It was posted on the Elk-McKean Senior League’s Facebook page and immediately caught my attention.
The local little league baseball team — which pulled kids from Kane, Ridgway, Johnsonburg and Wilcox — that flew through the Pennsylvania state championships in DuBois without a loss, and made it to the championship game of the regionals, did so against maybe all odds.
According to the group’s page, Elk-McKean was able to pull prospective players from a pool of just over 9,000 residents. By comparison, Delaware, which topped Elk-McKean in the championship game of the East Regionals in Maine, had an area of over 71,00 people to choose from.
Providence, Rhode Island, meanwhile had a population of 180,393 to pull from. Elk-McKean topped them 13-12.
Caroline County, Maryland had 33,193. Elk-McKean bested them 7-6 on a walk-off.
It’s the same down the line throughout all five of the team’s victories, and highlighting those numbers makes the team’s run all the more impressive.
Elk-McKean won last year at the junior league level, and head coach Casey Zimmerman and his squad has pulled off one of the better athletic feats this area has seen in some time again this year.
“Our boys are pure competitors,” Zimmerman posted on the page. “They expected to win even though the odds weren’t with them. They were truly disappointed when it didn’t happen. And rightfully so, because even though they were the youngest team there, they possess the qualities required to compete at the highest levels. The kids knew that doing the unthinkable two years in a row was so close to becoming a reality, so it surely hurt when the last out was made.”
The roster (Domenic Allegretto, Luke Zimmerman, Luke Ely, Collin Porter, Harley Morris, Carson Whiteman, Camron Marciniak, Kaden Dennis, Jefferson Freeburg, Dalton Stalhi, Reese Novosel, Ethan Wells, Aiden Zimmerman, Caden Smiley) deserve one last hat tip for another remarkable season. And the good news: as Zimmerman pointed out, it’s a young team that certainly seems poised to be back in the national spotlight next summer.
Other notes heading into the weekend….
—— A week from today will mark the 46th running of the Big 30 Charities Classic football game. Per usual, this year’s contest is marked for a 7 o’clock start at Bradford’s Parkway Field and has a bevy of activities beforehand, including a parade and tailgate. I covered my first Big 30 game for The Era last year, and I was taken aback with how much support the game has within the community and amongst the players and coaches. It’s evidenced by the tens of thousands of dollars the committee has raised since 1974. Pennsylavnia has won the last three games by a combined 51 points, but will certainly have its hands full against a talented New York squad.
The Keystone State did catch a big break when it was announced Thursday that Pioneer’s Mike Rigerman had dropped out of the game. Not only was Rigerman (committed to Division II Findlay University in Ohio) named the 2019 Big 30 Player of the Year in football, but he also picked up hardware as the top wrestler in the Big 30 this past winter. Pennsy has a talented offensive roster of its own, equipped with three of the top rushers in District 9, and several supremely talented linemen up front to block. In my opinion, it’ll be a close, high-scoring battle.
—— Also on the horizon next week is the second annual District 9 football media day at Aiello’s Cafe. The Era will have full coverage of the event on Wednesday and it’ll set in motion the paper’s coverage of the fall sports season. Our annual football preview section is set to publish on Thursday, August 22, a day before the season kicks off. With the merger of Clarion-Limestone and Clarion, D-9 is down to just 23 programs. It’ll be a competitive season in the area, as many of the top performers and District title winners from a season ago have since graduated, and it is certainly geared up to be anyone’s race to earn a trip to the postseason.
