Hempfield coach picks up 401st win
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Since PIAA softball championships began in 1975, a softball team had never managedto win three consecutive titles at the state level.
That is, until Hempfield freshman catcher Emma Hoffner doubled in the eighth inning of the PIAA Class 6A championship against Parkland Friday in State College, driving in a run and completing the Spartans’ three-peat witha 4-3 win.
In coach Bob Kalp’s 23rd season as coach, the most recent win, which capped the season record at 24-3, brings Hempfield’s state championship tally to four. Hempfield beat Avon Grove, 1-0, in 2016 in Class 4A and beat Hazleton, 5-3, in Class 6A in 2017.
The Spartans won their first championship in 1999, when they defeated Williamsport, 2-1, for the Class 3A title.
Just how special is winningthree in a row to Kalp?
“It’s pretty amazing to me, when you think about it,” Kalp, age 73, said.
Kalp, who nabbed his 400th win with a 2-0 victory against Nazareth in the PIAA semifinals, chalked his many wins up to his longevity as a coach. He’s 401-98-1 at Hempfield, a rare feat for a WPIAL coach.
But making history, he added, is a testament to players feeling responsibility to carry on the winning tradition.
“Maybe I’m disillusioning myself and making more of it than it is, but I think it’s a pretty special situation, and thathelps when you’re trying to put together the team and havea winning season,” Kalp said. “Kids feel a responsibility of ‘Hey, we’ve got to do whatis necessary to keep this going.’ You’ve got to have good kids, you’ve got to have good coaches, and we’ve been fortunateto have that.”
Six of Hempfield’s seven seniors from last year attended Friday’s championship,Kalp added.
“We’re good for a reason, and the reason is everybody buysin, everybody works, everybody’s expected to do well,” Kalp said. “And it’s not justthe present team.”
The Spartans also became only the fourth team to win four consecutive WPIAL titles since the WPIAL began conducting softball championshipsin 1972.
In recent years, the date of Kalp’s retirement has become a more frequently talkedabout topic.
He’ll make that decision in the coming weeks, he said, but decided to go ahead and take the coaching class and examination required by the PIAAto stay certified.
West Greene’s future
West Greene has been to the PIAA 1A championship thepast three years, rebounding from a loss to Williams Valley in 2016 with back-toback title wins.
The Pioneers only graduate three seniors in shortstop and pitcher Madison Renner, first baseman Lexie Mooney and left fielder Linzee Stover. That senior class has gone 8515 over the past four years, and that’s including a 10-8 seasonin 2015.
The talent level at West Greene speaks for itself, coach Bill Simms said, for such a small school to enjoy the success West Greene has hadthe past three years.
“I didn’t coach any harder eight years ago and I didn’t know any more the last two years,” Simms, whose Pioneers have won three consecutive WPIAL championships, said. “I didn’t go to some fabulous clinic that taughtme everything I know, it’s just when you’ve got tremendous players, they make you look like a tremendous coach. We’re just fortunate to have the band of girls come through at the same time at our small district that we have over the past two to threeyears.”
Most of the Pioneers are multi-sport athletes, Simms added, which is particularly commonat smaller schools.
Junior outfielder McKenna Lampe and junior third baseman Madison Lampe both scored their 1,000th point for West Greene’s girls basketball team, with nine of the softball players also playing for a basketball team that advanced to the WPIAL championship for the first time last season.
First timers
West Allegheny and Mohawk’s season ended in disappointment. West Allegheny lost to Lampeter-Strasburg, 6-2, in the PIAA Class 5A championship, and Mohawk lost to Upper Dauphin, 2-1, in the PIAA Class 2A championship.
For both schools, though, the 2018 season was still historic. This marked the first time softball teams from either school advanced to the statechampionship.