Shana Steigerwalt says that – win or lose Friday’s PIAA Class AAAA title game against Mt. Lebanon – it will be an emotional bus ride home from Shippensburg University.
“Shippensburg is a long three-hour ride, and I am just going to be full of tears because win or lose, it will be my last high school game ever,” Central Bucks South’s senior captain said. “It’s going to be happy tears or sad tears, and then I’ll go to graduation and say good-bye to everyone else. It’s going to be an overwhelming day.
“It’s so surreal. I can’t wrap my head around everything that’s happening.”
In a whirlwind week that includes finals, graduation and a whole lot of good-byes, Steigerwalt and fellow senior Taylre Stocks will be playing in a high stakes softball game for the state championship with a Titan squad that is much more than just a softball team.
“Honestly, I can’t explain how close we all are,” Steigerwalt said. “We’re more like a family.”
The senior captain paused and then re-phrased that thought.
“I would consider us a family rather than a team,” she said. “We’re there for each other on the softball field, off the softball field. It’s a special team.”
While it isn’t unusual to hear successful teams talk of their camaraderie, this Titan squad isn’t most teams. This is an unusual assortment of players.
Steigerwalt and Taylre Stocks are the team’s lone seniors. Pitcher Fran Carrullo and centerfielder Tyler Vitelli are the only juniors in the starting lineup.
The remaining six starters – Jae Epstein, Haileigh Stocks, Morgan Decker, Lauren Klepchick, Michelle Gessner and Dani London – are all sophomores.
“Honestly, they’re such a big part of our team,” Steigerwalt said. “We don’t even look at them as sophomores because they’re such a huge aspect of our team.
“They’re young, but they’re so talented that you forget what year they actually are because they offer so much to the team.”
While many are surprised by the make-up of this young Titan squad, Taylre Stocks isn’t one of them. She knew that a reunion with her younger sister and her friends was inevitable.
“I have known almost everyone on the team for so long,” the senior captain said. “I have been playing with them, and I’ve been watching them play with my sister (Haileigh’s) team.
“They have so much talent. It doesn’t matter what grade you’re in or how old you are. It’s only about how tough you play and if you can support your team and if you earn each other’s trust when you’re on the field – I don’t think it matters how old you are.”
Whatever the Titan’s secret, it’s all added up to something that borders on magical.
“This team is very different than any other team I have played on,” Steigerwalt said. “Many of us have known each other through past teams, and coming together as a team – we clicked. It just feels right.”
No one seems to mind a bit that the team’s top hitter – Morgan Decker – is a sophomore, and it doesn’t create jealousy when some of the upperclassmen have, on occasions, found themselves in the background while the sophomores have stolen the spotlight.
“We’re just so supportive of them,” Steigerwalt said. “We have been playing with the sophomores for two seasons.
“We respect each other. We know each other’s strengths, we know each other’s weaknesses, and we back each other up 100 percent.”
Not to be overlooked, according to coach Jennifer Robinson, is the significant role the seniors have played as mentors to the underclassmen.
“There are only two of them, and they have all these younger kids that they have to set the example for,” the Titans’ coach said. “They’re picking the younger ones up – ‘Don’t get down on yourselves.’
“They’re the ones keeping the young kids performing the way they perform.”
The reality that they are coming to the end of something special is starting to hit home for the seniors.
“It hit us today,” Steigerwalt said. “Tomorrow is our last practice.
“We still have the same mindset that we have had all year. We want this so bad, but we have to stay focused. You don’t want to get overwhelmed and let the pressure build up on you because you’re going to lose focus for the game, and you’re going to be stressing too much about it.”
“It’s starting to feel kind of nerveracking but exciting at the same time,” Taylre Stocks added. “With the end of school and graduation – I have my two finals tomorrow, and then I’m done.
“We have our last practice ever for South tomorrow, and then we have the game on Friday, which is our last game ever, so we have to make it a great game, no matter what happens.”
For Stocks and Steigerwalt, Friday’s game marks the final chapter in a story they began writing in their earliest playing days together.
“There were a lot of us back then, but it just dwindled down to me and Taylre,” Steigerwalt said. “It’s funny because Taylre’s dad (Bill Stocks) started me up in travel ball, so we started the journey together, and we’re ending the journey together. It’s special.”
“It’s going to definitely be emotional on Friday, no matter what,” Taylre Stocks added. “I’m really not much of a crier, but I guarantee you I’m going to be crying after the game.
“We’ve had a great season, and I had a great four years on the team. I’ve gotten to know some really amazing people through this team that I wouldn’t have met otherwise. I’ve been playing with my sister and everyone else for so long. It’s just been great.”
A great ride that undoubtedly will end with tears, no matter what the outcome of the game.
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