WPIAL Basketball All-Decade Team: Ambassadors of the new millenium

(From top-left, going clockwise) Revis, DiMichele, Pryor, Jeter, McCauley

(NOTE: For those readers not aware of what 'WPIAL' stands for, it's an acronym for 'Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League', which is the largest high school athletic district in the nation and has 132 participants in basketball)

All hail the kings.

As one of the most exciting decades in western Pennsylvania sports history nears its end, I deemed it appropriate to come up with my WPIAL Basketball All-Decade Team.

A lot of thought and self-debate went into this team, and while I may not exactly be Deuce Skurcenski (http://www.myspace.com/deucethestatman), I've been around the block a time or two when it comes to WPIAL basketball.

My father has been a head coach in the WPIAL for as long as I've been alive sans 2002 and 2003 thanks in large part to three spineless people that will remain anonymous. Anyway, all I did growing up was eat, sleep and breathe WPIAL basketball. I still do to this day, which is why I even went through the process of coming up with an All-Decade team.

It was just a normal way of life for me as I attended all of my dad's games, practices and off-season workouts and observed as he broke down film of upcoming opponents. I'd even tag along on scouting trips to gyms all throughout the greater Pittsburgh area as he'd attend the games of teams he'd face later in season to get a live look at what he'd be going up against as well as take notes on them from the stands.

I also played my entire basketball career in the WPIAL and faced some outstanding competition this decade, having my share of long nights against some great players. A couple of them are on this team.

So many players have come through the first decade of the new millenium in the WPIAL, and a number of them have legitimate cases to be members of the All-Decade squad. However, only five can be selected, and the five I've chosen, in my opinion, are the epitome of greatness at the high school level and have forever etched their names in WPIAL basketball lore.

All five of these players had the ability to put their respective teams on their shoulders at any given moment and showed divine leadership, character and composure while on the court. Beyond what they achieved throughout their high school careers, they've proven to be quality people off the court and all have used athletics to their advantage in becoming the successes they are today.

Enough preface though. Let's unveil this squad.

POINT GUARD - ADAM DIMICHELE (STO-ROX HIGH SCHOOL, CLASS OF 2004)

There may have been point guards throughout the decade that could put the ball through the hoop better (I.E. Blackhawk's Brandon Fuss-Cheatham), but nobody could control a game quite like Sto-Rox's Adam DiMichele.

DiMichele was best at what every coach looks for in a point guard: making his teammates better. His senior year statistics are a reflection of that: 13.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals per game. With numbers like those, you don't even have to have seen DiMichele play to know something good happened when the ball was in his hands.

The most glaring number, and the anchor behind DiMichele's selection, is 105-15. That was Sto-Rox's win-loss record in DiMichele's four years, including three straight WPIAL championship game appearances from 2001-2003, winning back-to-back in 2001 and 2002, and a PIAA state championship his senior year of 2004. In that game, DiMichele closed out his illustrious career in a fitting manner, recording a double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds in the Vikings' 62-53 win over perennial AA power Camp Hill Trinity.

Basketball is only the beginning of DiMichele's well-documented high school career. DiMichele is arguably the most successful three-sport athlete in the WPIAL's rich athletic history. DiMichele, along with scoring over 1,000 career points in basketball, broke all of Dan Marino's WPIAL passing records as a four-year starter at quarterback for Sto-Rox, and his talents on the baseball diamond inclined the Toronto Blue Jays to draft him in the 38th round of the 2005 Major League Baseball draft.

Despite his abilities and leadership on the basketball court, DiMichele decided to go the football route at the college level after playing baseball for two years at Okaloosa-Walton Junior College in Niceville, Florida. DiMichele is currently the starting quarterback at Temple University.

GUARD - DARRELLE REVIS (ALIQUIPPA HIGH SCHOOL, CLASS OF 2004)

How can I sum up Darrelle Revis in one word? I guess the best selection would be...

...scary.

Many of you reading this know him best as a standout cornerback for the New York Jets, where he was a Pro Bowl selection in this just his second year in the NFL. But for those who were fortunate enough to see him play at the high school level (and in my case, unfortunate enough to actually play against him), you can agree that 'scary' is the perfect word to sum up just how talented Revis was.

It may sound crazy given how great of a player he is on the football field, but back in his Aliquippa days, he was equally talented with a basketball in his hands. The man was like poetry in motion: silky-smooth handle, an accurate jumpshot, a lockdown defender (He shuts down NFL wide receivers for a living. What do you think it looked like when he guarded people like me?), and one of the most explosive first steps I've ever seen. An absolute joy to watch and a full-blown migraine to play against. Rick Nohe and my brother, Chris, can vouch for that previous sentence.

Revis' dynamic play helped him win a WPIAL scoring title his junior year in 2003, where he averaged 25.2 points per game en route to leading the Quips over DiMichele's Sto-Rox team in the WPIAL championship game. Revis would again lead Aliquippa to WPIAL gold his senior season, this time over archrival Beaver Falls, to give the Quips back-to-back AA championships.

Through all the recognition and accomplishments Revis garnered during his career, nothing is more impressive than what went down from December 7-9 of 2003.

After a blizzard ripped through Hershey, PA and postponed the PIAA Class AA state football championship to Sunday, December 7, Revis had a performance for the ages in Aliquippa's 32-27 win over Northern Lehigh.

Revis scored all five Aliquippa touchdowns - three rushing, a 69-yard return off a blocked field goal and an 89-yard kickoff return - to mark arguably the best all-around performance in PIAA title game history. Revis also recorded six tackles, a forced fumble and an interception.

Just two days later, Revis took his talents to the basketball court for the first time his senior season in a home tilt with Beaver Falls, who came into the game ranked No. 3 in the state in AA.

If you were expecting rust and/or tired legs from Revis, you were in for a big surprise.

Revis torched the Tigers for 33 points and launched the Quips to an 86-82 overtime victory; a clutch performance against a top-tier team in his first game after a long, hard-fought football season. It just doesn't get a lot more impressive than that.

Speaking of clutch...

GUARD - LANCE JETER (BEAVER FALLS HIGH SCHOOL, CLASS OF 2006)

Rewind a couple paragraphs back to Revis' 33-point effort against Beaver Falls in their 86-82 OT win back in December of 2003. Revis may have stolen the show that night, but a subplot from that game was the birth of a legend that could only be rivaled around western Pennsylvania by Paul Bunyon and his blue ox.

That night, Lance Jeter, a sophomore at the time, buried a shot from just beyond half-court to send the game into overtime. Nobody knew it then, but that would be the first of many memorable shots from the man who was dubbed the nickname "Sweet Jete".

The list of clutch shots Jeter hit throughout his career echo throughout the Beaver Valley today and helped create some of the WPIAL's most unforgettable games. The 2005 WPIAL AA championship game between Beaver Falls and Aliquippa is far and away, in my opinion, the greatest WPIAL championship game ever played -- regardless of classification.

In a see-saw battle that featured arguably the two best teams in the state (it's a shame we couldn't see these two teams play in Hershey for the state championship that year), the legend of Lance Jeter increased ten-fold with his performance in one night. His deep 3-pointer at the buzzer kept the Tigers' shot at winning their first WPIAL title since 1994 alive as it tied the game and sent it into overtime. Three overtimes later, the Tigers accomplished that feat when Jeter worked his magic again and banked in a 30-footer to give Beaver Falls a 79-78 win and the WPIAL championship. Jeter's legendary shots were the exclamation points on a performance that saw him carry the Tigers on his shoulders all night, as he scored a game-high 37 points.

Jeter would come back to put the dagger in Aliquippa again during that 2005 season, this time in the PIAA West Region Final. His two free throws with 5 seconds remaining propelled Beaver Falls to a 58-57 win and advanced them to the AA State Championship. In that game, a huge second half by Jeter and a 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer sparked a 16-0 BF run and helped push the Tigers to a 71-59 triumph over York Catholic, giving Beaver Falls their third state championship in school history.

Jeter's style of play didn't exactly reflect his nickname. He wasn't flashy with the basketball, had a suspect jumpshot (and still does haha :-) ) and used brut strength to power his way to the basket. But you clearly can't knock its effectiveness. Jeter finished his memorable career at Beaver Falls 13th on the all-time WPIAL scoring list with an astounding 2,243 points and was the Associated Press' Pennsylvania Class AA Player of the Year in 2005, along with being the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Male High School Athlete of the Year in 2006.

More impressive than his knack for hitting the big shot and all the awards and accolades he received was how Jeter handled all of that attention.

Jeter's high school coach, Doug Biega, was quoted as saying that Jeter was the most humble kid he's ever been around. After having the opportunity to get to know Lance very well over the last year or so, I agree with Biega 100 percent. For everything that he's accomplished so far through athletics, it couldn't happen to a better person. If somebody got a full scholarship to play football at a Big East school (Cincinnati) and followed that up by transferring to Polk Community College to fulfill his love for basketball and still get recruited by a number of Division I schools, that person could tend to get a little cocky, and maybe rightly so. But not Jeter. He represents everything that's good about the sport of basketball. Young kids all around Beaver Falls don't want to be like Lebron: they want to be like Lance. Any time I'd go pick him up in downtown Beaver Falls to play basketball over the summer, a number of people would stop and wave at him, or we'd hear the occassional "WHAT UP, JETE?!" yelled at my car as we drove by. His reaction? A simple smile and a wave. Business as usual, just like he is on the court.

FORWARD - BEN MCCAULEY (YOUGH HIGH SCHOOL, CLASS OF 2005)

Simply put, Ben McCauley didn't get much love playing at Yough in the little-known town of Herminie, but the kid could flat-out play.

I remember the first and only time seeing McCauley play during his high school career. It was his senior year at the Blackhawk Christmas tournament against Jeter's Beaver Falls team that won the state championship. I was anxious to see him play because I had heard schools such as N.C. State, Xavier, Pitt and even Duke were showing interest in the 6'8'' forward. What I saw that day impressed me beyond my initial expectations.

A player like McCauley makes coaching basketball very simple at the high school level. Considering how poor of a supporting cast McCauley had, it made everything he did on the court all the more remarkable. All throughout his career, McCauley saw Box-1's, double teams, traps, etc. yet still managed to be a scoring machine in his four years, totaling 2,284 career points.

In his senior season, McCauley was a man among boys, averaging 28.8 points and 16.5 rebounds per game en route to leading Yough to a 20-9 record and an appearance in the WPIAL Class AAA championship game, the school's first ever appearance in a WPIAL title game as well as the first year EVER Yough won a WPIAL playoff game. And to say McCauley carried the Cougars throughout the playoffs would be an understatement. McCauley averaged 33 points per game in the playoffs, coming just 15 points shy of the all-time points record in a WPIAL postseason. Penn Hills' Drew Schifino still holds that honor after scoring 147 points in four games (36.8 average) as he led the Indians to a AAAA championship in 2000.

McCauley has proven his mettle at the college level as well. He's been a three-year starter at N.C. State in the always powerful ACC with his best season being his sophomore year in 2007, where he averaged 14.4 points and 6.9 rebounds per game and garnered Honorable Mention All-ACC honors while starting in all 36 of the Wolfpack's games.

FORWARD - TERRELLE PRYOR (JEANNETTE HIGH SCHOOL, CLASS OF 2008)

So many athletes are said to have the proverbial "total package". Well, try this on for size:

- 6'6'', 235 pounds

- 4.3 40-yard dash

- 36'' vertical leap

- 4,238 rushing yards/4,340 passing yards in football

- 2,285 career points in basketball

That, my friends, is the total package. But why am I bothering explaining it in words when you can see it in action for yourself in a 17-second clip? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbDotbP-qwg)

Much like his All-Decade teammate Revis, Terrelle Pryor is better known for what he does on the gridiron, and for good reason. As a true freshman this year at Ohio State he led the Buckeyes to a 10-3 record and an appearance in the Fiesta Bowl. But those around western Pennsylvania know just how truly gifted Pryor was on the basketball court, making him one of the most prolific athletes in WPIAL history.

Pryor was nothing short of an icon throughout his career, particularly his senior year. Fans would flock towards him following both football and basketball games and have him autograph everything from footballs to Terrelle Pryor figurines that sports memorabilia stores already had made. That's how big-time Pryor was.

While his big-time talent at quarterback anchored Jeannette's run to the AA state championship and a 16-0 record his senior year, his versatility on the basketball court did virtually the same thing. Jeannette ripped through the WPIAL AA playoffs Pryor's senior year, and he had perhaps the most dominant performance in WPIAL championship game history, scorching Beaver Falls for 39 points, 24 rebounds and 10 blocked shots. Pryor would ride the wave from that performance all the way through the state playoffs and help the Jayhawks earn their first ever state basketball championship with a 76-72 overtime win over Philadelphia Strawberry Mansion.

Pryor may have been blessed with tremendous athletic ability, but a strong work ethic and the will to win was the main reason behind all of his success.

"All I cared about was winning," Pryor said to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after being named Male Athlete of the Year in 2008. "The winning means more than any of the individual things I got."

The city that reigns supreme

I may have been exactly 1,001 miles away from home on Sunday, but around 10 p.m. that night, a familiar, "home-like" feeling lingered in my living room like stale cigarette smoke in a college bar.


That feeling? Supremacy, my friends.


While I have made my disliking of the Pittsburgh Steelers well-known throughout my life to those who know me best, I couldn't help but have a great sense of pride for the city I've called home for 22 years as the Steelers began celebrating their 23-14 win over the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship Game, advancing the Steelers to their seventh Super Bowl in franchise history.


When you never truly get attached to something like a professional sports team growing up, it's difficult to join the crowd, especially as you get older. That's the best I can sum up my relationship with the Steelers.


If you look at the logistics, it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense as to why I've disliked the franchise for so long. I guess you could say a lot of it has to do with my dad, who, for a reason I still am not certain of today, has had a deep hatred for the Steelers for as long as I've been alive.


His hatred clearly was passed on to myself and my brother as we were growing up. Both my brother and I spent countless Sundays as youngsters with my dad in front of the television watching the Steelers year after year. And year after year, it was my dad continuously venting over Steeler players, coaches and fans. Your early years are obviously the most impressionable times of your life, and I feel that passion was passed down to me from my dad and not chosen out of my own free will.


Think about it. What is there not to like about the Steelers? They really are the definition of a football organization, with extra emphasis on the word organization.


Art Rooney, after having a big day at the horse track back in 1933, purchased the Steelers for $2,500. As it turned out, that may have been the most well spent $2,500 in sports history.


If you wanted to buy the Steelers today, you'd have to dig between 800 million and 1.2 billion dollars deep into your pockets, putting the Steelers in the upper eschelon of American sports franchises.


A pricetag like that doesn't come without credibility, and the Steelers have plenty of it:


- 5 Super Bowl championships
- 7 AFC championships
- 19 division championships
- 22 Hall of Famers


Need anyone say more? And if Pittsburgh wins Super Bowl XLIII and earns their sixth Super Bowl victory, that will give them more than any franchise in the NFL.


The most impressive aspect of the Steelers has been their ability to sustain success over long periods of time. Since 1969, no NFL franchise has posted a better record than Pittsburgh (382-257-2, a .596 winning percentage), and the Steelers have accomplished all of that under the guidance of only three head coaches.


Chuck Noll was at the helm from 1969-1992, winning four Super Bowls before being relieved by Bill Cowher, who led the Steelers to five AFC title game appearances and their fifth Super Bowl title in 2005.


Now it's Mike Tomlin's show, where the 36-year old will look become the youngest coach to win a Super Bowl in two weeks at Raymond James Stadium in just his second year as an NFL head coach.


They may not have the star power or the glamour of other professional sports teams, but when the chips are on the table, nobody is a safer pick to have success year in and year out than the Steelers.


Those previous paragraphs got me a little off track from where I initially wanted to go with this post, and that was the Steelers' win further proved why it's tough to find a better city to call home than Pittsburgh.


I wasn't big on hometown pride growing up around Pittsburgh, but when I decided to branch out and come to Florida State upon graduating high school and traveling to a number of different towns and cities on road trips throughout my four years of college, it has really dawned on me just how great it is to be from Pittsburgh.


From a sports fan's perspective, it's hard to imagine a city with more buzz and pride surrounding its athletics than the Steel City.


The aforementioned Steelers are on the verge of winning their sixth Super Bowl.


The Arizona Cardinals, who the Steelers will be playing in the Super Bowl, are coached by Ken Whisenhunt, who served as the Steelers' tight ends coach and offensive coordinator from 2001-2006.


Whisenhunt's top assistant, Russ Grimm, was a 1981 graduate of Pittsburgh, a 3-time Super Bowl champion as a lineman for the Washington Redskins and was the Steelers' offensive line coach from 2000-2006.


Two key players for the Cardinals (wide receiver Steve Breaston and guard Reggie Wells) started their respective roads to Super Bowl XLIII as standouts on the gridiron at Pittsburgh area high schools. Breaston was a 2003 graduate of Woodland Hills High School, while Wells won a state football championship at South Park High School in the fall of 1997.


Larry Fitzgerald splashed onto the scene during his two years at Pittsburgh and has never looked back. With still the Super Bowl to be played, Fitzgerald's 419 receiving yards are already the most in a single postseason, breaking Jerry Rice's record of 409 yards set in the 1988 playoffs.


Terrelle Pryor, Ohio State's starting quarterback, is a Pittsburgh product (Jeannette HS) that led the Buckeyes to 10 wins and a BCS bowl birth as a true freshman and will have serious Heisman Trophy consideration in the coming years.


The Pittsburgh Penguins advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals this past hockey season, have two of the brightest young stars in the game today (Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin) and have a beautiful state-of-the-art arena coming their way this fall.


The University of Pittsburgh was the only college this sports year to have the football team and the men's and women's basketball teams all ranked in the top 25 at the same time, while the men's basketball team earned the program's first ever No. 1 ranking this season and looks primed to make a run in the NCAA Tournament.


I've barely scratched the surface when it comes to the athletic success and tradition that oozes from every inch of the city that's surrounded by three rivers and has more bridges than any other city in the world. In all, Pittsburgh has 12 professional world championships and has produced a legendary list of athletes that includes, but not limited to, Joe Montana, Joe Namath, Mike Ditka, Johnny Unitas, Dan Marino, Stan Musial, Jim Kelly, Arnold Palmer, "Pistol" Pete Maravich and Ty Law.


Not too shabby for a city that is ranked 60th on the 100 Biggest U.S. Cities list (http://www.city-data.com/top1.html).


The auora of Pittsburgh doesn't stop with its athletics. Overall, the city flies under the radar - much like its professional and college sports teams.


Back in 2007, Places Rated Almanac rated Pittsburgh as "America's most livable city" (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07116/781162-53.stm). Many people were shocked to hear news of that magnitude, considering Pittsburgh for years was a smoggy, blue-collar city that used the steel industry as its meal ticket for the greater part of the 20th century.


To outsiders, Pittsburgh still has that stigma attached to it to a certain degree (I hear it from time to time from friends at school), but natives are aware just how fast the city is growing and how big of a player it will be in both the national and global markets in the very near future.


Pittsburgh is also a provider of one of the more underrated night lifes in the country. It's hard to believe when people hear me tell them Pittsburgh is such a great city for a young adult to have a good time in. Frankly, I was shocked to hear that until I turned 21 myself, which opened up a whole new world to me in the city: the world of the south side.


The south side of Pittsburgh isn't your sterotypical big city bar scene with overpriced drinks, cover charges and dress codes. Sure, there are a couple places with those features, but anyone can find their niche in the south side with over 80 bars and pubs that welcome people of all shapes, sizes and colors as long as they're willing to have an exciting night out. Most of those watering holes can be found on East Carson Street, or as I like to call it, North Bourbon Street due to its seemingly never-ending row of bars, clubs and restaurants.


Most people are familiar with phrases along the lines of "Live for the moment" and "Cherish the moment, because you never know when it will come again." If the past, present and future are any indication, Pittsburghers are an exception to words such as those. Pittsburgh has proven to be such a dependable city for its residents over the years, and because of that, my pride for the city is stronger than it's ever been.


Here's to you, Pittsburgh. Thanks for always being there for us.