Joseph Sinkovich

• Post by: mcalibrary
• January 12, 2024
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INDUCTEE

It became apparent very early in his freshman year that Joe Sinkovich was going to be something special. During that first season with head coach Joe Diminick, Sinko would establish new freshman records with his 80 attempts for 418 yards, a 124 yard single-game effort against Blue Mountain and 60 tackles as a starting linebacker. As a sophomore, Joe would become the first sophomore in MCA history to run for 1000 yards in a season with his 1129 yard effort – the 7th best in MCA history at the time.

As a senior, Joe would lead a young Tornado team, in Whitey Williams first year as head coach, into the District XI Championship game with Allentown Central Catholic. An injury kept Joe out of the lineup and Big Red would lose by a 27-6 score. Sinkovich has racked up 3,097 rushing yards in his career and had become only the second back in MCA history (Gary Diminick was the first) to surpass 3000 yards. His total still ranks as the 4th best ever at MCA, while his 4,198 all purpose yards puts him in 7th position all time. Joe’s 347 career tackles still ranks 6th on the all-time list. Sinkovich was the first and only player to win the Mike Terry Award as a freshman and is one of only 2 players to win the award on three occasions.

Following graduation in 1994, Joey enrolled at Wilkes University to play for head coach Joe DeMelfi. He made an immediate impact as a linebacker and was a four-year starter. He later played for MCA grad Frank Sheptock in 1996 and 1997. He was named to the All Freedom League as a linebacker.

After graduating from Wilkes, Joe coached for one year at Wilkes-Barre Coughlin High School before moving on to Delaware Valley College during the 1999 season. He began coaching at Hamburg in 2000 and served as an assistant until 2004. In 2005, he took over the head coaching duties of a team that had won one game in 2004. In his first season the Hawks won 4 games and followed that up with an 8-3 season in 2006 and 7-4 in 2007. Prior to his taking over, the Hawks had not had a winning season in 20 years. He stayed on at Hamburg for 9 years, posting a 48-48 record, the only coach in Hawk history to not have a losing record. His teams made six playoff appearances during his 9 seasons and established new records for points scored in 2006 and again in 2011. Joe stepped down after the 2013 season. He is currently an assistant principal in the West Shore School District while making his home in York with his fiancee Katie Ahrensfield.