For years, the boys volleyball banner in the gym was blank, not one section title to remember. In 2020 there was hope that one of the most skilled teams the program ever had could change that until the COVID pandemic halted and eventually ended the season. Many were disappointed, but others knew this was just the beginning and the future was bright for the program.
Three years later, the Titans entered the season ranked as the ninth best team in the nation by USA Today.
“The ranking didn’t affect me as much, but I knew the group I had and I knew the potential that we had to compete at a high level,” head coach Mr. Paul Stadelman said.
Coach Stadelman is no rookie to coaching great teams, having been at the helm of numerous girls and boys volleyball teams that have gone on to achieve success over the years.
The 2023 team was a tightly knit group of players who had been playing together since middle school, and some longer than that. This level of chemistry helped the team hit the ground running.
“But no matter how disciplined we say we actually are, we still have fun in practice. Each of these practices adds to our team building chemistry, and it makes it feel like less of a job and more of an opportunity to be able to play for the school. Things get hard but we still have fun because of the group we have,” junior Zac Wurzer said.
The season seemed nearly perfect, with a huge win early in the season against rival North Allegheny for the first time in 10 years. They used this momentum to go on a scorching hot run, which included beating NA, the 23-time WPIAL champions, again in regular season play.
After going 13-1 and earning the first seed in the section for playoffs, the Titans defeated Upper St. Clair, Canon-McMillan, and then the Tigers again in the WPIAL championship game to gain the program’s first WPIAL title.
“We had like 200 kids there, 200 of our friends cheering. It was just a great feeling to actually represent our school in a positive way. And then on the way home, we got our own police escort. We carried our trophy home and there’s these fire trucks there and it was just a great feeling,” Wurzer said.
The turnout that Shaler Area brought to the first PIAA playoff game was one for the ages. Once people saw that the Titans were playing at home, they knew that there was no reason not to be there. The crowd showed up and so did the boys. They beat Warwick 3-0.
“When we played Warwick at home, that was a special thing for me with the amount of people that were there and seeing fifth and sixth graders who are aspiring to be players sitting in the front row with seventh and eighth graders who are watching all of this and soaking it in. From a program standpoint, as a head coach, seeing the young kids as a part of it, looking up to the high school players as role models and almost like superstars, that’s pretty cool,” Mr. Stadelman said.
After beating Warwick, the boys beat Canon-McMillan again, but it was not easy. The Titans lost the first two sets before rallying to win the final three. They then beat Central York to advance to the state championship.
The team traveled to Penn State to battle the Parkland Trojans on June 17. After a long bus ride, the boys stepped out onto the court and heard cheering from fans young and old.
“Going to Penn State and looking out and seeing my entire class of 2014 in shirts they had in 2014 for volleyball, because they all made an effort to reunite and get back together and go there, that was really exciting,” Mr. Stadelman said.
The Titans battled hard, but ultimately fell to the Trojans 0-3.
Junior Logan Peterson earned the title as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s 2023 Boys Volleyball Player of the Year, as well as being selected to the Pennsylvania Coaches Association’s 3A All-State team. Juniors Dante Palombo and Cam Miller were selected for the second team All-State.
Although it was not a favorable outcome, the Titans made state history. The boys volleyball, girls softball, and boys baseball team had all made it to the state championship game of their sports.
On June 20, sirens were blaring. Fire trucks and police cars were gathered in front of Shaler Area High School. If you were at home you might have thought something was wrong, but that could not have been further from the truth. The school’s boys volleyball, baseball, and softball teams each made it to their respective state championship, something that had never been done before by any school. History was made, and it was time to celebrate and even look ahead.
“We made history with the other teams, but our goal was to win the state championship, so we still didn’t complete our goal, despite how good this season we had. I feel like everybody is going to be playing with a chip on their shoulder next year,” Wurzer said.
