The writing was on the wall … but positively so.
Pardon the cliche, but in this case, it’s almost certainly true.
A year ago, the area’s sports teams collectively produced one of the best Novembers in recent memory, the crescendo for which came the weekend of Nov. 20-21, when three entities — the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team in the Charleston Classic, the Portville girls volleyball team and Olean’s Alexis Trietley in the swimming pool, brought home titles, making for a “Championship Monday” edition of the Times Herald.
Making it more interesting, at least as it related to the high schools, was that almost every athlete involved in these successes was an underclassmen. So when signups were posted for these sports at the end of last school year, the writing was indeed on the wall for what would eventually transpire:
Unequivocally, the greatest single scholastic postseason that I can remember, and perhaps one of the most accomplished postseasons in Big 30 history.
FOR YEARS, you could essentially count on 3-5 teams — across all sports, over the entire school year — to make a run to the New York State Final Four, and even fewer to actually win it all. This fall, we had three New York teams or individuals WIN a state championship within the same WEEK … including two on the same weekend.
Last month, Allegany-Limestone’s Angelina Napoleon repeated as the NYS Class C cross country champion, the Fillmore boys soccer team, a year after falling in the final, won its first state title and the Portville girls volleyball team claimed another Class C crown, its seventh overall and sixth under coach Kelly Unverdorben.
Those feats alone probably make it one of the better all-time local postseasons.
Except those were far from the only achievements in that time.
In arguably the most notable of Novembers, an impressive 14 teams across four sports (girls volleyball, boys and girls soccer, football) played for sectional titles, with six winning championships, all six advancing to the Far West Regional and three reaching the NYS semifinals, including Randolph football.
(Here’s where we pause to also acknowledge the Portville boys soccer team, which won its first-ever sectional title, and both Ellicottville soccer teams, which captured their second-straight Class D crowns).
BUT AGAIN, this runs much deeper. After winning both as a junior in 2021, Napoleon seemed a lock to capture the sectional and state titles again this fall, and she did. But hers was just part of A-L’s girls’ cross country success.
The Gators won the Section 6 Class C2 championship, improving upon a second-place finish from 2021, and took second overall in Class C behind only East Aurora. A-L, in fact, placed just eight points behind the Blue Devils, who’d go on to win the team state Class C title, an indication of just how close the Gators were to being the fourth New York Big 30 entity to come back with a state crown.
A-L, which ranked as high as No. 3 in the state Class C poll, also had a second state qualifier in Lilianna Peters, who finished 28th overall. In total, the Big 30 had four representatives at the state meet, with Franklinville/Ellicottville’s Grant Cornell taking 45th in the Class D boys race and West Valley’s Olivia Harmony notching 18th in the girls Class D race.
Oh, and Napoleon? She’s not done, having finished second in the New York State Federation meet and making it to regionals, where she qualified for the national championships with a top 10 finish. Napoleon will now compete this weekend in the national finals in San Diego, extending not only her own cross country career, but the fruits of what this fall postseason has bore.
And still, the list goes on.
Megan Jackson, a Franklinville senior who competes for the combined Olean swimming and diving team, quietly put together almost as solid a season as any OHS swimmer who has come before her, which is saying something considering the exploits of her former teammate Trietley.
After taking these events on a nightly basis during the regular season, Jackson won both the 50 and 100 freestyle relays at the Section 6 Class B meet and then again at the overall Section 6 meet at Buffalo’s Flickinger Center. Not done there, she reached the podium in both of those events at the New York State Swimming and Diving Championships, placing third in the 100 free (:52.05) and fifth in the 50 free (23:81).
And once more, the Big 30 had an athlete essentially reach the pinnacle of his or her sport on the final weekend of the season.
YES, objectively speaking, this was as monumental a local postseason as any that have come before it, another indication that there’s as much high school talent, or more, in our corner of the state as any other.
And that’s to say nothing of the remarkable seasons forged by the Wellsville swimming and diving and girls tennis teams, both of which captured sectional titles, the former marking its third-straight, the state-qualifying diving campaign of Allegany-Limestone’s Michaella Rhodes and the achievements on the Pennsylvania side of the border, with both Bradford soccer teams defending their district titles and both Oswayo Valley volleyball and Port Allegany football making a run to the PIAA semifinals.
Now, we’ll take a breath … at least those of us in the TH sports department anyway.
And we’ll see what the winter campaign has in store.
(J.P. Butler, Bradford Publishing Company group sports editor, can be reached at jbutler@oleantimesherald.com)
