Entering the season, Valley View High School softball coach Mia Wascura had high hopes.
In her second year as coach, Wascura thought her girls could bring home a state title.
On Thursday, hopes happened.
Valley View won the PIAA Class 4A Girls Softball state championship by beating Kennard-Dale High School 6-0 and earned one of the six annual state softball titles.
“Six high schools out of over almost ... 700 get to hold that gold (each year), you know? That's incredible,” Wascura said Friday. “Who's to say it'll ever happen again? But we're going to bask in the moment. Winning that state championship is the pinnacle of success. It's the highest of highs so you know, it feels pretty darn good.”
State championship reception
The Cougars returned home with a police escort Thursday evening and celebrated the school’s third state softball championship, all by shutouts.
Valley View defeated Philipsburg-Osceola High School 1-0 in 2000 to win the PIAA Class 2A championship.
The 2013 team won the PIAA Class 3A title by defeating Fort LeBoeuf High School, 5-0. Valley View played in the Class 3A championship game in 2012 but lost 2-1 to Big Spring High School.
Last season, the Cougars lost in the state playoff quarterfinals.
Senior pitcher Taylor Cawley didn't play last season during playoffs because of a devastating knee injury. Cawley returned this season and pitched the shutout on Thursday.
Valley View coach credits team effort
Wascura credited a long list of other talented, hard-working players — Cawley and several others will play for Division I college programs next year — and assistant coaches who consistently prepared for games.
“We planned and prepped with game film, with statistics, and you're only as good as the people you surround yourself with,” she said. “We spray chart every team we play.”
Spray charts refer to mapping where opposing players usually hit balls. Knowing that helps teams plan what pitches to throw.
“Without them (the assistant coaches), the success just it wouldn't be possible, because it truly does take a village,” Wascura said.
Wascura, a Valley View graduate, former player and current school counselor, admired the way her players put mistakes or poor play behind them.
“We always celebrate positives, we flush negatives,” she said. “We have to have a short memory with negative things that happen, but learn from them. They were good at that. These kids, oh my God, they were fantastic at that ... That's why they won the state championship. They were able to make adjustments. Our focus all year long, not just the state championship game ... was one pitch, one inning at a time.”
Cawley, whose two-hit shutout came in her last game as a Cougar, said the big win hadn't sunk in yet. For her, the win was especially sweet.
Cawley suffered knee ligament and double meniscus tears after playing only six games during her freshman season. She re-tore the meniscus and missed her junior season, too.
"To come back and finish my senior year with...a state championship and to do it all with my best friends, it feels amazing," she said.
Cawley said she felt confident all game long, mainly because of her teammates.
"I knew that I just had to go in and hit my spots and my defense would have my back," she said. "My offense really performed. To put six runs up in a state championship game is really good."
The team saw plenty of blue, gold and white in the stands because the game was played at Penn State University's main campus in State College, but Cawley said arriving home to a parade and a home stadium filled with supporters was "amazing."
"It was just such a great feeling to know that they had our backs the whole entire season," she said.
Cawley's softball career will continue at Binghamton University, where she will study accounting, but she said she'll always be a Cougar at heart.
"To go out state champions like, I feel like I'll always be a part of the program," she said.
