Aug 3, 2018 5 min read

During these lovely summer months, I always try to be on my toes and try to think of new story and column ideas.

This simple thought crossed my mind the other week: Who is the greatest Greene County athlete of all-time?

It’s a very good question, but an even harder one to answer.

There are so many different names that comes to mind, and probably some that I would unfortunately forget.

The question is very subjective and it’s hard to break it down. I mean how would you compare sport to sport, and era to era? As we all know things change over time, so would a great athlete from the 1970s be comparable to today’s kids?

When you think of a great athlete, do you take in account just individual success or do you have to think about the bigger picture and what their respective teams won?

Well I’m not even going to list those athletes in a top 10 or anything, because I would be afraid of upsetting people or a school. So I’m just going to name off a few that come at the top of my head (once again sorry if I forget anybody’s name).

When you think of great athletes you go to think of the Olympics, so Olympic wrestlers Cary Kolat (Jefferson-Morgan) and Coleman Scott (Waynesburg Central) come to mind.

Carmichaels has boasted several talented teams on the softball and baseball diamonds, so names like Nikki Gasti, Chuck Gasti and Joby Lapkowicz have to be mentioned.

On the football field, the county is home to several stellar running backs like Rocky Doman (Carmichaels), Derek Bochna (Mapletown) and Lanfer Simpson (Waynesburg).

The Raiders boast several great individuals in the school’s history such as Greg Hopkins (football), Rachel Rohanna (golf), Ben Bumgarner (Cross Country), Corbin Semple (wrestling), Carolyn Huffman-McGrath (basketball), Josh Koscheck (wrestling) and Marissa Kalsey (pole vault).

Other names throughout the county that jump off the page are James Jones (Carmichaels, football), Jeff Culp (Jefferson-Morgan, football), Dennis Garrett (Jefferson-Morgan, basketball), Sam Minor (Mapletown, wrestling), George Messich (Mapletown, football), Doug Closser (West Greene, track).

It might be early, but you can make a case for athletes that just graduated high school last spring, such as Jefferson-Morgan’s Gavin Teasdale (wrestling) and Madison Clayton (soccer, for Waynesburg), Mapletown’s Dylan Rush (football) and West Greene’s Madison Renner (softball).

Two former standouts from the county that I do want to talk more about are West Greene’s Rodney Wilson and Waynesburg’s Lee Fritz. Both were inducted into the Washington-Greene Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame at the early part of the summer.

In the early 1990s, Wilson was the centerpiece of Coach Larry Piper’s triple-option offense. In 1992, the Pioneers advanced to the WPIAL semifinals. The following season, West Greene made a monumental run to the finals at Three Rivers Stadium, where they lost to Duquesne.

Wilson left West Greene as the WPIAL’s all-time leading rusher with 6,304 yards on the ground. The talented tailback also amassed 75 total touchdowns.

Wilson, who currently resides in Cecil, was also a two-time WPIAL wrestling champion and a PIAA regional champion in 1992. His career wrestling record was 106-25-1.

After graduating West Greene, Wilson went onto Slippery Rock University and was a four-year letterman on the football squad and a two-time All-PSAC linebacker/defensive back.

Fritz was a tremendous athlete and was a key piece to a lot of successful squads at Waynesburg in the late 1990s.

In football, the Raiders did not lose a regular season game between 1998-2000 and Fritz was under center and also played in the defensive backfield for most of those teams.

Fritz, who compiled a career record of 25-2 as quarterback, led Waynesburg to the WPIAL title in 1999 and a win in the finals against heated-rival Washington at Three Rivers Stadium. The Raiders saw their season end in the PIAA semifinals with a 17-13 loss to Tyrone.

Turning to the baseball diamond, Waynesburg won the district title in 1999 and was anchored by the strong pitching and consistent hitting of Fritz. The Raiders racked up wins in the state playoffs later that season, but lost to Palmyra in the PIAA championship.

Fritz had several colleges after him to play at the next level, but decided to walk-on to the football team at West Virginia University. After a couple of practices, he changed his mind and walked onto the baseball team at WVU.

Fritz, who currently resides in Moon Township, led the Mountaineers in batting for three straight seasons, including a Big East Conference-best .407 as a sophomore.

During that season, he set school records for hits in a season by an outfielder (88) and multi-hit games (28). His .378 batting average ranks No. 8 on WVU’s all-time list.

Wilson and Fritz were definitely deserving of the Hall of Fame recognition, and both have to be near the top of the list of the all-time greatest athletes to come out of Greene County.