Apr 5, 2016 4 min read

Chris Dugan was the type of father who did whatever it took to spend time with his family.

That meant parsing out his comp time at work to coach his daughters in softball, spending every spare moment teaching them the finer points of the game and making sure the softball fields around Jefferson were tended.

Dugan was always working.

Working to teach his daughters how to hunt, swing a bat and how to lend a helping hand. He’d make sure to leave his job at SCI-Fayette early enough to make it to Jefferson-Morgan, where he was an assistant coach under Tony Barbetta.

Barbetta joked no two coaches wore their work boots to a softball field more than he and Dugan. Dugan’s story and the one of Jefferson-Morgan’s softball team last spring, which ended with a WPIAL title and the program’s first state playoff win, has become folklore around Greene County.

Dugan died at 45 after a long battle with prostate cancer three days before the Rockets’ quarterfinal game against Sewickley Academy.

His story will not be forgotten among those who knew him and the program’s historic rise to champions, but the girls who set foot on Chris Dugan Memorial Field in Jefferson in years to come will be reminded of his legacy.

The district dedicated the field to Dugan in a ceremony last Wednesday prior to a game against Monessen. Behind the backstop stands a bronze plaque on a limestone base that reads, “… today is the most important game of the season …” – Coach Chris Dugan.

It was a phrase he often used to encourage his players, including his daughter Camryn, who is now a senior with the Rockets.

“I was definitely very happy for my father,” Camryn Dugan said. “I know that he did a lot of work and effort into everything he did with us as a team and with the field. He helped with supplying dirt and just to make it a little bit better, not only for our team but our community.”

In the hours before the dedication, which was led by a speech from Camryn, Barbetta took a walk around the outfield to observe the banners hanging on the outfield fence. One read Chris Dugan Memorial Field, the other marked the WPIAL title the longtime coach missed.

Barbetta couldn’t help but shed a few tears for his friend.

“Everyone liked Chris. It was a situation I wouldn’t wish on any coach,” Barbetta said. “Everything happened at once. You just wish he could have made it a couple more weeks. I wonder about that. Why couldn’t he have gotten to see it all.”

He would have certainly been proud of his daughter’s speech at the dedication last week. Camryn spoke of her father’s dedication to the local softball community, his work on the field and how she wished girls in the future, including her younger sister Caitlyn, could have a field like this to play on in the future.

There were no tears. Camryn did not miss a game during the postseason last year, despite losing her father. When she hit a solo home run in a WPIAL semifinal win over Frazier at California University, she pointed to the sky before she reached home plate.

Days later, people from across the county wore blue shirts reading, “Team Dugan,” to watch the Rockets make history. During the championship medal ceremony, Chris Dugan’s name was announced and it was Caitlyn who received the gold medal.

Now, Caitlyn will get to play on the field named after her father.

“It was like those TV shows on ESPN that make you cry, those little specials they do,” Barbetta said. “You wonder where they get those, but our run was like one of those shows about a small community and how sports brought us all together. It was for Chris.”