A year of triumph, heartbreak, change
Katie Roupe/Observer-Reporter Canon-McMillan basketball Coach Rick Bell hugs Janice and Kurt Blanock, parents of Luke Blanock, during a Dec. 9 ceremony. Luke Blanock played for the Big Macs and died of cancer last August. At the ceremony, Canon-McMillan retired Luke's jersey.
Katie Anderson/Observer-Reporter The West Greene varsity softball team poses in from of their own mural near the high school gym. The district had the mural put up last month, following the girls’ 2016 season which took them to the state championship game.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter Carmichaels take the field for a game against Mapletown at Carmichaels on Friday, September 30, 2016.
For local sports fans, 2016 was a year that often tugged at our emotions. There were unforgettable stories of triumph and heartbreak, championships and this-close frustration, a major makeover for high school sports, along with three-and five-year football winning streaks.
There were plenty of memorable victories and outstanding individual accomplishments. The area continued to produce WPIAL and state champions. There also was one story that was rooted in a heartbreaking loss away from the playing field as Luke Blanock, the Cecil teenager whose 32-month battle with a rare form of cancer inspired his teammates, coaches and many others, ended heroically in August.
The following are the top 5 stories of the year, as selected by the Observer-Reporter’s sports department:
1. Luke Blanock: In so many ways, Luke Blanock touched our hearts, released our emotions and showed us how to meet the challenges in our lives.
Blanock was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma – a rare cancer that forms in the bone marrow and soft tissues – in December 2013. From that time until his death in August, he handled the diagnosis with a maturity not often found in teenagers.
“As a young guy, he handled the possibility of death better than a lot adults I know handle life,” said Rick Bell, Blanock’s basketball coach at Canon-McMillan. “He told me before Christmas, ‘Coach, I’m not afraid.’ I thought, ‘Wow, this kid has more strength in his little finger than I have in my whole body.'”
His diagnosis became known throughout the community and sparked an outpouring of support. Blanock spoke at numerous events, including the Tri-County Athletic Directors’ Association Coach of the Year Banquet in April, where he received the Observer-Reporter Sports Headliner award.
Blanock’s marriage to his high school sweetheart, Natalie Britvich, was a social media attention-grabber.
He never gave up his love of sports, playing on the baseball and basketball teams at Canon-McMillan, for as long as possible. In the season-opening basketball game this month, the school retired his number, presenting one more opportunity for those who loved and respected him to rise together in tribute.
Blanock’s lasting legacy will be that in his facing death, he showed us how to live life.
2. Canon-McMillan wins state soccer championship: The Canon-McMillan girls soccer program had come close in recent years to winning a postseason championship, both that the WPIAL and state levels. The Big Macs even advanced to the title match of the WPIAL playoffs this year before losing to Norwin at Highmark Stadium.
The Big Macs, however, finally won a championship and a gold trophy this fall in the state tournament and earned the distinction of the being the first girls team to capture a Class AAAA title after the PIAA expanded from three to four classifications in soccer.
Canon-McMillan, seeded second out of the WPIAL, won four games in the state tournament and defeated three district champions in the process. After winning 2-1 over District 10 champion Erie McDowell in the rain, the Big Macs won a rematch with Norwin, 3-1, as Sabrina Bryan scored two goals. Bryan did not play in the WPIAL final against the Knights because of an injury.
In the semifinals against speedy and talented District 3 champion Cumberland Valley, Canon-McMillan scored the match’s first three goals en route to a 4-1 victory to gain a spot in the state final against Central Bucks South.
Playing in a myriad of terrible weather conditions – rain, cold, gusting wind, sleet – and with the temperature at Hersheypark Stadium dropping 27 degrees during the match, the Big Macs outlasted Cumberland Valley, 2-1, in overtime. Addie Roman scored the golden goal with 4:25 remaining in the first overtime.
“I can’t express just how bad the conditions were,” Canon-McMillan coach Dave Derrico said. “With the 30 mph wind, I told the kids to keep the ball on the ground and work to the middle. … That’s the way we played all season. That’s their character. They haven’t quit. I told them we have to get a goal and get out of here because the weather is getting worse and worse.”
Canon-McMillan exited with a 22-1-1 record and the state championship.
3. Wrestling: Teasdale, Carr win state titles
Gavin Teasdale of Jefferson-Morgan and Mike Carr of South Fayette each extended their undefeated streaks last season, and both won their second consecutive Class AA state titles in the Giant Center in Hershey.
Teasdale, a sophomore at Jefferson-Morgan at the time, finished his second perfect season with a dominating performance. He had four technical falls, the final one coming against Kollin Myers of Boiling Springs, 23-8, in the 113-pound championship bout. No one has defeated Teasdale in his varsity career.
“My goal is to have two people – me and Cary (Kolat) – from the same school who are undefeated four-time champions,” said Teasdale after winning his second title. “There is nobody like him. It would be cool to be going to that school and knowing it’s the first school in history to do that.”
Carr completed his senior season with a 3-1 decision over James Duffy of Smethport in the 145-pound finals. Carr is now wrestling at the University of Illinois. Carr won his first title as a junior, going 44-0 in the 138-pound weight class.
Three area wrestlers finished as PIAA runner-up. Taking the silver medal were Bill Bowlen of Jefferson-Morgan at 195 pounds in Class AA, Milton Kobaly of Belle Vernon at 182 in Class AAA and Mike McAleavey of Peters Township at 220 pounds in Class AAA.
4. West Greene softball team: One of the smallest enrollment schools in the WPIAL made one of the biggest impacts on the sport.
The softball team at West Greene High School earned the first WPIAL title in the program’s history and only the second district championship of any type in school history by defeating Chartiers-Houston, 12-3, in the Class A finals at California University’s Lilley Field. The Pioneers made a strong run to the state finals, where they dropped a heart-breaking, 3-2, seven-inning decision to Williams Valley.
“We just came up one run short. I wouldn’t trade my girls for anybody in the state. … We’re going to try to get back here and win one,” said West Greene head coach Billy Simms.
This team surpassed the most successful team in the program’s history to that point, the 1983 squad that finished third in the WPIAL in Class AA, winning a state play-in game over New Brighton, then defeating Southern Fulton in the first round of the state tournament before falling to Iroquois in the quarterfinals.
A trio of Pioneers – pitcher Madison Renner, third baseman Madison Lampe and center fielder McKenna Lampe – were named first team to the Pennsylvania Coaches Association All-State Team in Class A. Renner, the Observer-Reporter Player of the Year, led Pennsylvania in home runs (nine) and RBI (66), according statistics compiled by MaxPreps. Renner struck out just once in 92 plate appearances. In the circle, Renner had a 19-2 record with 118 strikeouts over 134 innings.
5. High school football: Before the first chin strap was buckled, before the first practice was conducted and before the first football was placed on a kicking tee, it was guaranteed that this would be a high school football season in Pennsylvania like no other.
The PIAA expanded from four classifications to six for this season and the fallout was a realignment of conferences, the end of some longtime rivalries and more nonconference games. Two things, however, remained the same: Washington and South Fayette were tough to beat in the regular season. Washington went undefeated for the third year in a row and ran its regular-season winning streak to 29 games by rolling to the Class AA Century Conference championship. South Fayette, meanwhile, won the Class AAAA Northwest Nine Conference title and extended its regular-season winning streak to 47 games. It was the fifth consecutive year the Lions have been undefeated in the regular season.
Both Washington and South Fayette fell short of making the WPIAL finals, which were played at two sites, Heinz Field and Robert Morris University’s Joe Walton Stadium, and on two different weekends.
The football team at Carmichaels made won the Tri-County South Conference championship and made a memorable show of support in the process. Prior to a game against Mapletown, each Mikes player got a buzz cut at a pep rally to show their support for 10-year-old Braedyn Wasko, a Carmichaels student who is battling Ewing’s sarcoma, the same disease that afflicted Blanock.
“(Braedyn) loves football and he said that his biggest fear was losing his hair,” Carmichaels quarterback Jonathan Christopher explained. “So we decided if he was going to lose his hair, we were going to be with him. So we all thought it was the greatest idea, and we were all in it from the start.”
All 41 players on the team got the buzz cut, then the Mikes went out and buzzed Mapletown, 35-0.
Ringgold, which qualified for the Class AAAA playoffs and advanced to the WPIAL semifinals, had perhaps the most unlikely comeback ever by a local team. The Rams scored two touchdowns in the final eight seconds to win at West Mifflin, 29-26, in a Big 9 Conference game.
Ringgold quarterback George Martin scored on a two-yard run with eight seconds remaining, capping an 80-yard drive and cutting West Mifflin’s lead to 26-21. The Titans were penalized for a personal foul and the Rams kicked off from the West Mifflin 45-yard line. Ringgold tried an onside kick and Dalton Holt recovered at the West Mifflin 32-yard line with seven seconds remaining. West Mifflin was assessed another personal foul on the play and that set the Rams up on the West Mifflin 17.
Martin then connected with Octavius Vassar with a game-winning touchdown pass with no time on the clock.