Oct 11, 2014 4 min read

Garee Piper is proof you don’t need to start playing organized sports in grade school to become a successful athlete in high school and college.

Piper was an outstanding multi-sport athlete at Beth-Center High School in the 1960s and standout wrestler at California State College.

“I never had the opportunity to participate in organized sports until the ninth grade,” Piper pointed out. “We didn’t have midget football or wrestling. I did play one year of Little League baseball.”

As a ninth grader, Piper finally had a chance to display his athletic ability.

“It was Beth-Center Junior High, which at that time was located in Centerville. I played football and basketball,” Piper said.

Basketball?

“Yes, in grade school I played basketball at an old recreation center. I was not much of a shooter,” Piper said. “I could rebound, though.”

At Beth-Center High School, Piper, a hulk of a lineman, got to work with Bill Connors, an outstanding football coach and teacher.

“Coach Connors taught me a lot. He had me playing tackle on offense. Later, he shifted me to linebacker. I loved playing linebacker. There was more room to roam.”

During Piper’s senior football season of 1967, the Bulldogs went undefeated.

“Yeah, but we had four ties,” Piper said with a smile.

OK, so the Bulldogs were fit to be tied. They went 5-0-4.

“One of the ties was against Donora. They were great. They had Bernie Galiffa at quarterback, Ken Griffey Sr. at end and Malcom Lomax at running back.”

That game, played at Donora’s Legion Field, ended in a 13-13 tie.

“We should have won,” Piper recalled. “We tied the game at 13-13, then the extra point was good but a penalty was called. I was offside. The re-kick went wide. I felt so bad that I had let my team down because it would have been a signature win against one of the best teams in Western Pennsylvania.”

Galiffa, who went on to play quarterback at West Virginia, hooked up with Griffey, the future major leaguer, for two touchdown passes in that game. Beth-Center scored on a run by Steve Pavlekovich and a TD pass from Bob Slagle to Bob Rhodes with three minutes left. The Bulldogs missed a field goal in the closing seconds after driving to the Donora seven-yard line.

Beth-Center went on to tie Southmoreland (13-13), German Township (0-0) and McGuffey (6-6) in that unusual undefeated season.

During his senior year, Piper was named all-conference.

“It helped that we had a lot talented seniors. We also had a good sophomore running back in Fred Pagac.”

Pagac is currently the linebackers coach of the Buffalo Bills.

Though he was a two-way force for Beth-Center on the football field, Piper’s real love was wrestling.

“I wrestled for three years in high school under (coach) Warren Scott,” Piper said. “As a team, we went 12-2 during my senior year. I was 14-0, a section champ and regional semifinalist. I was lousy my sophomore year (4-6-2). I think it didn’t help that I played basketball in ninth grade.”

As the Bulldogs’ heavyweight, Piper’s record improved to 10-4 as a junior.

His success on the wrestling mats continued at Cal State. As a freshman, he wrestled for coach Frank Vulcano and won the PSAC heavyweight title. Piper’s best record came as a junior (1970-71), when he was 16-2 and helped the Vulcans to a 15-3 record.

“That team was loaded with outstanding Washington County wrestlers,” Piper recalled. “There was Randy Haught from Trinity. Dave Cook was an All-American from Chartiers-Houston. Rich Arrigoni was from Canon-McMillan and Dennis Daley was from Burgettstown. We had a lot talent, and we were tough to beat.”

Piper eventually turned to coaching. He was an assistant at Beth-Center under highly successful coach Dick Caputo. He became the head coach at Mapletown in the 1980-81 season, when the Maples revived their program following a hiatus of about 20 years.

As an insurance broker, Piper is president of the Fredricktown Real Estate Company. He has been employed for 41 years in the family business.

Bill DiFabio writes a bi-weekly column on local sports history.