Scholastic Notebook – 06/03/2014

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, June 3, 2014 | 11:49 PM

WPIAL baseball champions took it on the chin three times in the first round of the PIAA playoffs Monday. But history shows WPIAL champs often have trouble in the PIAA playoffs.

Take a look at past years and the statistics say that WPIAL champs have only a slightly better than 25 percent chance of making it to a PIAA title game.  

The PIAA championships started with one class in 1977, expanded to two classes in 1979, three classes in 1999 and four classes in 2005. Since the PIAA playoffs started in 1977 and through last year, there were 96 WPIAL champs. Only 26 of those 96 teams (27 percent) made it to a PIAA title game.

Overall, there have been 52 baseball teams from the WPIAL that have made it to PIAA championships teams. That means half of them (26) have been teams that did not win WPIAL titles.

The WPIAL has had the most trouble in the PIAA Class AAAA playoffs. The classification was formed in 2005. Since then, only two WPIAL teams have made it to the AAAA final – Seneca Valley in 2007 and Canon-McMillan in 2008.

Seneca Valley is this year’s WPIAL Class AAAA champ and the Raiders are still alive in this year’s PIAA playoffs after beating Moon, 4-2, in a first-round game Monday. The three WPIAL champs to lose in the first round were West Allegheny (AAA), Steel Valley (AA) and California (A).

The Quarterfinals of the PIAA playoffs are Thursday.

Feeling a Draft

The Major League Baseball draft is Thursday through Saturday and two WPIAL players could be taken in the first 10 rounds.

Blackhawk pitcher Brendan McKay and Norwin infielder J.J. Matijevic are both ranked by Baseball America among the top 200 players in the draft among college or high school players. Some are projecting McKay to be taken in the top five rounds. Matijevic is projected to go maybe 6-10.

It will be interesting to see how high both are drafted and if they sign with a MLB team. McKay has already signed with Louisville and Matijevic with Arizona.

McKay, who had a 72 1/3 innings scoreless streak stopped last week, is still in the PIAA playoffs. Matijevic and Norwin lost in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs. He was out of town the past week, working out for a few major-league teams.

Wrestling All-Americans

The Asics All-American Wrestling Team was released this week and the WPIAL is well-represented.

Two Franklin Regional wrestlers were selected to the 14-member first team. They were Devin Brown at 106 pounds and Spencer Lee at 113. The thing about Brown and Lee, though, is both haven’t been at Franklin Regional long. They both transferred from Saegertown to Franklin Regional before this school year.

Latrobe’s Luke Pletcher and Kittanning’s Jason Nolf made second-team All-American. Central Catholic’s Vincenzo Joseph, Canon-McMillan’s Solomon Chishko and Latrobe’s Zack Zavatsky made third team.

All-Star Baseball Sunday

The WPIAL Baseball Coaches Association All-Star Games will be Sunday at Kelly Automotive Park in Butler. The two games will feature 84 players. Class A will play Class AA at 1, and Class AAA will play Class AAAA at 4. Both games can be heard here on the MSA Sports Network.

Return of Swannie

Bill Swan will be back on a WPIAL basketball bench this season as a head coach.

Swan was named last week as the new boys basketball coach at Mount Pleasant. He was an assistant coach at Greensburg Central Catholic for three years but was out of coaching the past two.

Swan has head coaching experience. He was successful as Hempfield’s coach for eight seasons before being let go. Before that, he was Connellsville’s coach for three. Swan will continue to teach in the Hempfield district.

Big Jake Passes

WPIAL sports lost one of the good guys last week when Jake Cappa passed away.  Cappa died of cancer.

Cappa  was a successful football coach at Riverview and also the school’s athletic director for 32 years before retiring. He actually coached Verona for its final two years of existence in 1969-70 and then coached Riverview for 16 from 1986-2001 before retiring. He also was a physical education teacher for 35 years.

Cappa won a WPIAL title at Riverview in 1997 and made the Class A title game two other times. His all-time record was 129-59-6.

Cappa had four sons. One of his sons, Jacob, died earlier this year. His three other sons followed in his footsteps as coaches. John, who played at West Virginia, was Shady Side Academy’s coach for a few years. Jeff is the head coach at Wissahickon High in Eastern Pennsylvania while Jason will be in his first season as Riverview’s coach.

Jake Cappa was a man respected by many. He was in three halls of fame – Pennsylvania Football Coaches Association, Alle-Kiski and East Boros.

Tags: Blackhawk, Canon-McMillan, Franklin Regional, Latrobe