Familiarity rampant in title games
The big-time games of the WPIAL softball championships had a regular-season feel to them.
That’s because the majority of the championship games featured teams that played each other twice during the regular season in section play.
In Class 6A, Hempfield and Latrobe of Section 2 met again. Hempfield swept the regular-season series.
In 5A, it was West Allegheny and Moon of Section 3 locking horns for a third time after the Indians won the first two contests.
In 4A, Belle Vernon and Yough had a rubber match after they split their Section 2 regular-season games.
In 1A, West Greene went up against Monessen after sweeping the Section 2 meetings.
Even if they were going up against a more familiar foe, that was all right with most coaches. Plus, the players already have a competitive fire for the opponent.
“I guess if you were playing someone different, it would be a whole lot more work,” said Yough coach Dutch Harvey. “It probably makes it a little easier as far as coaching. Players-wise, I’m sure it amps it up.”
Third-year Moon coach RyanLinn said that playing a team from the same section in the championship is a double-edged sword. The good newsis you already know the insand outs of the team in the other dugout. The bad news? They have the same intel on yoursquad.
“It’s one of those deals where we all know what each other is capable of,” said Linn. “One swing or one mistake puts you in a hole you don’t want to be in.”
The WPIAL expanded to six classifications this school year from the four in previous years. The move was hotly debated at the time and is still being judged today.
“I’m not a big fan of it,” Harvey said. “I like the four classifications. It really stretches things out as far as playoffs goes. It just shows that some of the sections have a lot more quality teams than some of the others.”
Frazier
No matter where he goes, Don Hartman tends to end up in the same place. That would be in a WPIAL championship.
Hartman led Frazier to the Class 2A championship this season in his first year on the job. It wasn’t that long ago he won WPIAL baseball championships in 2001 and 2006 while coaching California.
As an assistant to wife Mandy, he helped Frazier’s girls volleyball team claim WPIAL gold in 2010.
But this season’s championship appearance was the most special to Hartman, who has coached various sports for the past 26 years. Mandy is his assistant softball coach and together they have watched their daughter Logan, a freshman pitcher, lead the way for the upstart Commodores, who do not have a senior on the roster and have never won a WPIAL softball title.
“As wonderful as it was all those years at California, we never had a child involved,” said Don Hartman. “This is a whole new level, especially when your daughter's in the circle.”
Latrobe
In addition to Hartman, Rick Kozusko of Latrobe was another coach who led his squad to the district title game in his first season. The Wildcats won Class AAAA championships in 2011, 2008 and 2007.