High school athletics has provided thrills for active teenagers through the decades. I am sure that many of you can share your own stories of ‘the thrill of victory…and the agony of defeat’. By the way, does anyone under the age of 40 know where that phrase comes from? (Hint: google ‘ABC’s Wide World of Sports’. That’s a blog for another day.) Beyond the wins and losses, we all can share memories of the arduous journey that is high school sports—bonding with teammates, surviving the rants of coaches, spending the ‘blood, sweat, and tears’ in practice in pursuit of game time W’s.
For most every high school athlete, though, there is sacred ground that most have dreamed of, but only a few have set foot on. With their 7-1 victory over the state-ranked Steubenville Big Red, the Dover Tornado baseball team advanced to the regional finals, and are now one step away from athlete heaven—THE STATE TOURNAMENT!!!
For a few elite programs, it is commonplace to sit at the state tourney dinner table—Strasburg & Hoover softball, Hiland hoops, and Claymont & Perry wrestling are some local programs that come to mind. But for most programs, making a tournament run in any sport is a special ride that creates memories for a lifetime for the players, their families, and the community. I am guessing that Indian Valley followers, the 2013 football team has a special place in their heart right beside those legendary hoops teams of Coach Huggins. And for just about every school, I could list the special teams that took their fans on the wild wave that a tourney run creates.
Dover is living that right now, and many of their key contributors like Kyle Abel, Blake Blair, Corey Contini, Evan Snyder, and Merrick Mamarella, already have regional game experience on their resumes this school year in basketball and/or football. I think a beautiful thing about high school sports (especially for the non-mega-sized Division I schools) is seeing young athletes excel in multiple sports. (sounds like another interesting blog. I better write these down!). And these young men from Tornado Town are prime examples of this. Hopefully they can make that one long last step to earn their ticket to Columbus.
While many have played one sport or another in high school, only a select few have seen the hollowed ‘promised land’. I have been going down to the boys’ state tournament for the last two decades, and look on with a smidge of envy as the athletes perform on the ultimate stage. While watching those games this spring with my brother-in-law, Brian Miller, I quizzed him on his experiences playing at St. John’s Arena as a member of the Dover ‘Bomb Squad’ of 1989.
The Dover baseball run of this May causes me to think back to the spring of 1988. Def Leppard ruled the air waves with ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’, and the Louisville Leopards’ baseball team ruled the Federal League. I was a junior first baseman on the team. Upon entering the tournament, we beat Jackson and McKinley to reach the district finals against the host team, the Hoover Vikings. In the top of the 7th inning with the game tied 1-1, I drove in the game-winning run. That sounds like a pretty impressive feat that I am needlessly bragging about. It’s been 26 years. I might as well say it was a towering home run off the foul pole. Or maybe at least a 2-out, 2-strike double in the gap. But my mom and dad taught me to tell the truth, so I will spill the beans. It was a little rinky-dink bunt. Let me be more honest. It was because I missed a sign and thought it was a squeeze play bunt. For you baseball junkies, the coach didn’t give the indicator, which is needed to ‘turn the play on’. Whoops! Our senior co-captain, Tony Marko hustled in to score from 3rd, and we were off to beautiful Pemberton Park in Youngstown for the regionals!
Behind the arm of our other captain, pitching ace Chris Lingle, we then defeated Austintown Fitch 3-1 to reach the AAA regional finals vs. Brunswick. We were up 5-4 in the bottom of the 7th. Only three outs away, knockin’ on heaven’s door!!! Well, a blown call by the ump on a close play at 1st base (which I was playing) got the lead-off batter aboard, the wheels came off, and like Moses, I only got to see the Promised Land from afar.
So good luck this weekend, Tornadoes. I hear the promised land of Columbus flows with milk and honey and sweet dug-outs and awesome hotel rooms! Keep walking the path that Coach DiDonato has laid out for you, take it one out and at-bat at a time, and I am sure that championship door will open for you!