions. He had a streak of 21 consecutive games with at least one pass reception. He was named to The Reading Eagle, Harrisburg Patriot, and News-Item All Area football teams, as well as being named Unico’s first-ever Brian Piccolo Award winner. Jed earned Associated Press All State honorable mention and was chosen to play in Pennsylvania’s Big 33 game in the summer of 1979.

During the winter, Karpinski led Paul Bartko’s Tornado basketball team to the District IV final for the first time ever during the 78-79 season; losing to Montoursville by a 48-47 score. Jed established a new season scoring record at MCA with his 556 points and became only the fourth player in school history to score over 1000 points in his career.

Jed continued his contribution to MCA sports by participating in track – and boy did he contribute! During his career, Jed ran the 100,220,440 yard dashes, the 880 yard relay, the mile relay, the pole vault, high jump, triple jump, and long jump with best of 6’2″ in the high jump, 42 feet in the triple jump and 20 feet in the long jump. Jed captained all three sports during his senior season.

Following high school, Jed walked on at Rutgers University: turning down scholarship offers at smaller schools in order to fulfill a life-long dream. Jed became a special teams player and back-up receiver for most of his career. His hard work and diligence paid off when he became a starter for the last three games of his career against West Virginia, Auburn, and Pittsburg. His time at Rutgers was highlighted by a four catch game against Auburn and Bo Jackson. Another highlight was playing in front of 93,000 people at Penn State against Curt Warner, Todd Blackledge and Kenny Jackson. He also played against Doug Flutie, Dan Marino and Jeff Hostettler.

Jed received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics in 1984 from Rutgers. He is the owner of Karpinski and Associates, Inc, an insurance brokerage agency in Lancaster. He lives in the Lancaster Area with his wife Tammy and two sets of twin boys – Kody and Kyle-12, and Troy and Tyler – 8.