A ninth title for Sewickley?
It seemed like every sport went through some kind of major alteration in 2020 so that individuals and teams could compete in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the fall and winter, teams were limited to only district champions moving into the PIAA tournaments.
It was a harsh reality for many WPIAL sports that were used to playing followtheleader that allowed quite a few schools a second chance at a title.
Golf pretty much escaped the major changes. Unless a slot needed to be filled in a rare year when not enough teams hit the PIAA scoring standard, only district champions competed in the team golf finals.
There was, however, one change in the individual format. The PIAA eliminated the Eastern and Western regional qualifiers and instead gave districts a hard number of players that would move on to the state championships.
Though it was originally only supposed to be for the 2020 season, the PIAA has since permanently taken out that step.
“It was really an unnecessary step,” Sewickley Academy coach Win Palmer said. “It was a lot of work for a lot of people, including the PIAA staff, but also the kids because it was right around [WPIAL] team championships, so it was hard for the kids to focus on it.”
Even though Sewickley Academy generally had a pretty solid contingent going to Tom’s Run Golf Course for the Western regional, it somehow seemed to find a way to put off the distractions when it came time to play at Cedarbrook. Last year was no exception as the Panthers extended their WPIAL record with their eighth consecutive title.
Getting No. 9, well, the cupboard is anything but bare.
“We’ve got so many guys that are working hard on their games and trying so hard to improve,” Palmer said. “I love it because we’ve got three returning guys who work really hard and a bunch of guys from the junior varsity and the middle school that were successful and all these kids, they want to be that next guy.”
Sewickley Academy graduated a WPIAL champion in Tim Fitzgerald and a state qualifier in Navin Rana, but the team brings back the WPIAL third-place finisher in junior Joey Mucci and a pair of WPIAL individual finalists with seniors Jack Gordon and Will Dugan.
All three also participated in the team finals and had their scores counted as the Panthers finished second, seven strokes behind Scranton Prep. At the state finals, five players compete for each team and the highest of the five is dropped.
“We’ve been in touch with Joey all summer and he’s played in some topnotch tournaments down in the South to get good competition for him,” Palmer said. “He’s always been a talented golfer, but now he’s applying mental techniques. I think that’s going to help his golf ability and his life, which will be exciting to watch.”
Mucci is one of only three state qualifiers returning this season. The other two are Northgate sophomore Kai Carson and Quaker Valley senior Kyle Rice.
Class 3A
Franklin Regional finally got Fox Chapel out of its section last year, which allowed the team to finally finish in the top two in Section 4 and qualify for the WPIAL Class 3A playoffs.
And the Panthers made the most of it as they edged out the Foxes by three strokes to bring home the school’s first team title.
“I feel like we’ve gotten better each year, from Palmer Jackson getting better each year and finishing with a state championship [in 2018],” Franklin Regional coach Jeff Traphagen said. “Last year was the best year we had with taking Chuckie [Tragesser] and Michael Wareham to states — it was the first time we took two to states and winning the WPIAL championship. The only thing we didn’t do was win a state championship.”
Franklin Regional will have a difficult time repeating this year after losing three starters, including its two individual state qualifiers.
While Franklin Regional retools, Fox Chapel will bring back three seniors — Zach Paper, Eli Yofan and Owen Delaney — who qualified for the WPIAL individual finals last year. Central Catholic will also be formidable as the Vikings bring back two of the WPIAL’s three returning state qualifiers in junior Rocco Salvitti and senior Carter Pitcairn. Mars junior Blake Bertolo is the only other returning state qualifier.