Franklin Regional grad Fisch lives dream, earns walk-on spot with Pitt basketball

It is not quite “The Fish Who Saved Pittsburgh.”

No, this story is more along the lines of, “The Fisch Who Wooed Pittsburgh,” and it is a tale of devotion, determination and fulfillment.

In a couple of years, Pitt super fan Aidan Fisch went from being a team manager on the men’s basketball team to a full-fledged player. Talk about an arc to a character.

People sometimes like to say, “Living the dream,” when they’re asked how life is going. Fisch, a Franklin Regional grad and a rising junior in Oakland, really means it.

“I’ve been a lifelong Pitt fan,” Fisch said. “My dad has had season tickets since the day I was born. I came to Pitt with hopes of eventually walking on. I finally got that opportunity.”

He got the call a few weeks back. It was an assistant coach bearing good news at a time in history when most news seems grim. He made the roster.

Fisch has size and some basketball skills, but Pitt didn’t exactly reel in this Fisch. It was the other way around.

The 6-foot-5 swingman was a senior on the Franklin Regional team that went 20-6 and reached the 2018 WPIAL Class 5A title game at Petersen Events Center but missed the regular season with an injury.

With Pitt, he did things managers do. He parked cars, took food orders for away games and rebounded for players outside of practice — on his own time — along with other grunt work.

Team manager is not a glamorous position, but that does not mean people aren’t watching and evaluating. The job can be viewed as an offshoot for aspiring college players to be around the game. But Fisch wanted more and was willing to grind to get it.

“It’s not for everyone,” Fisch said. “But if you love the game, it’s a great time.”

All along, he was taking in the sites and sounds and sponging up information while watching game days unfold and practices sharpen the Panthers for ACC showdowns.

The somewhat unforeseen payoff made Fisch’s day (week, year … life). The kid whose earliest memory of Pitt basketball was Ronald Ramon’s buzzer-beater against West Virginia, was invited to join the team as a walk-on.

Suddenly, he had earned a uniform like the one his favorite player, Ashton Gibbs, once wore in the Pitt backcourt. He has his own spot on the roster.

I’ve worked my entire life to say these words, I’m a Pitt basketball player! Huge shoutout to my guys for all the support @PittMBBManagers pic.twitter.com/uc0UhSuMxl

— Aidan Fisch (@fischtank13) June 5, 2020

Pitt associate head coach Tim O’Toole said he has seen team managers work their way onto rosters at Duke, Seton Hall and Syracuse. They all had the same firmness of purpose.

“A lot of managers — not all of them — were good players in high school or maybe want to get into coaching,” O’Toole said. “Fisch tried out his freshman year, but things didn’t materialize. But he kept after it and kept working. He brought it every day.”

O’Toole said managers often play after team practices, and Fisch caught the staff’s collective eye on more than one occasion. It didn’t take them long to see the red-haired kid from Murrysville had staying power.

He bulked up to 200 pounds and showed he could play.

“I saw him out there the first time, and I’m like, ‘Wait, I know this guy from somewhere,’ ” O’Toole said. “Wait, that’s the kid who tried out. We discussed him (making the team). When covid hit, he was wondering what might happen next. I talked it over with coach Cape (Jeff Capel), and it was a no-brainer. Fisch has such a great attitude. It takes a rare breed of kid who is willing to do anything like that.”

Fisch wasn’t sure if he ever would play organized basketball again after he left Franklin Regional. The biology major who is on a pre-med track now knows that answer. And he’s beaming.

“I think I’m the 16th guy on the roster right now,” he said. “It’s unbelievably gratifying. I always had plans to play college basketball, but after I missed my entire senior year regular season, I didn’t have many opportunities. I decided if I really wanted to play, I’d have to get a lot stronger, and I’ve gained almost 30 pounds since high school. To see that hard work pay off is unreal.”

Steve Scorpion, who coached Fisch at Franklin Regional, said he would have been a Division II or III player had he stayed healthy.

“I’m really happy and excited for him making the team,” Scorpion said. “He worked his butt off to make it. He’s always been a gym rat and is always in the gym working out. He would come by all the time and work out with our guys after he graduated whenever we would have workouts. He had a couple tough breaks … but that’s another reason why I’m proud of him for making the team because a lot of guys would have given up on their goals. He kept fighting through all the injuries and made the team.”

Pitt coach Jeff Capel is known for his energy on the sidelines, and Fisch has noticed it and felt it.

“He is an elite motivator who the guys genuinely like being around,” he said. “He’s definitely a players-first coach, and all the guys know that he has their back.”