WPIAL Greatness Around

Chartiers Valley Girls basketball coach, Tim McConnell, talks to the team during a break.

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

If you are a student who attends Chartiers Valley High School, you might know how much WPIAL greatness that you are surrounded by. The students that you might have class with or the teachers that you might have could have been someone who has seen themselves in WPIAL greatness.

When you first think about Chartiers Valley, you automatically must think about Tim McConnell. I would love to have a debate with someone about who is the best WPIAL basketball coach of all time because I could simply research, find facts, and go to the games he coaches to show you why Tim should be considered as one of the best WPIAL basketball coaches ever. I could seriously back him up. Now, what most people don't know is that Tim is not just a basketball coach for the school, he is the Operations Coordinator for the school. A lot of you might be thinking like what the heck is an Operations Coordinator. Well, an Operations Coordinator is a position that focuses on bringing together employees, products, clients and other resources for a company. Tim McConnell does all those things for the school.

You would think that Tim would only come to the school to coach basketball; but, no. Tim does so much more for the school that the students there might not even know. All the students, in the school, are sitting in the classrooms and not even realizing that a WPIAL legend is also in the school throughout the day making sure Chartiers Valley does not go down the tube. If I had a nickel for every time the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette or the TRIB LIVE HSSN is writing articles about Tim McConnell.

Besides Tim McConnell, there are other people in the school that have had success throughout WPIAL sports. I am about to name a lot of teachers at that school that had success. I am pretty sure all the teachers that I am about to name will not mind if I talk about their success to the public. If they don't, they can just come up to my face and tell me to not mention them; but, really I don't think we'll have a problem.

William Evans and Diane Daeschner are both gym teachers at Chartiers Valley High School and they are also both WPIAL coaches. Evans coaches wrestling while Daeschner coaches both Boys and Girls tennis. Evans and Daeschner know what it is like seeing their teams go into the playoffs and what it takes to win. The reason why people throughout Western Pennsylvania know Evans and Daeschner is that even though they might not be coaching teams to WPIAL championships, they can coach their athletes to become respectful students that know what it is like to demonstrate proper sportsmanship. And, that's what high school sports is all about in turning student athletes to better human beings and turning them into individuals that knows what it takes to work and strive for something.

Mr. Zachary Smith is a chemistry teacher at Char Valley. He has experience in teaching AP Chemistry, Chemistry w/Lab and Applied Chemistry. Throughout the day students might look at Mr. Smith as just some guy who can just teach Chemistry. What some or maybe most of his students don't know about him is that he is coaching Bethel Park's Boys volleyball team and let me tell you, BP's Boys volleyball team is good. Right before the 2017 WPIAL Boys volleyball season, former Bethel Park Boys volleyball coach, Thomas Allman, decided that he wanted to be an assistant coach for the team and giving his former assistant, Zachary Smith, the head coaching position. Smith has been doing a pretty God darn good job so far as his first two season as head coach, he has managed his teams to not lose a game in their section (24-0 section record in the past 2 regular seasons). In the 2017 season, Smith's team almost made it to the 3A WPIAL championship game; but, they lost to Penn-Trafford by a score of 3-1 in the semifinals round. Also in the 2017 season, Bethel made it to the state playoffs; but, they lost to North Allegheny in the second round.

The 2018 season was better for the Bethel Park Boys volleyball team as they made it to the 3A WPIAL championship game; but, once again they lost to North Allegheny so no WPIAL championship once again for Mr. Smith. When the Blackhawks got into the state playoffs, they did not win in round 1 so their season was over. Little does Mr. Smith's Chemistry students know that he is just short of coaching the Bethel Park Boys volleyball team to a WPIAL championship. Smith attended Bethel Park High School as a student and he was a volleyball player under coach Thomas Allman and in 2008 Smith played in the WPIAL 3A Boys volleyball championship game when Bethel Park played North Allegheny; but Bethel Park lost 3-0. I swear North Allegheny just has Bethel Park's number; it's crazy.

Let's go downstairs, and see how Mr. Harhai is doing. Mr. Dave Harhai is seriously one of the friendliest teachers at Chartiers Valley and what makes him so special is that you can tell he is like a father figure. Harhai is a volunteer firefighter for West Homestead and is the Girls varsity basketball coach at Steel Valley. This season, Harhai's team has not been doing well as they have an overall record of 2-12 and a section record of 2-6. It makes sense why there record is not as good as it was in year's past because every single girl on the team is an underclassmen. Seriously, the team has 8 freshman and 7 sophomores, their experience is not there yet. It's been a while since I have heard of a Girls basketball team without any juniors or seniors on it and just underclassmen. That's crazy.

Mr. Jeff Ackermann is also a teacher at Chartiers Valley as he works in the engineering department. He missed some of the school year due to his son Bryson and the illness that he has. Everyone at CV and throughout Pennsylvania have helped Mr. Ackermann throughout this tough time in his life. The fact that the man is still coaching Pine-Richland Boys basketball and leading the team to a lot of wins is impressive due to the fact that in the back of his head he is thinking about his son a lot. This season, Pine-Richland has an opportunity to win another WPIAL championship and you can tell that the players on the team are trying to win a WPIAL championship for Mr. Ackermann. This season Pine-Richland basketball player, Dan Petcash, has been playing lights out as he wants to get his third WPIAL championship in basketball. This is Petcash's team as this is the first season he does not have his friends Phil Jurkovec and Andrew Kristofic on the basketball team. Pine-Richland has other good players on the team as Mr.Ackermann expects every player on the team to make plays when they get their oppotunities on the basketball court. Ackermann has won a total of five WPIAL basketball championships (3 with Moon and 2 with Pine-Richland) and a total of one PIAA basketball championships (1 with Moon). Ackermann is truly WPIAL legend and a lot of his students at Chartiers Valley might not know how much of a legend he is. Ackermann is somewhere in his mid-40's so we might see him have so much more success as time goes on.

Do you happen to know who Scott Seltzer is? He is the President of the WPIAL. Yeah, you probably have heard of who he is, I mean he is basically at every WPIAL board meeting and is basically the top dog of the WPIAL. Well, besides being the man in charge of the WPIAL, he is the assistant superintendent of Chartiers Valley School District. That's right, the assistant superintendent is the President of the WPIAL. I really bet that less than 35% of students at Chartiers Valley High school knew that their assistant superintendent is the president of one of the most famous high school sports organizations in the eastern part of the United States.

Let's talk about the 2018-19 Char Valley Girls basketball team. The students attending the school might have some classmates play on the Girls basketball team. This team has enough potential to win a state championship and the whole team knows that. In the past 10 years, this 18-19 Char Valley Girls basketball team has to be one of the most talented and most recognized teams that the media has ever covered. You know when you walk into the high school that there is a chance that you can see one of the girls' basketball players and know that they have a shot at history. If they do not lose a game, they could even be considered one of the best WPIAL Girls basketball teams in WPIAL history.

One of the business teachers at Chartiers Valley High School won a WPIAL and PIAA volleyball championship for Baldwin High School in the early 1990s. You never know, you might have had a teacher or a professor in college that has won a WPIAL and PIAA championship and has been a part of WPIAL greatness.

Did I mention that former Mars Area basketball player and current Notre Dame Mens basketball player, Robby Carmody, has cousins that attend Chartiers Valley High School? Well, he does. If you want to figure out who his cousins are you're going to have to go to the high school and start asking around.

The head coach of the Moon Area Girls basketball team, Judy Powell, has nieces who attend Chartiers Valley High School. That's just another fun fact that maybe you would like to know.

So, if you think about it, there are currently teachers, faculty members, administrative members and students at Chartiers Valley that have been a part of WPIAL success. I bet there are more teachers and more students, at Chartiers Valley, that have been a part of WPIAL success or have family members that have been apart of WPIAL success. There are even students who have family members that have been a part of WPIAL greatness.