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Roebuck found his way home with Cal’s baseball team

7 min read
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The lure of playing Division I baseball in the sunny South was just too strong to resist.

Scott “Skooter” Roebuck’s amazing baseball journey would hit a roadblock several months later at Charleston Southern University in Charleston, S.C.

Home sick, uncomfortable without a car and uneasy playing on a losing team, Roebuck, a Brownsville High School graduate, decided to find a way to go home and play baseball.

For Roebuck, home was California University.

“I just decided to transfer,” Roebuck explained. “I started as a freshman but I just didn’t feel good about it.”

Roebuck called Chuck Gismondi, who was the longtime baseball coach at California, and the process for the homecoming began.

“I was home for the summer,” Roebuck said. “I asked him if he had room for a catcher. He did everything for me. He helped me enroll, got me some money for playing and made me feel part of it.”

It was the rebirth of a baseball odyssey that earned him a spot in the university’s athletic Hall of Fame in 2008. Ultimately, it led him and his Brownsville Falcons’ baseball team, which he has coached for 25 years, to Wild Things Park last Wednesday for the WPIAL Class AAA championship baseball game against Avonworth.

Roebuck helped deliver the greatest win in the school’s long and accomplished history in capturing the WPIAL title with a 5-2 victory over the Antelopes. It was Brownsville’s first WPIAL baseball championship.

The countless hours of preparation, contemplation, scheming and dreaming came together in the form of powerful, timely and situational hitting and a masterpiece by senior Dylan Brosky, who pitched a complete game.

When Brosky struck out the final batter to set off a raucous celebration of the players on the field, and seemingly the entire Brownsville High School community in the stands, Roebuck had reached the top and he sprinted to his mother, Peggy, sitting in the first row of the seats behind home plate and gave her a big hug with the biggest and most satisfying smile he could produce.

“We’ve been close many years before,” Roebuck said. “We’ve won 11 section championships, been to the playoffs 20 times and went to the WPIAL finals before. But we could never get over the hump.

“It wasn’t just winning the championship, it was having all those people from the community, the school and everyone else coming together to support us. It’s a great feeling.”

Baseball has always given Roebuck good feelings.

He said he cannot remember when he didn’t play or coach baseball.

“I was always playing,” he said. “My dad (Duane Roebuck) was always there, coaching and teaching me. He’d line off a field on our property and kids would come around and we’d just play ball.”

Roebuck graduated from Cal in 1988. He was part of a team that included Randy Wadsworth and Brian Zanardelli, who was drafted by the Pirates.

Roebuck was a three-year starter at first base or catcher for the Vulcans, providing power and consistency to the powerful lineup from 1986-1988.

After transferring, Roebuck practiced, and traveled with the 1985 Vulcans, but could not play with the team because transfer rules prohibited him. The team won the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference West Division title that year.

“I was a scorekeeper,” Roebuck laughed.

His impact the next three seasons was tremendous. Roebuck led the 1986 Vulcans in doubles (10), walks (21), home runs (7) and runs batted in (40). He batted over .300 his final two seasons, including a team-leading .372 during his senior year in 1988.

He was a first-team all-conference and all-region selection. Roebuck helped the Vulcans win 23 games and 11 PSAC West games. In addition to leading them in batting average, he also topped Cal with 14 doubles and 42 RBI.

In his three-year Vulcans’ career, Roebuck had a .330 career batting average with 68 runs, 108 RBI, 29 doubles, six triples, 13 home runs and 52 walks.

“We had a lot of good players and good teams,” Roebuck said. “My years at Cal were really good.”

Ten years ago, Roebuck was inducted into California’s Athletic Hall of Fame, becoming the 21st baseball player there to be so honored.

“I was kind of shocked when I heard about it,” Roebuck said. “I only played there three years and I didn’t know if my stats were good enough compared with those who played four years.

Roebuck said he is grateful for the opportunity given to him by Gismondi, particularly the chance to work with younger kids during youth camps that helped raise money for the team’s annual southern trip.

“I never really thought about coaching before that,” Roebuck said. “I volunteered to work the camp. I worked with the hitters and the catchers. I enjoyed it so much. After that, I was hooked. I wanted to coach and work with kids.”

Roebuck, who was recruited by Gismondi out of Brownsville, did not hesitate to call the coach once he decided to transfer.

“When some things got difficult down south, he was the only guy that I considered calling,” Roebuck said. “What he did for me meant a lot. He was always there for me.”

Roebuck graduated from Brownsville in 1983. He was an all-county player in baseball and football.

After earning his bachelor’s degree in secondary education from California University, he worked for a couple of years as a substitute teacher and for three seasons as an assistant football coach at Belle Vernon High School.

After exploring work in Virginia and Maryland, the opportunity to return to his alma mater was perfect for him.

“Yes, I always thought about finding my way back to Brownsville,” Roebuck said.

He has taught, served as an assistant football coach, been the athletic director and directed the baseball team for a quarter of a century.

He is returning as athletic director for the next school year.

Roebuck and his wife, Andrea, have two children – Taylor and Shane, who is a member of the LaRoche College baseball team.

Roebuck has published a popular article, “Make Baseball Practices Fun.”

Baseball has been fun all season at Brownsville.

Roebuck said he and long-time Falcons’ assistant coach Ralph Rice share the same basic baseball philosophy.

Because they have such a strong team, great leadership and experience with the current Brownsville team, they tweaked their styles this year, focusing more on the mental part of the game and the amount of work and intensity of how to practice than mechanics.

“These kids have been with us for so long,” Roebuck said. “They know how to swing the bat and field the ball and other things related on how to play the game right.

“We’ve talked more this year about pitch counts, controlling our emotions and things like that. We didn’t focus as much on mechanics. We concentrated on our work ethics and getting repetition hitting and fielding. I asked them everyday, ‘Did you take enough swings and enough ground balls or fly balls.’ It has worked out well.”

Rice said baseball has succeeded at Brownsville largely on the strength of Roebuck’s steady hand and consistent philosophy.

“Skooter is very popular in the community,” Rice added.

“He’s a good coach and a good friend to me. He is well-liked and well-respected by everyone. He has been instrumental in Brownsville’s baseball success. We’ve made it work.”

It has worked and the newly crowned WPIAL champions begin their quest today for a PIAA title when they play Mercyhurst Prep – the District 10 runner-up – at 1 p.m. at Washington & Jefferson College’s Ross Memorial Park.

“It’s just been a process,” Roebuck said. “These kids were cool and collected (in the WPIAL championship game) and that has carried them to this point. I’m the one who gets nervous. We have nine seniors on our team. They have learned a lot through it all. I have had a great time with them.”

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