Knoch closes every postgame huddle with the same phrase: “It pays to be a winner.”
The WPIAL baseball champion Knights' slogan dates from a preseason training session with Navy SEAL team-building organization Stonewall Solutions, a day that helped Knoch forge tight bonds that lasted through the season.
“We've really been modeling our morals after the Navy SEALs and having each other's back, making sure you're not playing for yourself, you're playing for each other — you're playing for your family,” senior shortstop Chris Law said. “That's really what our team is about this year, and that's all we've really been working toward: being a close-knit family and playing our game. It has been paying off for us, and hopefully we can keep going.”
Knoch coach George Bradley brought Stonewall Solutions in for a training session in March, the first time he had done so. The organization works on team-building with high school, college and professional sports teams.
In addition to about an hour of classroom time learning about the Navy, the players did outdoors team-building exercises, such as an obstacle course and buddy carries.
“One of the biggest things they taught us is one step at a time, just taking it one game at a time,” senior designated hitter Jordan Kowalski said.
Knoch (20-2) is putting some of those lessons to use this postseason.
Knoch will play Montour (14-10) in the PIAA quarterfinals on Thursday at a time and site to be determined.
Although the Knights are in the midst of the best playoff run in program history — they won their first WPIAL title last week and captured their first PIAA tournament victory Monday — they're still focusing just on their next game.
“It's nice that it's school history, but right now we've got tunnel vision,” senior catcher Asa Adams said. “We're not really focused on what's going on behind us and what we've done. We're more focused on what we can do now and what we can continue to do.”
More than that, Knoch took the team-building messages to heart. Law, a four-year member of the squad, said this is the closest team he has been on and traced part of that back to the Stonewall Solutions training.
“We just have fun. We don't take the game too seriously,” Law said. “We take the game seriously when we step out on the diamond, but besides that, we're just playing to have fun. We're playing the game we love. It's great to be playing with all these guys. Being as tight as we are as friends and brothers, it's just great. You can just see the chemistry on the field, and I love it.”
The tight relationship leads to some joking around, even in some of the most potentially stressful times: before the WPIAL championship game against West Allegheny and again in the PIAA first-round game against Punxsutawney.
Knoch had just seen the potential final out nullified by a catcher's interference call against Adams, and the next batter reached on an error to put the tying run at second and go-ahead run at first. Yet when Bradley called a team meeting on the mound, he discovered the players were laughing.
“I firmly believe you're a product of your entire package — whatever you experience, it makes you stronger,” Bradley said. “I was going crazy, but they're laughing. That's how you play the game, nice and loose, because they've been there before and they've done it.”
To Law, that moment came down to trust in teammates — he believed someone would make the play to win the game, which second baseman Mike McCarty did by fielding a sharp ground ball and getting the final out at first base.
Now the hope is that trust and belief in each other will continue to carry the Knights through the PIAA playoffs.
“We're just playing to win a state championship now, and playing baseball with your friends is amazing,” Law said. “We don't want to take it for granted. We're just having fun out there.”
Doug Gulasy is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at dgulasy@tribweb.com or via Twitter @dgulasy_Trib.
