Poland, Champion, McDonald enjoy wet, wild championships

Spring 2011 in the Mahoning Valley will go down in the history books as one of the soggiest in recorded history. In April, 6.87 inches of rain fell on the Valley, and in May, our region was drenched with 8.32 inches of precipitation. Those totals make for the second wettest Aprils and Mays in the Valley in history, according to National Weather Service records that date back to 1896.

But for the high schools and communities of Poland, Champion and McDonald, 2011 also will go down in history as one certainly wet but wildly wonderful championship season.

The Vindicator congratulates the Poland and Champion high school softball teams for clinching the state championships in Divisions II and III, respectively, and to McDonald High for winning the state team track title in Division III.

Those gold medals shine brightly on the talents of the players, their coaches, their schools and the entire Mahoning Valley. Collectively, they preserve and strengthen our region’s stellar reputation as a bastion of powerhouse high-school athleticism.

Our teams of distinction

Consider those stupendous top-dog Bull Dogs from Poland. Junior pitcher Erin Gabriel fired a 10-strikeout, one-hitter, and freshman Taylor Miokovic broke a scoreless tie with a clutch sixth-inning hit to power Poland to a 4-0 win over LaGrange Keystone in the title game at Firestone Park in Akron over the weekend.

Consider those champion Champion Golden Flashes, veritable lightning rods on the softball diamond. The Flashes thundered to their Ohio championship with a lopsided 11-2 victory Saturday over Liberty Union in the Division III softball tournament in Akron. It also secured Champion the distinction of completing the season with a perfect 27-0 record, the only softball team in the entire Buckeye State to do so.

Finally, consider those red-hot Blue Devils of the McDonald High track team. In Columbus, McDonald used individual championships by Matthias Tayala and Miles Dunlap to win the Division III boys track and field championship.

Dunlap finished first in the 300-meter hurdles, second in the 110 hurdles and third in the 200. The other 20 points came from first-place victories from Tayala in the discus and shot put. The championship adds to the stupendous 55 state champs the school has garnered over the years.

Defying Mother Nature’s hex

Of course, this was no ordinary season for our Valley’s spring sports standouts. The record rains wreaked havoc on schedules and playing conditions throughout prime-time play in April and May. But our three state champions overcame Mother Nature’s hex and endured all the way to the top spot at the finish lines.

McDonald’s track coach Lou Domitrovich perhaps best sums up this singularly sopping season: “Each storm we’d go through, we’d see this rainbow that was following us. I told the guys, every cloud has a silver lining and in this case, it’s gold.”

McDonald, as well as Poland, Champion, state baseball runner-up Springfield and other high-performance Valley high school softball, baseball and track teams this spring used healthy doses of Domitrovich’s determination to battle the elements, to crush their competitors and to bring glory to their schools, their communities and the Mahoning Valley.

Those Bull Dogs, Flashes and Blue Devils have now earned the right to bask in the shining triumph of their achievements. We salute them.