Billy Kapogiannis kept screaming long after the television camera stopped recording. He found himself yelling as he left his seat inside Amalie Arena and realized he was still going even after crossing a street, walking outside in a warm, victorious evening in Tampa, Fla.
“I just couldn’t stop,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t know what the hell came out of me.”
His reaction made him famous to television viewers and social media users on Monday night, releasing a primal scream after watching Leafs forward Alex Kerfoot cap an unlikely comeback with an overtime goal to secure a 3-1 lead over the Lightning in their first-round playoff series. Kapogiannis was seen on the Sportsnet broadcast screaming into his phone, before abandoning the call to scream into space.
By Tuesday morning, raspy and happy, he had forgotten who was on the other end of that call.
“It could have been Jesus Christ at that point, I don’t know,” he said. “I just answered: ‘Hi, Jesus! It’s the Leafs!’”
Kapogiannis is a restaurant server and entrepreneur from Aurora, Ont., just north of Toronto, who flew to Florida on a whim. Sam Cortese, a friend and colleague, was standing next to him when the camera zoomed in after the win. Cortese was laughing as Kapogiannis screamed to the heavens.
“That’s the passion, that’s what being a Leaf fan is,” said Kapogiannis. “That’s what the world doesn’t understand: We’re not fans, we are Leaf fans, and there’s a difference.”
He cheers for teams in other sports, including the Dallas Cowboys.
“When it comes to the Leafs, I don’t know what happens to me,” he said. “I just go mental, if you want to know the truth.”
Tampa built a 2-0 lead through the first period and kept adding distance into the second. The Lightning were ahead 4-1 when Kapogiannis leaned over to Cortese to say he had to use the restroom. It was near the halfway point of the third period in Game 4.
He was on his way to the facilities when Auston Matthews scored. It was 4-2, and Kapogiannis made it back to his seat in time to witness the events that followed.
“I’m getting chirped all night,” he said. “This one guy in front of me just kept chirping and chirping and chirping. I’m like, ‘Relax, bro: (The series is) still 2-1, take it easy.’
“And bang! And bang! And bang! The goals kept coming. I’m like, ‘Oh my god, I’m going to lose my mind over here.’”
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Kapogiannis works at Avenue, an Italian restaurant in Kleinburg, a 45-minute drive north of Scotiabank Arena. Cortese is a chef. They are also partners in VTL Indoor Golf & Academy, an indoor golf facility in Vaughan. (It was a customer who offered them the tickets in Tampa.)
At 59, Kapogiannis is old enough to have been alive when the Leafs won their last Stanley Cup, but not to have any living memory. He has been a fan of the franchise for his whole life, with the playoff run of 1993 seared into his memory.
He said he has twice served former Leafs captain Darryl Sittler. Once, he said, the retired forward left a sweater inside the restaurant. Someone passed him a cell number for Kapogiannis, who set the sweater aside for safekeeping.
On Monday, Kapogiannis spotted someone in Tampa wearing a Sittler jersey. He snapped a photo and sent it to Sittler.
He said Sittler texted back: “Go Leafs! Enjoy.”
The Leafs were also still in Tampa on Tuesday morning. With two days between games, they opted to stay the night, before returning to Toronto for a practice on Wednesday.
Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe suggested the extra day would help players decompress from the chaos of their frenzied comeback from a 4-1 deficit. (It would also, he said, give staff more time to decide if forward Michael Bunting would return to the lineup for Game 5 on Thursday, following a three-game suspension for elbowing Tampa defenceman Erik Cernak in Game 1.)
“We’ve got to prepare to win one hockey game — one very challenging hockey game,” Keefe said in a brief Zoom session with reporters on Tuesday. “Anything else outside of our preparation, and then our execution when game time comes, is a distraction.”
Kapogiannis was still dealing with the endless distraction of his mobile phone. His nephew called him during the game, as well as his niece and his brother. At first, the messages were about his appearance on the television broadcast.
When those images hit social media, his phone became a pinwheel of dings and notifications. Cortese was still sorting through his messages on the morning after. They were scheduled to fly out later in the evening.
They would head back to the arena for a few photos. Kapogiannis would smile, but it was difficult to do much more screaming. His was hoarse.
“I have no voice,” he said. “I just kept screaming.”
PARIS – Canada won its first Paralympic medal in women’s sitting volleyball and ended the country’s team sport podium drought Saturday.
The women’s volleyball team swept Brazil 3-0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-18) to take the bronze medal at North Paris Arena.
The women were the first Canadian side to claim a Paralympic medal in a team sport since the men’s wheelchair basketball team won gold in London in 2012.
“Oh my gosh, literally disbelief, but also, we did it,” said veteran Heidi Peters of Neerlandia, Alta. “It’s indescribable.”
Canada finished seventh in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and fourth in Tokyo three years ago.
Seven players of the dozen Canadians were Rio veterans and nine returned from the team in Tokyo.
Eleven were members of the squad that earned a silver medal at the 2022 world championship.
“I know how hard every athlete and every staff member and all of our family back home have worked for this moment,” captain Danielle Ellis said.
“It’s been years and years and years in the making, our third Paralympic Games, and we knew we wanted to be there.”
The women earned a measure of revenge on the Brazilians, who beat Canada for bronze in Tokyo and also in a pool game in Paris.
“There’s a lot of history with us and Brazil,” Peters acknowledged. “Today we just knew that we could do it. We were like, ‘This is our time and if we just show up and play our style of volleyball, serving tough and hitting the ball hard, the game will probably going our way.’ And it did.”
Calgary’s Jennifer Oakes led Canada with 10 attack points. Ellis of White Rock, B.C., and Peters each contributed nine.
Canada registered 15 digs as a team to Brazil’s 10.
“Losing to Brazil in the second game was tough,” Ellis said. “It just lit the fire beneath us.”
Canada’s men’s wheelchair basketball team fell 75-62 to Germany in the bronze-medal game in Paris.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 7, 2024.
PARIS – Canadian para canoeist Brianna Hennessy raced to her first Paralympic medal with a reminder of her mother on her paddle.
The 39-year-old from Ottawa took silver in the women’s 200-metre sprint Saturday in Paris.
The design on Hennessy’s paddle includes a cardinal in remembrance of her late mother Norma, the letter “W’ for Wonder Woman and a cat.
“My mother passed away last year, so I said I’d be racing down the course with her,” Hennessy said Saturday at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium.
“In our family, a cardinal represents what our love means. My mum was my Wonder Woman, and this is a cardinal rising up. This is our family pet that passed away two months after my mum, of cancer, because I think their love was together.
“All this represents so much to me, so it’s my passion piece for Paris.”
Hennessy finished just over a second behind gold medallist Emma Wiggs of Britain in the women’s VL2 Va’a, which is a canoe that has a support float and is propelled with a single-blade paddle.
Hennessy’s neck was broken when she was struck by a speeding taxi driver in Toronto in 2014 when she was 30. She has tetraplegia, which is paralysis in her arms and legs.
“This year’s the 10-year anniversary of my accident,” Hennessy said. “I should have been dead. I’ve been fighting back ever since.
“This is the pinnacle of it all for me and everything I’ve been fighting for. It made it all worth it.”
After placing fifth in her Paralympic debut in Tokyo three years ago, Hennessy was a silver medallist in the last three straight world championships in the event.
She will race the women’s kayak single Sunday. Hennessy and Wiggs have a tradition of hugging after races.
“I always talk about the incredible athletes here, and how the Paralympics means so much more because everyone here has a million reasons to give up, and we’ve all chosen to just go on,” the Canadian said. “It’s more about the camaraderie.”
Hennessy boxed and played hockey and rugby before she was hit by the taxi.
She was introduced to wheelchair rugby by the Ottawa Hospital Rehabilitation Centre.
She eventually turned to paddling at the Ottawa River Canoe Club, which led her to the Paralympic podium in Paris.
“It has a good ring to it,” Hennessy said. “I’m so happy. I feel like we’ve had to overcome so much to get here, especially in the last year and a half. I’m just so proud.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 7, 2024.
