May 2, 2021 6 min read

• catching me in the backyard, he made me run into the neighbors’ yards to get it. I got tired of doing that, so I became a lot more accurate.”She became a lot more than that.Alderson became known as “The Queen of No-Hitters'” asa legendary pitcher at Chartiers-Houston High School. She’s the Queen of high school softball in Washington and Greene County – an iconic )gure in the WPIAL and PIAA.She’s proud of her softball footprint, but she only grudgingly will talk about or even acknowledge it. Her focus is the now and the future.”The individual success was great, but I didn’t really like all of the attention a whole lot. I always loved competitionand liked the challenge that each season brought to me and to our team.”My work ethic helped to make me successful as well as very supportive parents. I practiced a lot because I wanted to be the best and help the team win as much as I could.”1Subhead: Dominant RunAlderson’s freshmen season was going well team-wise, and Coach Dan Ross said he was set with his lineup. As the season wore on and the WPIAL playo>s were in sight, Ross discovered something.

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  AA heading into a non-section game Tuesday at Laurel Highlands. Chartiers-Houston has won three straight and six of seven.Before returning to her alma mater, Alderson coached )ve seasons at Mt. Lebanon, where she led the Blue Devils to )ve playo> appearances and 81 victories and three section titles.”After losing in the state )nals as a junior and not makingit back as a senior, I knew the only way I could ever get back there was to stay involved in the game as a coach. So coaching softball was always in the back of my mind. I was fortunate enough to land a permanent sub teaching job at Mt. Lebanon and they needed an assistant softball coach. The head job came open, I applied, and they took a chance on me as a young woman with no head coaching experience.”Her tenure at Chartiers-Houston has been magical. After her )rst season, the Bucs won three consecutive WPIAL championships and were state runnersup in 2005.In 2010, her husband Dan – who had a distinguished baseball playing and coaching career at the school – joined her as an assistant. While the Bucs lost in the WPIAL )nals that year, the Aldersons steered the team to a PIAA crown.Both are inductees of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame, Washington-Greene Co. Chapter.”Coaching against them is special,” said Bill Simms, head coach and leader of an outstanding program at West

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  team,” Tricia Alderson said. “We thought we had a chance to have another great year, and obviously watching your daughter miss out on her senior season was hard. The silver lining was we did get to spend a lot of time together as a family while at home before she went to college.1″It’s hard because I think about everything she lost out onher senior season, and it does make me a little bitter at times. I just try to look at the big picture and realize that there are worse things that could have happened.”1Kurt Kesneck, athletic director at Chartiers-Houston, said nobody puts as much time into their programs as Tricia and Dan.””There’s nothing they won’t do in terms of work and quality time to improve our program, our team and our players,” Kesneck added. “It’s nothing short of amazing. Tricia has a passion and understanding of the game that is uncommon. The family gives everything to the sport.”Before a game, she’s still like a player. She’s always ready to go and prepared. They scout, they know the players and they have our players ready.”Tricia Alderson helped build and continues to grow a special program right at home.”Coming back to coach here was an amazing opportunity for me,” she said. “Not only was I able to be closer to home and to my family once Dan and I had kids, but also I was so lucky to have followed in Dan Ross’ footsteps and the program that he built. We have just tried to

  continue the great tradition here for softball, and it is important to me to keep that all going. I want my teams to have the same positive experiences that so many of ushave had as players here.”11