The Conestoga High School Boys soccer team has a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.they are the undefeated PIAA Division AAA state champions. The team won the crown Saturday night at Hershey Park Stadium with a 1-0 victory over Upper St. Clair High School. (Click on the PDF to see how the Pioneers marched through the playoffs). 2011 has been a banner year for Conestoga sports teams. On the boys side alone, the Pioneers are 2011 State Champions in baseball, tennis, lacrosse and now soccer, a point made by Tredyffrin Board of Supervisors member Mike Heaberg at the end of Monday night's …
It was perhaps the moment that marked the 2011 Conestoga Pioneers Baseball team as true champions. It came just one week ago, after the the final out in the longest game in PIAA baseball championship history. It came after the medals had been awarded to the outstanding players on both teams. It came after the grounds crew had taken the field and most of the crowd had filed out. It started when someone on the Pioneers team yelled, "Let Sonny [DiMartini] run the bases!" and without hesitation, the newly-crowned state baseball champions lined up along the the third base line as the fan and …
John Vogan doesn’t like to talk about himself. In fact, he’d prefer not to say anything at all when he’s the subject. Instead, Conestoga’s football and baseball coach would more rather talk about the deep-bench player who pinch-ran and scored a key run in a game, or the seldom-used reserve who deflected a third-quarter pass for one of his teams. Vogan is really the perfect anachronism—a modern-day coach with 1950’s core values of team-first, no shortcuts tolerated, and practice, practice, practice until it’s done right. Above everything, Vogan is about kids, “his kids,” and they are many. …
Win or lose, Conestoga’s state championship baseball team never deviated from the routine. After each game the whole team would line up down the third-base line, catcher Scott Williams would stay at the plate, and Sonny DiMartini would hit an imaginary ball, then run the bases, receiving a pat on the back from the Conestoga team as he barreled around third base and came crashing into the waiting arms of Williams, who would cushion Sonny’s landing. DiMartini holds a special place in the heart of his teammates. The Conestoga sophomore has Down Syndrome and has been what Conestoga coach John …
The trajectory of the ball seemed to last longer than it should have, lengthy enough to cause John Vogan to rewind a portion of the season in his mind, before Alan Grodecki squeezed the final out of Conestoga’s remarkable, historic season. Vogan, the Pioneers’ coach, was able to spin back to some remarkable times that made him believe that this all was possible—that the 2011 Pioneers would become the first team in Conestoga history to ever win a PIAA Class AAAA state baseball championship. What’s more is the remarkable way the Pioneers did it: beating Spring-Ford, the very team that only a …
STATE COLLEGE—It was an epic battle between clearly the best two squads in the state. Neither team had ever won the state championship. Conestoga had never even made it to the final game. A three-run tenth inning led Conestoga to a 6-3 win over Spring-Ford and the first state baseball championship in Pioneers history. For the second time in four years, Spring-Ford would have to settle for runner-up status. The Rams, who had blazed their way to Medlar Field at Lubrano Park by capitalizing on their scoring chances and out slugging teams, had no answer for Conestoga pitcher Austin Little ( 5.2IP…
The Pioneers won their first state title Friday night in State College. It was Conestoga's first-ever apearance in the PIAA AAAA baseball finals. Click on the videos to see the trophy presentation; Sonny's run aorund the bases; interviews with coach John Vogan, Ryan Richter, Brendan O'Reilly, and Conestoga Athletic Director Patrick Boyle.
The Conestoga High School Pioneers are now the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Ahthletic Association AAAA Champions. Conestoga capped off a historic season for the school by defeating Division One champion Spring-Ford Rams 6-3 in a ten inning nail biter in State College. The game is the longest in PIAA tournament history, going ten innings. Regulation games for the high schools in the league are seven innings. It was the Pioneers' first-ever trip to the championship game and a chance to settle a score after losing to the division rival Spring-Ford Rams in a 22-11 in the Division 1 championship …
TE Patch brings you inning-by-inning updates as Conestoga takes on Spring-Ford at Penn State University for the Pensylvania Division AAAA chamoionship.
