The excitement continues this weekend, being fresh off of our two high school graduations on Thursday and Friday.
It’s a great time for both Pittston Area and Wyoming Area to see their graduates get their diplomas, closing one chapter in their lives and starting a new one.
When you’re 18 years old it really does seem like the world is your oyster. I never knew what that saying meant and still don’t, unless of course I ask Siri or Alexa.
Little do we know, or realize, how critical the ages between 18 and 22 are so important. What you do in those years really does set the tone or the foundation of the rest of your life.
It’s kind of ironic how society says kids don’t know much of anything, but yet, from 18 to 22, you are supposed to know exactly what you want to do for the rest of your life.
I’ve said it so often, I feel like a broken record, but I always admired people who know what they want to do in their life during those four years or even earlier. It’s an extremely tough decision at that age.
Wyoming Area has an unusual situation this year regarding graduation.
Even though the school graduated a shade under 150 students, the varsity baseball team is forging on for a first-ever state title run. They play a semi-final game on Monday, June 14 against Bonner-Prendie at a site yet to be determined as of press time.
Bonner-Prendie is a Catholic High School and the name is short for Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Pendergast. The school is located on a 44-acre campus in Drexel Hill outside of Philadelphia.
A few years ago I had to cover Abington Heights High School graduation and the baseball team was in the hunt for the state playoffs as well, and on the day of graduation, they had a playoff game.
Long story short, the team lost in the playoff and arrived back to Clarks Summit just minutes before the senior class had to start the graduation ceremony.
The senior baseball players, some still in spikes and baseball uniforms, had enough time to put on their gown and trade their ball caps for a graduation cap and jump in line.
It was one of the saddest graduations I’ve ever had to cover, but yet, it was the happiest day for those seniors.
Five Wyoming Area seniors will be graduating from the baseball team, and I wonder how it will feel being a graduate but yet still playing for your school.
Not looking ahead but I am going to anyway. If the Warriors win on Monday against Bonner-Prendie, the final will be played on Friday, June 18, at Medlar Field, Penn State University. They would play the winner of the other semi-final between Montour and New Castle.
For a school that never had state champions in its history, it is possible that the baseball team could follow footsteps of the football team in 18 months. Fingers crossed for the Warriors.
I hope all of Greater Pittston can feel good about the Warriors’ trek to the state finals.
I’ve always felt that if one of either of the schools does well against anyone from out of the area, we all win.
Even with the Warriors state championship title in December 2019, there was so many of the students on that team that had family and friends from the Pittston Area. A perfect example is the DeLuca family.
Dante DeLuca was the starting quarterback for the Warriors and his dad, Carl, was a starting quarterback at Pittston Area. Bloodlines run deep into each side of the Susquehanna River.
I consider myself very fortunate to be able to cover both sides of the river. I really do get to see the best of both sides and you know what, other than geographical differences, it’s not much different.
There are a lot of club sports in which students from Pittston Area and Wyoming Area play on the same team. A few decades ago, that was an impossibility and there was always that line between the two school districts.
The line was more than the river that flows between the two districts, and for a long time, that line was everything from dislike to hatred. I’m glad that is no longer.
You know, there are still a lot of people that believe the two districts should merge like they did in the Wilkes-Barre area.
Enrollments have dropped dramatically over the last 45 to 50 years. My class had 315 graduates at Wyoming Area, this year there are 149.
Same situation at Pittston Area. In the 1970s, the district was graduating well over 450 students, and this year it was 238.
It may just come down to economics that may have the two districts to merge.
There is a lot of political ego between the two districts, and that may be the last stumbling block from making a merger happen, but for me, standing in between it all, I can see it happening and I can see we could have a powerhouse in academics and in sports.
It could happen, it may happen.
Quote of the week
“Take pride in how far you’ve come. Have faith in how far you can go. But don’t forget to enjoy the journey.” — Michael Josephson
Thoughts of the week
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, dream, discover.” — H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Bumper stick
“Success doesn’t rush. The greatest reward is the journey!” — Oscar Wilde
