Dan Giantsopoulos
Blaney McMurtry LLP
Dan Giantsopoulos’s turning point came after watching his son Angelo’s baseball team lose 18 of 19 games in the season. A competitive player in his youth, Dan volunteered to coach the Triple-A team, Richmond Hill Phoenix.
He recruited players, tripled practices and got more games. The Phoenix’s record the following season: 31 wins, 19 losses.
Angelo says his dad has improved over the years, thanks to the coaching clinics and reading he does about skills and technique. He’s known as a passionate coach. “What are you waiting for? An invitation?” he’ll often yell to send a player to the next base.
Juggling coaching with his work as a corporate/commercial lawyer at Blaney McMurty can get hairy. Last season when he was organizing a provincial tournament, and closing a major corporate deal, he was averaging three hours of sleep a night for nearly a month.
Dan’s wife Eva and daughter Elaine, 8, are the team’s biggest cheerleaders, never missing a game. So Dan’s real reason for taking the post, to spend more time with his family, is really paying off.
Web exclusive: Outtakes from the photo session
Photography by Daniel Ehrenworth