Top 10 Sports Stories of 2021
Sports have always been considered an escape from reality.
It’s not quite that simple since the COVID-19 pandemic reared its head on March 2020.
Though the hurdles remain more abundant than in simpler times, sports stood as a beacon of light in 2021.
It allowed for Spring City to be the epicenter of the field hockey world while hosting the Indoor Pan American Cups and featuring local U.S. national team athletes JaJa Kentwell (Limerick), Ali Campbell (Boyertown) and Ashley Sessa (Schwenksville), for Pottsgrove resident James Coleman to serve a field judge in Super Bowl LV.
They are stories worthy of the top 10, but sit just outside the list in a year sporting events thankfully went on largely as planned.
These are the Mercury area’s top 10 sports stories for 2021:
10. Spring-Ford grads Larkin, Moore drafted by MLB
Fresh off its run to the PIAA semifinals a month earlier, the Spring-Ford baseball program had even more to celebrate in mid-July.
In consecutive days on July 12 and 13, Rams alumni Connor Larkin and Ryne Moore were selected in the MLB Draft on consecutive days. The Toronto Blue Jays selected Larkin in the ninth round (272nd overall) out of Penn State, while the Milwuakee Brewers grabbed Moore in the 18th round (521st overall) out of Old Dominion a day later.
Larkin went 9-12 with a 4.26 ERA with the Nittany Lions, striking out 191 batters compared to 60 walks. Moore posted a 9-1 record with 80 strikeouts, 22 walks and a 3.16 ERA during his senior season, which included a terrific outing against South Carolina in an NCAA regional.
Moore pitched in 12 games for the Arizona Complex League Brewers (Milwuakee’s RookieLeague affiliate) after getting drafted, allowing just one run in 12.1 innings.
9. Norchester wins Pa. Legion championship
Norchester’s American Legion baseball team showed how much it appreciated being back after the 2020 Legion season was derailed by the COVID pandemic.
The Bulldogs achieved a previously-unattained status by winning the Pennsylvania State Tournament at Ephrata; it was a state runner-up two previous times. In the process, it qualified for the Mid-Atlantic Regional in Asheboro, N.C. — the first time for the program in more than a decade.
To accomplish both items, Norchester had to win three times over the tourney’s final two days, It did that in timely fashion, dispatching host Ephrata 8-0 before handling Paxton — the Section 4 champ dropped the ‘Dogs into the win-or-go-home scenario on Day 3 — by a 4-3 count.
“They stayed focused all the time,” Alex Condello, in his first year as Norchester Legion’s manager, said while the awards presentations and celebration were going on. “The kids were confident. They were ready to come back (Wednesday).”
Sam Morris had a particularly memorable state-tournament run. He was named both the Most Valuable Player – he hit three homers during the week, the biggest a grand slam against Uniontown – and the top pitcher, going 2-0 and racking up a combined 20 strikeouts.
8. Spring-Ford girls basketball state runner-up
The Spring-Ford girls’ basketball program tabbed the 2020-21 season as a special one since the moment its Class of 2021 players arrived.
The season featured a late start, a league-only regular season and a single-elimination postseason, but they were right all along: last winter was very special for the Rams.
Led by two-time All-State first team and three-time Mercury AllArea Player of the Year Lucy Olsen, Spring-Ford won a fourth straight Pioneer Athletic Conference championship, the District 1 Class 6A title and were runner-up in the PIAA 6A Championships.
Starting four seniors, Olsen (Villanova), guard Abbey Boyer (Immaculata), forward Emily Tiffan and forward Hailey Hudak (Bloomsburg), the Rams went 14-0 in the PAC, then ran the table in the District 1 tournament with double-digit wins every step of the way.
That included the championship win over Plymouth Whitemarsh when Olsen put on an iconic 33-point performance in a 52-36 victory. Olsen averaged a PAC-best 19.4 points per game and closed her career on 1,697 points, which ranks second in Pioneer Athletic Conference history behind only Pottstown 2003 graduate Jamell Beasley’s 1,749 points.
The pandemic-altered postseason placed the District 1 champion directly into the PIAA semifinals, which the Rams gutted through over District 11’s Nazareth. Spring-Ford met its match in the state final against District 7’s North Allegheny and star Lizzy Groetsch but still put together a 24-1 season that returned SpringFord to the perch of Pa.
7. Jaworski ascends to professional ranks
Justin Jaworski, the 2017 Mercury Boys Basketball Player of the Year at Perkiomen Valley, took a few steps toward chasing his NBA dreams this spring and summer.
After averaging
21. 5 points per game
(10th in
Division
I) as a senior at Lafayette, Jaworski decided to forego an extra season in college and turn pro.
He played in the 3X3U
National Championship from April 2-4 where he earned his first professional paycheck, then worked out for teams, including the Philadelphia 76ers, in the weeks leading up to the NBA Draft.
Jaworski went undrafted by the NBA, but he played for the Atlanta Hawks’ summer league team, playing in two of their five games and scoring 16 points in the team’s final game.
He spent training camp with the Oklahoma City Thunder, eventually officially signing to play for the Oklahoma City Blue — the organization’s G-League team. Jaworski has seen action in 10 games, averaging 3.1 points in 8.6 minutes per contest.
6. Iconic sports writer Rosemarie Ross dies
Rosemarie Ross wrote countless incredible stories during her pioneering, legendary sports writing career.
Yet Ross’ greatest story was arguably her own: a child in warstricken Germany during World War II, she became the embodiment of the American Dream, breaking down walls in a maledominated profession to have a sports writing career where she covered the most iconic events of the early 1980s and became one of the nation’s preeminent boxing writers in the 1980s and 90s.
Ross’ more than four-decade award-winning writing career began in Kansas City and included stops in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Journal) and New Jersey (Trenton Times, North Jersey Herald & News) before 19 years at The Mercury in Pottstown prior to her retirement in 2015.
More than her coverage of the Miracle on Ice, the Phillies’ 1980 World Series championship or the legendary fights of Sugar Ray Leonard or Muhammad Ali, Ross’ career was defined by her ability to connect with people and treat each story and subject as special.
Ross died July 2 due to worsening heart and stomach conditions as a result of deteriorating health following a stroke in December 2019. An outpouring of messages and remembrances from former colleagues, friends and community members flowed in following the news of the beloved writer’s passing.
6. Daniel Boone’s Guiliano caps career with two golds
Daniel Boone’s Chris Guiliano had his opportunity at two PIAA gold medals thwarted as a junior in 2020 when the threat COVID-19 cancelled the second day of the PIAA Class 3A championships.
In his final go at the state championship swim meet, Guiliano swam to victory in the 100 and 200 freestyle events to cap a terrific career that’s included three PIAA gold medals.
Guiliano, the 2020-21 Mercury All-Area Boys Swimmer of the Year, swam a time of 1:36.53 in the 200 free to defeat La Salle’s Zachary Kohm by a tenth of a second and he eclipsed second-place finisher Daniel Simoes of Seneca Valley by more than two seconds with a time of 43.40 seconds in the 100 free.
He ended his high school career with eight total District 3 medals (five gold) and six PIAA medals.
In June, Guilano set a personal best in the 50 free and finished fourth in a Wave 1 heat at the Olympic Trials in Nebraska. He is now at Notre Dame competing for the Fighting Irish.
4. Spring-Ford’s Milano wins wrestling state title
After two years of state-level shortfalls, Joey Milano reached the peak of Pennsylvania’s mountainlike wrestling standard in 2021.
Milano won the Class AAA 189-pound championship of the PIAA Tournament held in March at the Giant Center, scoring a 15-5 major decision on Hampton’s Justin Hart in their final-round bout. Scoring gold in previous District 1-AAA South and South East AAA Regional tournaments, Milano (23-0) put to rest memories of fourth-place state finishes on the way to closing out his scholastic career with a 134-9 record.
Milano’s steamroll through the opposition — he racked up seven pins, six near-falls and three major decisions, alongside five forfeit outings — played a big role in his team’s showing for the season. Spring-Ford (14-1) ran the table against Pioneer Athletic Conference (Liberty Division) opponents, claimed team championships at district and regional competitions, was a respective fifth and sixth at the East AAA Super Regional and PIAAs and placed third in the PIAA’s Class AAA team tournament.
While becoming the program’s first state champion, Milano almost saw classmate Jack McGill join him as a PIAA gold medalist. McGill made a title run at 160, but he fell short in a 7-3 overtime loss to Northampton’s Jagger Condomitti, consigning him to a silvermedalist finish.
Milano was accorded Wrestler of the Year honors by The Mercury for the 2020-21 season. He’s also received a scholarship to attend North Carolina State University, where he’s enrolled in the Exploratory Studies program and wrestling for the Wolfpack’s NCAA Division 1 program.
3. Darius Smallwood brings gold home to Pottstown
It more than made up for a notso-memorable showing the previous week.
Darius Smallwood capped his outstanding athletic career at Pottstown High with a trip to the top step of the championship podium, after capturing the gold medal in the 800-meter run at the PIAA Class 3A Championships held in May at Shippensburg University.
In doing so, he also established a new Pottstown school record in the event with his clocking of 1:51.9. The previous Trojans’ record holder Bruce Carter, who won the state championship in the 800 in 1962 and 1963, held the previous school standard in the event when the distance was measured in yards.
Darius was coming off a disappointing third-place showing in the District 1 meet seven days earlier as the event’s top seed, Smallwood shaved more than three seconds off his district time of 1:55.05.
His 1:51.9 showing was more than enough to outlast Central Bucks East’s Holden Emery (second, 1:53.26), Cedar Crest’s Tommy Bildheiser (third, 1:53.73) and Garnet Valley’s Eric Albright (fourth,1:53.85).
2. Upper Providence Little League World Series
For the first time ever, the Mercury Area had a team play in the Little League World Series this summer.
Four years after a team from its program finished two wins short of Williamsport, the Upper Providence 12U Little League team won the Mid-Atlantic Regional (Aug. 8-14) over Toms Rivers, N.J. to earn its spot at the World Series.
UPLL was the first Pennsylvania team to accomplish the feat since Taney and Red Land went to the World Series in 2014 and 2015, respectively. The UP Little Leaguers compiled an 18-1 record through the District 27 Tournament, Section 8 Tournament, Pennsylvania State Tournament and Mid-Atlantic Regional to earn their way to the World Series.
UPLL starting draw fans from around the area and the country after defeating Toms River 6-1 in the Mid-Atlantic semifinal in Bristol, Conn. on Aug. 12 in a game broadcast on ESPN, which officially booked their trip to Williamsport. Two days later they took down Toms River once again, 10-3, on ESPN to earn the regional crown.
The squad went right to Williamsport following the MidAtlantic championship. UPLL dropped their two games at the LLWS — falling 8-2 to Oregon on Aug. 20 and dropping a 5-3 contest to Louisiana on Aug. 21.
1. Pottstown native Ridenour reaches Olympics
Payton Ridenour fulfilled a lifelong dream this summer and put her hometown on the world stage when the 19-year-old Pottstown native competed in Women’s BMX Racing at the 2020 Olympic Games (postponed to take place in 2021) in Tokyo on July 29.
Ridenour finished second at the Union Cycliste Internationale World Cup in Bogota, Colombia in during her birthday weekend in late May to book her trip to the Olympic games.
She was the youngest competitor in the field at Tokyo and finished fifth in her quarterfinal heat during her Olympic debut.
Before she left for Tokyo, Ridenour was honored at her hometown track, Trilogy Park BMX Track in Pottstown, where she signed autographs and took pictures before receiving congratulatory speeches from Pottstown Park & Rec Director Michael Lenhart, Fifth Ward Council President Dan Weand, Mayor Stephanie Henrick and state Rep. Joe Ciresi.
Ridenour became the area’s first Olympian since soccer goalkeeper and Gilbertsville native Nicole Barnhart won gold medals in 2008 and 2012.