West Middlesex's record run will be remembered

In a few hours, the world will be bringing down the curtain on the year 2006. The big ball in Times Square will be falling and 2007 will be arriving with all its fanfare. The past 12 months, however, were filled with surprises and sorrows, victories and defeats and heartbreaks and happiness.
Wars, famines and devastating storms continued to plague the universe. You name it and we've had it.
But of all the big stories of the year, especially in the world of sports, we had one right here in Mercer County that stands on its own. It will become a beacon for young athletes for years to come. I'm talking about the West Middlesex High School football team and coach Brian Hoffman.
Oh, yeah. The Big Reds lost, 56-14, several weeks ago in the PIAA Class A state championship game in Hershey. Big deal. The Big Reds, who came into the contest bearing a 15-0 record, just couldn't compete with the defending five-time state champion Tigers of Southern Columbia. The Tigers really had too many big guns.
"Angels in the end zone"
I'm not making excuses for the Big Reds. They certainly didn't need any, especially in the way they utilized their "Angels in the End Zone" to hurdle two tremendous football teams in the playoffs, Coudersport and Clairton. The nickname was given to the Big Reds by WPIC sports announcer, Bob Greenburg.
Those two victories were miracle finishes for the Reds, triumphs which enabled them to stay on course and continue their march to Hershey.
The loss to Southern Columbia had to be a hard pill to swallow for West Middlesex, especially after the way the Big Reds carried their banner so high throughout the campaign.
There is a lesson to be learned in defeat. Losing is just not the way to go though in this world we live in today. There will be pain but that will disappear in a short time. To win you have to compete and West Middlesex certainly earned that right with its courageous play all season long.
The thing to remember about that loss is you DID compete in the state title game, an honor not many Pennsylvania teams can claim and you lost with dignity, which in some ways is even more important than winning.
West Middlesex is not a big school and if you travel across the state line into Ohio, few people even know that the town exists. But two weeks ago, the roar of the Big Reds was heard far and wide. This Big Red team will definitely serve as a role model for future West Middlesex teams and that's the way it should be, win or lose.
After all, how many teams finished with a 15-1 record?
PAC honorees
Kyle Brown, a 285-pounder, continues to grind out big mat wins for the Thiel College Tomcats.
For the third time this season, the big senior from Meadville High was named the Presidents' Athletic Conference wrestler of the week.
Brown went 5-0 to capture the 285-pound title at the Ohio Northern Invitational.
The event's third seed, Brown posted a 4-2 win over second-seed Ryan Bowes of Heidelberg in the semifinals, and a 3-2 victory over top-seed Jose Navarro of Indianapolis in the championship. Navarro, a 2006 All-American, is ranked fourth in Division II this season.
The Presidents' Athletic Conference recently named Westminster College junior men's basketball player Craig Hannon (Union High) as the PAC men's basketball player of the week.
Hannon averaged 20 points per game that week, including a game-high 25 in a 102-97 non-conference win at Allegheny, then scored 15 more in an 88-73 win over Washington & amp; Jefferson.
A 6-foot-2 junior guard, Hannon scored the 1,000th point of his career in the W & amp;J game to become the 32nd Titan men's basketball player to reach the milestone. He also shot 43.3 percent from the field during the week, including 46.2 percent from 3-point range.