Crowd greets Peters girls’ triumphant return
Gideon Bradshaw/Observer-Reporter
The Peters Township High School girls basketball team poses after alighting from the bus upon their return from Hershey Saturday.
Gideon Bradshaw/Observer-Reporter
Jackie Marisa of Waynesburg photographs the Peters Township High girls basketball team outside the school upon the players’ return on Saturday. Marisa – whose granddaughters Makenna and Morgan are both play – was at the championship in Hershey, Pa., but also greeted the buses on the girls’ return.
Head Coach Bert Kendall addresses supporters in the Peters Township High School gymnasium upon the girls basketball team’s victorious return from Hershey, Pa., on Saturday.
The bus carrying the Peters Township High School girls basketball team arrives outside the school on Saturday afternoon.
The bus carrying the Peters Township High School girls basketball team arrives outside the school on Saturday afternoon.
McMURRAY – Erman Hartmann of Peters Township didn’t make it to Hershey Friday to watch his hometown’s basketball team take home a state championship title.
But it didn’t stop him from watching at home on television while the Peters Township High School girls ended their season undefeated.
“There weren’t too many games that weren’t blowouts,” said Hartmann, a retired Upper St. Clair High School teacher who officiated high school sports for years, Saturday.
Hartmann, his wife, JoDee, and daughter Renee were among the 100 or so people who showed up at Peters Township High School to greet the girls when they returned from winning the PIAA Class 6A title early that afternoon.
District athletic director Brian Geyer said it was the high school’s first state championship in girls basketball.
“A lot of folks couldn’t get out yesterday,” Geyer said. “So we wanted to make sure they experienced this as well, because this is so awesome and historic.”
The two-bus convoy was joined by a police escort at the township line. The girls ended their 30-0 run to cheers from those who met them outside the school.
Jackie Marisa and her daughter-in-law, Donna, were waiting to take pictures of the girls when they alighted from their charter bus. A big group from the family went to Hershey to see Friday’s game, but beat the team back into town.
Jackie’s twin granddaughters, Makenna and Morgan, are seniors on this year’s team.
Makenna – who led the team to a 62-49 win over Garnet Valley with 29 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists – has already committed to Penn State.
The girls’ grandfather, Rudy, is himself a former Penn State basketball player who went on to become a revered coach for Waynesburg University.
Jackie recalled once coming back from a Final Four tournament in Kansas City with her husband’s team to be met by a waiting crowd – a feeling her granddaughters’ homecoming rekindled on Saturday.
“So it brought back memories,” she said.