Nov 3, 2002 By Commentary Rob Burchianti 5 min read

Adversity has a way of bringing out the best or worst in people. Want to test the true character of a football team? Watch and see how it responds to some of that adversity.

Frazier coach Larry Wilson has to be pleased with what he discovered when watching his football team respond down the stretch.

The Commodores, a team that had been fairly consistent at making the playoffs the last decade, were coming off a one-win season in Wilson’s first year as coach. They opened up Wilson’s second-year at the helm in 2002 with a 1-3 record.

The campaign started looking up when Frazier defeated Jefferson-Morgan, 21-7, on Sept. 27.

One week later, however, the Commodores suffered a crushing blow, losing a heartbreaker on their home turf to Geibel Catholic, to fall to 2-4 overall and 1-3 in the Tri-County South.

The Gators had lost 19 in a row and had provided Frazier with its only victory of 2001.

The truth is Geibel is gradually improving under second-year coach Angelo Dippolito.

Even so, the loss had to have dealt a severe hit to Frazier’s psyche. No matter what Wilson told them, the Commodore players almost surely felt it was an embarrassing defeat, especially in Perryopolis.

Now Frazier was facing road games against playoff contenders West Greene and Mapletown.

Adversity had struck.

Wilson and his Commodores responded … positively.

Frazier gutted out a 13-12 upset win over the Pioneers at Rogersville, then turned around and pulled out a 21-20 double overtime win over the host Maples.

The Commodores came up big in the clutch on both sides of the ball during those key triumphs.

Frazier’s defense won the first one by stuffing the Pioneers on a two-point conversion run in the game’s final seconds to preserve a one-point advantage. It’s offense won the second one with Craig Neely scoring three touchdowns and T.J. Martinak running in the winning two-point conversion in the second overtime as Wilson, taking advice from his players, decided to go for broke.

The Commodores fell to Tri-County South champion Carmichaels last Friday, 37-8, but still found themselves playoff bound.

Yes, Frazier is the bottom seed and must travel to top-seeded Rochester for its WPIAL Class A first-round game on Friday night. The Commodores will be a significant underdog in that matchup.

The outcome doesn’t matter, though.

Wilson should be commended for keeping his team together and focused when it was at its lowest point.

The Commodores displayed as much mental toughness, courage and heart as any playoff team just to get there.

BUM RAP FOR BUEHNER

Another team that looked adversity in the eye and overcame it was Laurel Highlands under first-year coach Scott Knee.

The Mustangs struggled to an 0-3 start, then rebounded strong by winning four of their next five to secure a playoff spot in Class AAA. It’s LH’s first playoff appearance since 1989.

Laurel Highlands wrapped up its postseason berth with a 32-27 win over visiting Mount Pleasant on Oct. 18.

After the game, a Mustang fan was spouting off about former coach Jack Buehner. The fan was pointing out, rather loudly, to those next to him about how Laurel Highlands had made the playoffs the year before and the year after Buehner was there as coach. That said it all right there, the man scoffed.

Yes, it is true that, during Buehner’s tenure as the Mustangs’ coach from 1990 to 2001, the team did not make the postseason.

Oh, one small fact is missing here, by the way.

The year Buehner took over, he was hired as a last-minute replacement for Mike Bosnic, who stepped down suddenly after taking the Mustangs to the playoffs in 1989. The Class AAA playoffs, that is.

Laurel Highlands was bumped up to Quad-A when Buehner took over in a haste. He didn’t step into the best of situations.

The Mustangs were a Quad-A team every year Buehner was coach. Ironically, the year after he stepped down, LH was moved back down to Class AAA.

Buehner also put together the best three-year stretch in Mustang football history when he guided the team to winning records in 1994-95-96.

Laurel Highlands, which had never put together even back-to-back winning seasons before that, was in the playoff hunt each of those years down to the final week. It was foiled in 1996 by the Gardner Points system, which wound up sending a Hempfield team to the postseason that the Mustangs had beaten.

Laurel Highlands was shifted into a conference that included the smallest Quad-A schools soon after, but, unfortunately for Buehner, his teams suffered a bit of a talent drop right at that time. A few years earlier and the Mustangs would’ve easily made the playoffs in such a conference.

Buehner was a class guy who did a good job despite having adversity heaped upon him over and over. He was a gentleman after a win or a loss.

When it came to newspaper coverage, he politely inquired about coverage of certain players or relayed questions that some parents had presented to him, then listened and politely accepted the answers as logical, with no chip-on-his-shoulder attitude, despite his towering stature.

Most coaches are not nearly as reasonable to deal with.

Jack Buehner was a good guy and a solid coach for Laurel Highlands.

Scott Knee is in the same mold. He also is a class guy with a good attitude and deserves tremendous credit for the Mustangs’ success this year.

But for people – and there are some others out there besides this one particular fan – to take shots at Buehner while basking in the success of the 2002 Mustangs is just plain idiotic.

Jack Buehner deserves better than that.

Rob Burchianti is assistant sports editor of the Herald-Standard and can be reached at rvburchianti@hotmail.com.