That’s the spirit
Newfound success by football teams creates a buzz at school and in community
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
JerryVeshio stopped at Bruegger’s the other morning like he does a few days every week. “Three different men who I had never met, came up and talked to me just about the team,” said Veshio. “That’s never happened in there before.”
Over the past month or so, Veshio also has been the victim of numerous drive-by shoutings. He will be walking somewhere in Sewickley when someone will putdown the window of their car, yell pleasantries at the man and wish the Quaker Valley football teamluck.
Veshio’s experiences are examples of what can happen when a high school football team has newfound success and a fall season to remember. Winning big and playing for championships is commonplace at some schools, such as Aliquippa and Clairton, where success doesn’t always come with much fanfare. But then there is a team like Quaker Valley, which will play in a WPIAL championship Saturday for the first time in school history. Site: Heinz Field The games: Aliquippa vs. Quaker Valley (Class 3A), 11 a.m.; Pine-Richland vs. Central Catholic (Class 6A), 2 p.m.; Penn-Trafford vs. Gateway (Class 5A), 5 p.m.; Thomas Jefferson vs. Montour (Class 4A), 8 p.m.
Tickets: $10 for adults, $5 for students. All tickets are general admission and one ticket is good for all four games. Student tickets will not be sold at Heinz Field.
TV: AT&T SportsNet will televise the first two games live. The final two games will be aired on AT&T Saturday night following the Penguins game.
Radio: Aliquippa-Quaker Valley is on WBVP (1230 AM), WMBA (1460 AM), WKPL (107.1 FM); Penn-Trafford-Gateway is on WHJB (FM 107.1); Thomas Jefferson-Montour is on WJPA (95.3 FM). And the Quakers have been playing football since 1956.
Veshio is Quaker Valley’s coach and finding out firsthand that a great football season at some schools can turn coaches into veritable mini-celebrities and players into hometown heroes. But a wonderful football season at some schools can do more than just affect players and coaches. It can bring life to an entire community and even lift the spirits of students who aren’t players.
Along the Ohio River, in the northern suburban communities of Leetsdale and Sewickley that make up Quaker Valley’s district, it’s electric.
But the electricity is felt in a few other places, such as California High School. The Trojans are in the WPIAL semifinals for the first time in 31 years.
“I started to notice it at games. There was just a different atmosphere,” said Mike Mastroianni, Quaker Valley’s athletic director, boys basketball coach and 1979 graduate of the school. “You can justfeel a buzz around here.”
It’s a current that hasn’t surged through this district before. Mastroianni has enjoyed great success as basketball coach. Quaker Valley’s boys soccer team also is a perennial power that will play Friday in a PIAA championship for the second consecutive season. But football is a different animal, and football success can do something to a school that can’t be touched, but yet felt.
Veshio also is a Quaker Valley graduate, a retired teacher and administrator in the district.
“Even though I’m not in the school building, I have a pretty good pulse of what goes on in there. I talk to the kids and it’s dang exciting in there,” said Veshio. “It’s incredible how excited people are. I’ve gotten tons of emails from guys in their 60s and 70s, saying they’re following us.”
Mastroianni said, “I think one of the coolest things is seeing the connections this year with our football guys, the soccer guys and others, just seeing how they interact and are friends. That’s not necessarily how it always plays out.”
Quaker Valley will play Aliquippa in the football title game. This is a record 10th consecutive appearance in a