There are championship seasons where everything goes according to plan. Then there are seasons like Aliquippa in 1989.
The Quips finished 29-2 and walked away as PIAA Class AAA state champions, but the road to Hershey was anything but perfect. In fact, Aliquippa didn’t even win the WPIAL championship that season.
That might be what makes the story so good.
One year after winning the 1988 WPIAL championship, Aliquippa entered the 1989 postseason with another talented team under head coach “Red” McNie. But the Quips’ pursuit of another WPIAL crown came to a stunning end when Steel Valley handed them an 82-51 loss in the WPIAL quarterfinals.
For a team with state-championship ability, a 31-point playoff loss could have been the end of the story.
Instead, it became the beginning of a different one.
A Second Chance
Pennsylvania’s playoff format gave Aliquippa another opportunity, and the Quips took full advantage of it.
Their state tournament began against Pittsburgh City League representative Perry Traditional Academy. Aliquippa won, 84-77.
Next came a familiar opponent in New Brighton. This one nearly ended the run. Aliquippa escaped with a 67-66 victory, surviving by a single point to advance.
From there, the Quips started rolling.
Aliquippa defeated North Catholic, 81-63, in the state quarterfinals before getting another shot at a Beaver County rival in the semifinals.
Blackhawk stood between Aliquippa and Hershey.
The Quips left little doubt. Aliquippa beat Blackhawk, 83-63, punching its ticket to the PIAA Class AAA championship game.
Think about that journey.
A team that had been beaten by 31 points in the WPIAL playoffs was suddenly playing for a state championship.
One More Game
Waiting in Hershey was District 11 champion Allentown Central Catholic.
And the state championship turned into exactly the type of game you would expect when everything a team had worked for came down to one night.
Aliquippa won, 78-75. State champions.
The loss to Steel Valley didn’t matter anymore. Not winning the WPIAL didn’t matter anymore. The Quips had the trophy that mattered most.
Aliquippa’s championship roster included Marcus Peake, Leonard Meyers, Morris Haley, Arno Askew, Sean Gilbert, Shawn Price, Myron Walker, Willie Lindsey, Eric Smith, Chad McDowell, Larry Alston and Reuben Fuller.
And one name on that roster jumps off the page even today. Sean Gilbert.
Most sports fans remember Gilbert for football. At Aliquippa, he became one of the country’s premier football recruits. He went on to star at Pitt, become the No. 3 overall pick in the 1992 NFL Draft and spend more than a decade in the NFL.
But before all of that, Gilbert was a state champion in basketball.
The 6-foot-5 powerhouse was Aliquippa’s starting center, and in the state championship game he contributed 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Years later, Gilbert would say something that might surprise people who only remember him as a football star: Basketball was actually his favorite sport. He even had Division I basketball opportunities before choosing his football future.
More Than One Championship
There is another part of March 1989 that makes Aliquippa’s accomplishment extraordinary.
The boys weren’t the only ones bringing a state championship back home.
Aliquippa’s girls basketball team, coached by Donna Richey and featuring stars Carrie Bordas and Mona Gaffney, defeated Trinity, 57-47, to capture the PIAA Class AA championship.
The boys and girls from the same school were state champions in the same season. Imagine what basketball must have felt like in Aliquippa at that moment.
Years later, Aliquippa’s Dwight Lindsey remembered the celebration that followed. The boys and girls championship teams were honored together at a huge school pep rally. To a kid watching it unfold, Lindsey recalled, seeing those teams on the stage was almost like seeing a rock band.
That’s what championships meant in communities like Aliquippa. The players weren’t just basketball players. They were neighborhood heroes.
The Aliquippa Standard
Aliquippa’s athletic history is so deep that individual championship teams can sometimes become another number hanging on a banner.
The 1989 team deserves to be remembered as more than that.
This wasn’t a team that cruised through March without adversity. They got knocked down. Badly. Steel Valley beat them by 31 points when a WPIAL championship was on the line. Aliquippa could have allowed that game to define its season.
Instead, the Quips responded by winning five consecutive games in the state tournament: Perry Traditional Academy, 84-77. New Brighton, 67-66. North Catholic, 81-63. Blackhawk, 83-63. Allentown Central Catholic, 78-75.
Five games. Five wins. One state championship. And a final record of 29-2.
More than three decades later, that’s what stands out about the 1989 Aliquippa Quips.
Championship teams aren’t always the teams that never get knocked down. Sometimes they’re the teams that get embarrassed, get another opportunity, and make sure nobody gets the chance to do it again.
That’s exactly what Aliquippa did in 1989.
They didn’t win the WPIAL championship. They went and won Pennsylvania instead.