In days before multiple classes, A-K Valley’s Davids took down Goliaths for WPIAL baseball gold

By: George Guido
Tuesday, May 24, 2022 | 5:56 PM

The WPIAL baseball playoffs are underway for the 108th tournament, and it is amazing how things have evolved over the years.

Before 1979, there was just one enrollment class. Now there are six.

The David-vs.-Goliath analogy can be way overused in sports, but in the first 66 years of the WPIAL baseball tournament, the trite notion had plenty of examples. Just getting into the playoffs wasn’t easy. Only section winners made the WPIAL postseason.

Take the 1965 Arnold Lions. One of the Alle-Kiski Valley’s smallest schools, Arnold defeated much larger schools and brought home the WPIAL title.

The Lions opened the playoffs with a 5-2 victory over Greensburg Salem. An 8-0 win over North Hills followed. In the semifinals, Arnold bested Gateway, a school with about five times the student body.

There were no PIAA playoffs at the time, so the WPIAL scheduled its playoff dates around the Pirates schedule so the league could secure Forbes Field for the title game. Arnold was a decided underdog against powerhouse Beaver Falls.

It didn’t matter as the Lions posted an 11-1 rout. The joy in Arnold, however, was short-lived. The school district, covering just three-quarters of a square mile, was dissolved 16 days later as the New Kensington-Arnold School District was created.

The final Arnold athletic event was on May 20, 1967: a 4-1 baseball loss to New Kensington, the school it would merge with less than three months later.

Another small school, Bell Township, with fewer than 100 male students, won the 1943 WPIAL crown with a 10-0 victory over much-larger Charleroi at Forbes Field. Bell’s players wore different uniforms, as the tiny school system couldn’t afford one standard uniform. The first baseman wore tennis shoes.

Two years later, first-year school West Deer made the WPIAL title game, losing to McKeesport. At the time, West Deer was a conglomeration of five coal-patch neighborhoods and abundant farmland.

Another small school that made a remarkable climb was Franklin Township. The school represented a then-rural area now known at Murrysville. The school was nicknamed the Longhorns.

In the 1951 WPIAL title game, the Longhorns defeated Mt. Pleasant Hurst, 5-2. In 1962, the school merged with Export to form Franklin Regional. In 1974, Franklin Township became the Municipality of Murrysville under a home rule charter.

It didn’t take long for some newer schools to win a WPIAL championship. In just its fourth year, Kiski Area brought home WPIAL gold. The Cavaliers headed to Forbes Field on June 20, 1966, to play Gateway for WPIAL honors. There was, however, one person missing: the coach.

Harold Egelsky was in Bloomington, Ind., taking tests that day as a prelude for a trip to the Soviet Union.

It was the height of the Cold War, and the U.S. State Department mandated tests before Egelsky could head for Russia on a fellowship grant.

Assistant coach Al Vesliecky took over the team, and Kiski Area emerged with a 4-2 victory in a game televised live by WQED Channel 13.

In the first WPIAL title game played at Three Rivers Stadium in 1971, third-year Highlands knocked off Ellwood City to win the WPIAL championship.