Mar 10, 2019 9 min read

Doctors and dentists offices would close early. People were looking for any excuse to get out of work and catch a glimpse of this high school basketball team that somehow caught the eyes and the fancy of Washington and nearby communities.

Truth be told, it wasn’t exactly the most spectacular outfit to look at. No one really stood out. The team, while well-rounded, tough and hungry, wasn’t particularly great at anything except one thing – winning.

“Teams would look at us in warm up and I know what they were thinking,” said Ron Faust, the coach of the 1984 PIAA and WPIAL Class AA champion Washington High School Little Prexies boys basketball team. “Some of them would laugh. They figured the game would be easy. Our kids used that to motivate themselves.

“In some cases, in the playoffs, some teams have fulfilled themselves and maybe think they’ve had enough. But our team was hungry. Those kids wanted to play all the time. They loved to play basketball and they loved to be around each other. They were and are close friends. It was a tight-knit group.

“They understood their strengths and they played to those strengths,” he continued. “When we’d practice on Saturday mornings, I’d pull in and they were at the door waiting to get in. When practice was over, I’d have to kick them out of the gym. It’s that kind of commitment to the game and to each other and their collective love of the game that made them so successful and special.”

That 1983-84 season did not start out great for the Little Prexies.

A handful of players started late because of an extended football season that ended in a bitter 21-19 loss to Jeannette in the WPIAL semifinals.

Wash High was just 3-3 after the first six games.

Brian Davis, the best athlete in the school and state, was sitting in the stands.

“Brian coming out kind of sparked us,” said Rob Mazzie, a senior on that team, the tallest player and a top reserve. “We were hurting from the disappointing end of the football season and it carried over.

“We had all talked about getting better after the (1982-83) season. We started thinking about being better as a team and that we were going to dedicate ourselves to make it to the Civic Arena and win a championship. We all knew it would mean so much.”

The Little Prexies never lost another game. They won 27 in a row.

But it wasn’t until the final five regular-season games that the team started to feel something special was happening. The Wash High following sensed it as well. Going to watch the Little Prexies play became the thing to do.

Through the balance of the season, the following just grew in numbers and legend.

“The fans and the community fueled us and our energy,” said Jamie LeMon, one of the leaders of the team along with fellow senior Mark Wise. “Honestly, it became pretty fascinating. They fell in love with the team. They were excited and enthusiastic about the team and its chances.

“Up to then, Wash High mostly had good basketball teams but little postseason success. When I look back, that fandom and that support meant a lot to our ultimate destiny. It was unreal.”

The WPIAL playoffs were different in 1984. An “open” playoff system was used that season, meaning every team qualified for the playoffs. Higher-seeded teams played at home in the first round.

Wash High disposed of Albert Gallatin in the opening round to begin its quest. Other victories followed, but the turning point came with a victory over highly-rated Quaker Valley.

“After that win, folks started really believing,” Wise said. “The year before we had Freedom beat and we let it get away from us. Our program had not had a lot of success in the big playoff game. We just didn’t. That win pushed us over the top in terms of confidence. That gave us the edge to believe we could get it done.”

The starting five was a unique group of players. LeMon and Wise teamed with Chris Popeck, Davis and Tony Ellis to give Wash High consistency in all aspects of the game.

The bench was strong featuring Mark Popeck, Chris’ brother, Mazzie and Sean McKenzie.

Only Mazzie was taller than 5-11. They had no one considered to be a sharpshooter.

Collectively, they ran the floor better than most, and defensively they made steals, harassed the opposition into mistakes and stripped the ball anywhere at any time.

“We always had somebody who got hot or stepped up defensively,” said Mark Popeck. “It always happened among those seven or eight guys.

“At the beginning of the season, Sean and I had to play more because the football players were just coming back and they needed to get their basketball legs under them. Once Brian came out, it got our (fast-) break going and we rebounded better.

“And don’t forget the fans and that factor. It inspired us. What Lock (Willard Hartley) and Frank (Scott) – Wash High’s legendary adult cheerleaders – did to get those those large crowds going was amazing. It was helpful to us.”

Wash High won its first WPIAL basketball championship with a victory over Wilkinsburg at the Civic Arena.

Of course, the game was fraught with obstacles and setbacks.

Ellis missed the game with an injury. Davis had two fouls a little more than a minute into the game,

The Little Prexies had no answer for the Tigers’ Michael Stewart in the first half.

It looked like the ghosts of postseasons past had visited Wash High basketball again.

Mazzie delivered the best game of his career, grabbing double-digit rebounds. Wise, scored 12 points and pulled down 13 rebounds, McKenzie steered the offense, Chris Popeck scored 13 points and LeMon found a way to slowdown Stewart.

“Stewart was eating us up in the first half,” Faust explained. “I went in the locker room and suggested we might think about trying to stop Stewart. I asked, ‘Can anyone stop this kid?’ Jamie Lemon said, ‘I’ll take him.’ And he just shut him down in the second half.

“That was a perfect instance that, without braggadocio, somebody stood up and said they were going to take care of this and then went out and did it. That’s a perfect example of the young men on that team. No matter what, they were there for one an-other and they took care of business.”

The victory spurred an unprecedented three-year run that included three consecutive WPIAL titles, two state championships and a state-tying 52-game winning streak.

Wash High traveled from St. Francis to Westminster colleges in the PIAA playoffs. The opponents were foreign to the team and their following. But each victory moved them closer to an unthinkable state championship and invitation to Hersheypark Arena.

The Little Prexies won the PIAA West Region title and faced Delone Catholic in the finals.

The deliberate Squires built a first-half lead and Wash High looked out of sorts going to the locker room at halftime down eight points.

“We never really worried about being behind,” Mark Popeck said. “Teams never got to the point where they were blowing us out and we all felt we would come back with our speed.”

Speed played a major factor in the second half. The Popecks caught fire in many ways, passing, defense and intangibles. Wash High worked its way back into the game.

The Little Prexies responded by outscoring Delone, 16-2, in the third quarter.

It set the stage for the final chapter of an unlikely story and ending for the 1983-84 Little Prexies.

Wash High trailed by two points with just 29 seconds remaining with Delone Catholic at the foul line. The front end of a one-and-one bounded off the rim. Six seconds later, Chris Popeck strolled to the line and drained two of the most important free throws in Wash High’s basketball history.

Enter Davis.

With the Wash High contingent roaring, Davis intercepted an inbound pass, powered to the basket and delivered the game-winning layup that made Wash High 30-3 and PIAA champions.

“We had known each other so long,” LeMon said. “We were very team oriented and we were friends. To accomplish that to-gether was so meaningful.”

Said Wise: “I enjoyed it, every bit of it. You’d play a big game and follow it with a bigger game. We fed off the energy of our fans. We were a terrible foul-shooting team. But we became a good foul-shooting team after beating Quaker Valley. It was the overall calmness of the team and the confidence we had in one another.”

“After every game, you couldn’t wait to read the next day’s newspapers,” Mazzie said. “The town was in a frenzy. I’d be shocked if anyone would have told you we could win the state championship prior to the season. We didn’t know much about the state playoffs and we didn’t know anything about who we were playing against in them. It was crazy.”

Perhaps Faust summed it up best.

“That team made the breakthrough,” Faust said. “Wash High had good teams. That group did what no team ever did at our school. Those young men established the culture for the program that made it much easier for those who followed, and in the process, they lit our town up.

“They are all still friends and in touch with one another. I’m proud of that and I am proud of them. What a great time and atmosphere that was for those kids and for all of us. Those are special moments for everyone involved.”