Fox Chapel boys golf coach Bryan Deal compares the Peters Township golf program to the New York Yankees and New England Patriots.
“They are the gold standard,” Deal said. “They are the team everyone wants to beat. I love competing against them to see how we stack up.”
Peters Township, the returning WPIAL Class AAA team champion, has reached the WPIAL finals 12 of the past 13 years, winning five times. The architect of the program has been Dave Kuhn, who took over the program in 2000.
“We've been a very consistent program,” Kuhn said. “What we've tried to do is build a good feeder program, and that has built a tradition of success.”
One of Kuhn's first projects after taking over was to build up the junior varsity program and an elementary feeder program where youths can start playing in first grade. The results have helped Peters Township compile the depth to remain a consistent contender.
“Our eighth, ninth and 10th players probably could start for a lot of teams,” Kuhn said. “We've been developing players for the varsity since 2004.”
Peters Township is off to another good start in 2015, winning the Tri-State Coaches Association tournament and combining with the Fox Chapel boys to win the annual Milton S. Kuhns Memorial against Central Dauphin and Cumberland Valley.
The team returns five of its six starting players, including seniors Alec Stopperich, Jake Sollon and Connor Schmidt, from last year's squad that finished third at the PIAA team tournament.
Peters Township never has won a state title, and Stopperich said this is the team that finally can do it.
“We had high expectations after winning the WPIAL championship, and we came up short by finishing third in states,” Stopperich said. “It was a big disappointment because we had played well all through the year. We felt like we passed all the tests, but we failed the final step.”
But he said he hopes the team has learned from that disappointment.
“We lost one player, Ben Morgret, who was a good player, but I think we'll have the same strength, and maybe we're a little bit better,” Stopperich said. “The expectations will be a little higher because we're really hoping for a state championship. It would be real amazing, the first one at Peters Township. We've always had a good team, but we've never really got it down.
“We put pressure on ourselves because we know that we're a really good team, and we feel that personally we have the best team around and that we can beat anybody on any day. I think sometimes we get ahead of ourselves, and that's what we did last year. We need to focus on this year. We can't think about WPIALs; we have to think about the next match.”
Fox Chapel, with returning WPIAL champion Anthony Cordero and Alex Lawson, as well as Pine-Richland, Upper St. Clair, Indiana and Latrobe are teams hoping to challenge Peters Township in Class AAA.
In Class AA, defending WPIAL champion Sewickley Academy, which returns four of six starters, is expected to be the team to beat. Burgettstown, Neshannock and South Fayette could contend.
Central Valley's girls team, the returning WPIAL and PIAA Class AAA champions, return five of six starters, while the Peters Township girls, who placed third in the state, should again battle with North Allegheny for WPIAL supremacy.
In Class AA, the Sewickley Academy girls return three of five starters from a team that finished second in the state.
Ready to defend
Greensburg Central Catholic junior Olivia Zambruno is looking forward to defending her WPIAL and PIAA Class AA titles.
But she knows it won't be easy. Breathing down her neck are Freeport senior Audrey Clawson, the WPIAL runner-up and PIAA third-place finisher; Neshannock senior Marissa Kirkwood, who finished fourth in the WPIAL and PIAA; and Zambruno's freshman sister Abby.
“I'm excited for the season,” Olivia Zambruno said. “I'll have to play well.”
Cordero, who finished 10th in the state, said he's excited to defend his WPIAL title. He knows he'll have to play a lot better and said playing rounds with one of the top amateurs in Pittsburgh, Sean Knapp, has helped him.
“He's got me thinking differently,” Cordero said. “He makes it simple by telling me to just worry about hitting shots.”
Sewickley Academy junior Jason Li will look to defend his state title in Class AA. He placed 12th in the WPIAL tournament, which was won by Quaker Valley junior Chris Tanabe.
Paul Schofield is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at pschofield@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Schofield_Trib.
