8/8/2019 John Sarandrea editorial

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S@ Spectator. April 9, 1999. page 19

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\\ /henever people sit

lN down to ponder the

V V true meaning and

worth of high school athletics,concepts such as maturation,teamwork, and responsibilityare often tossed up for consid-eration. Unfortunately for NewCastle High School, its coach

exuded few of these aforemen-tioned positive traits, followinga 53-48 overtime loss to ErieMcDowell in the WesternFinals of the P.LA.A. playoffs.

. Several local publicationsclaimed the upset win byMcDowell over New Castle to

be the upset of the decade inthe P.I.A.A. playoffs. TheTrojans entered the WesternFinal with a stellar record of itsown (25-4); however, in the

match-up with New Castle, the

Erie city-league school had tocontend with not only the top

team in the state. but also the

no. six team in the entireUnited States of Amenca.

All season. New Castle had

bulldozed over the competitionon its way to the Western Final.McDowell, meanwhile, had tobattle its way through the toughErie city-league, ultimately

gaining momentum by sweep-

ing the season-series from a

young, but scrappy CathedralPrep squad.

New Castle had three guys

sure to garner all-state status.

McDowell had three guys thatlooked like they could be

surfers. New Castle possessed

the probable P.I.A.A. bigschool player of the year inDavid Young, an Xavier recruitwho averaged over 25 pointsper game. McDowell's best

player was a gutsy junior --

Justin Shouse. --- who, whileone of the top long-rangebombers in District 10, aver-

aged just a shade under 16

points a game.

The Red Hurricane made

things look relatively easy forthe first three quarters of the

contest. However, after open-ing a nearly insurmountable l5point lead in the fourth (44-29),

the wheels started to come offfor the nationally ranked powerfrom Lawrence County.

Spearheaded by the inspira-tional play of Shouse, the

Trojans would outscore NewCastle l9-3 late in the fourthquarter, to open its first lead of

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the game at 48-47. The contest

would eventually go on toovertime, where New Castle

would drop the contest 53-48.

Talks of national and state

championship were now over.

David had beaten Goliath.In the history of sports,

these sorts of unexpected

results are bound to happen.After all, we, as human beings,

are taught to realize that no one

is ever infallible. However.instead of extending due con-gratulations to the youthfulMcDowell squad for pullingoff such the incredible upset,

New Castle coach JohnSarandrea could do nothing butblame the officials. Followingthe contest, he would give the

smallest of credit to the exuber-

ant McDowell bunch -- a con-

tingent of kids, who had justearned the school's first -ever

trip to Hershey.

What was inconspicuously

absent from Sarandrea and his

post-game speech was theobvious admittance that he,

himself, did a horrendous jobcoaching down the stretch.Still, the New Castle mentorcould do nothins more than

unfairly blame the three guys inthe striped shirts for his team's

unexpected defeat. "I feel bad

about the refereeing because Ithought some high school kidswere ripped off tonight."Sarandrea continued. rWe

went up against eight guys.

What can I say? And I don't

care what I say. I can't get sus-

pended for my comments

because this is my last year,"

Down the stretch, careless

three-point shooting and ninemissed free-throws spelledNew Castle's doom. Yet,Sarandrea concluded that those

miscues should not have cost

his squad the game. Finally,the New Castle mentor com-plained about his squad getting'beaten up' in the finalMcDowell run. He related,"The fouls we got after getting

the l9-point lead hurt,"Sarandrea said. "The hand-

checking, everything else, wegot beat up pretty good and

7,000 people saw that. I don'tfeel real good about it."

Isn't it funny, how a team

with the aforementioned 6-5Young and 6-4 Pat Cain --- a

University of Toledo footballrecruit -- got beaten up downthe stretch by a McDowellsquad with absolutely no play-

ers over 6-2?Sarandrea, quite simply' is a

disgrace to all high school ath-letics in Pennsylvania. At thispoint in the "game", we, as

fans, can only hope that otherinterscholastic coaches will not

follow his immature and irre-sponsible lead. After all, let's

remember that these "guys" are

iust kids.

Winners of the Week

The Edinboro men's wrestling team for finishing in 18th place atweekend's NCM Division I national wrestling championships.

Josh Koscheck and Mark Samples for picking up All-American

at last weekend's NCAA Division I national wrestling

. Koscheck placed fourth at 174, while Samples

in seventh at 165.

. Brianne Taylor for working overtime in the Scots' 4-3 victory. Taylor pitched all nine innings for the Scots,

striking out six A-B bafters, while walking only one.