Dan Giancola Jr. (born January 28, 1970 in

Thorold Thorold is a city in Ontario, Canada, located on the Niagara Escarpment. It is also the seat of the Regional Municipality of Niagara. The Welland Canal passes through the city, featuring lock 7 and the Twin Flight Locks. History The first su ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

) is a former

placekicker Placekicker, or simply kicker (PK or K), is the player in gridiron football who is responsible for the kicking duties of field goals and extra points. In many cases, the placekicker also serves as the team's kickoff specialist or punter. Spe ...

in the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

Professional career

Giancola made his CFL debut with the

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...

during the

1999 CFL season File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shooti ...

as a 29-year-old rookie. In his rookie season, Giancola kicked 48

field goals A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. The entire ball ...

while also going 28 for 28 on extra point

convert Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series * "The Conversion" ...

s and recording 9

singles Singles are people not in a committed relationship. Singles may also refer to: Film and television * ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series * ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe * ''Singles'' ...

. The 181 points he accumulated that season were 5 points shy of the CFL record for most points scored by a first year player, set by Ray Macoritti with the

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Commo ...

in 1990. In 2000, Giancola tried out with the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

but was cut during training camp. Soon after, the Argonauts, who still owned his CFL rights, traded him to the

BC Lions The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place. The Lions played their first season ...

in exchange for

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

Marcello Simmons Marcello Muhammad Simmons (born August 8, 1971) is a former professional gridiron football defensive back and the former special teams coordinator for the BC Lions. He played for two seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the Cinci ...

and

defensive tackle A defensive tackle (DT) is a position in American football that will typically line up on the line of scrimmage, opposite one of the offensive guards, however he may also line up opposite one of the tackles. Defensive tackles are typically the la ...

Tom Hipsz. Giancola would go on to win a

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

Championship with the Lions. In 2001, Giancola re-signed with the Toronto Argonauts. In his second tenure with the Argonauts, Giancola made 25 field goals. The team went on to miss the playoffs. In 2002, Giancola was drafted by the

Ottawa Renegades The Ottawa Renegades were a Canadian Football League franchise based in Ottawa, Ontario founded in 2002, six years after the storied Ottawa Rough Riders folded. After four seasons, the Renegades franchise was suspended indefinitely by the league ...

during their expansion draft. During that season, Giancola suffered what was believed to be a groin injury and was released by the Renegades while injured. He filed a grievance against the Renegades and won. In 2003, Giancola signed with the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the Canadian F ...

, where his injury was later discovered to have been a

hernia A hernia is the abnormal exit of tissue or an organ (anatomy), organ, such as the bowel, through the wall of the cavity in which it normally resides. Various types of hernias can occur, most commonly involving the abdomen, and specifically the gr ...

. Giancola later joined the Argonauts during the latter part of the

2003 CFL season The 2003 CFL season is considered to be the 50th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 46th Canadian Football League season. The pre-season began on May 30, 2003 and the regular season started on June 17, 2003. Ta ...

. In 2004, Giancola was re-acquired by the Argonauts late in the season after an injury to incumbent kicker

Noel Prefontaine Noel Michael Prefontaine (born December 23, 1973) is a former professional Canadian football punter and placekicker in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Early years Prefontaine was born to a French Canadian father and a Vietnamese mother at ...

. Giancola's only game played during this tenure with the Argonauts occurred in the regular season finale against the Montreal Alouettes. The Argonauts would go on to win the Grey Cup that season. In what would ultimately be his last tenure with the Argonauts, he ended up playing the second most career games as their kicker during the 2000s. On May 7, 2009, Giancola was signed by the

Winnipeg Blue Bombers The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a professional Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Blue Bombers compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West division. They play their home games at IG Fiel ...

, five years after his last CFL stint. Giancola suffered a groin injury that kept him out for most of training camp. On June 19, 2009, he was released by the team during training camp.

Personal life

At the time Giancola became a kicker in the CFL, Giancola worked as a grocery store clerk at Commissio's Food Terminal. As of 2011, Giancola is a

personal trainer A personal trainer is an individual who creates and delivers safe and effective exercise programs for apparently healthy individuals and groups, or those with medical clearance to exercise. They motivate clients by collaborating to set goals, p ...

at an Anytime Fitness Gym in

St. Catharines, Ontario St. Catharines is the largest city in Canada's Niagara Region and the sixth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2016, it has an area of , 136,803 residents, and a metropolitan population of 406,074. It lies in Southern Ontari ...

. For the past 7 years Dan has been operating his own fitness gym BTO Performance http://btoperformance.com/

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Giancola, Dan 1970 births Living people BC Lions players Canadian football placekickers Canadian people of Italian descent People from Thorold Players of Canadian football from Ontario Toronto Argonauts players