Home >  Sports >  High School Sports

Sunday, April 27, 2003

By Mike White, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

If a high school baseball coach could ever be a legend, Jerry Matulevic was it. He coached Shaler Area High School for 31 seasons, won 519 games and was respected and revered around the WPIAL. Heck, how many high school coaches have a sparkling new field named after them -- while they're still alive? Shaler opened Matulevic Field a few years ago.

	Sophomore pitcher Brian Schwartzbauer has been a standout for Shaler Area High School. (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette)

Bob Hinds spent 28 years coaching with Matulevic. Although Hinds says he is much different than his old boss, Hinds apparently learned one thing well. How to win games.

Matulevic retired after last season and Hinds took over for his longtime friend. Hinds, 52, is guiding Shaler to a memorable season. The Titans are 15-1 and have been the Post-Gazette's No. 1-ranked WPIAL Class AAA team for weeks.

Matulevic lives in Florida these days, but Hinds still talks with him at least once a week.

"Jerry is a flamboyant person. I'm a little more low-keyed," Hinds said. "I think the thing that made the transition so smooth is the assistant coaches here have all been together a number of years. Because of that, it was really a smooth transition. It wasn't as big of a deal as some people thought because we're doing a lot of the same things that we always did when Jerry was here."

"But this isn't about me. All I do is put the kids on the field."

Shaler has been a strong hitting team. The Titans have scored 10 runs or more in eight of 16 games. Outfielder George Nieman, a Ball State recruit, is batting better than .500. Senior Chris Squeglia has a 6-0 pitching record.

Brian Schwartzbauer has been a standout hitting and pitching. Hinds believes he is one of the WPIAL's top sophomores.

Matulevic won three WPIAL championships and made it to the title game three other times. These Titans also are talking championship.

"I'm not going to lie to you. Our goals are to win championships," Hinds said. "These kids would like to win it all and they believe they have a very good opportunity to do it."

Eyes on Nery

It seems more and more major-league scouts are starting to notice Moon pitcher Nathan Nery.

"When every game is over now, there are always scouts going to his mom, asking her to fill out information cards," Moon Coach Tom Hoffman said.

But there is another indication of how serious teams are about Nery.

"There are even cross-checkers from teams coming in now," Hoffman said. "They're the next level up from the scouts."

Nery has been one of the biggest surprises this season. He didn't pitch much last year because Moon had two outstanding pitchers -- Brian Holliday and Derek Blyzwick. This year, Nery has been one of the most dominating pitchers in the WPIAL. He has a 7-0 record with a league-high 92 strikeouts and struck out 18 this past week against Montour.

What scouts like about him is his size -- and that he's left-handed. He has added 27 pounds since last season and is 6 feet 4, 212 pounds. His fastball has been consistently clocked in the high 80s.

"We had a scout from the Rockies at one of our games and he asked me to point out Nate," Hoffman said. "When I showed him, he said, 'That can't be him. He was a string bean last year.'

"The main thing that separates Nate from other pitchers at this point is his slider. He has an excellent slider and he throws it at any point in the count."

Out of this world

Two of Plum's four losses in baseball are to Moon and Jupiter, Fla. You can bet Plum doesn't want to play Mars.

Jackson happy again

A.J. Jackson, a 6-foot-7 senior center on the Monessen basketball team, will be happy to play at East Tennessee State after all.

Jackson signed with East Tennesse State in November. But when Coach Ed DeChellis left recently to become Penn State's coach, Jackson said he wanted out of his letter of intent.

East Tennessee State hired Murry Bartow this past week. Bartow met with Jackson and Jackson feels good about the Buccaneers again and wants to play at the school. Bartow was the head coach at Alabama-Birmingham from 1996-2002 and guided the team to the NCAA tournament once. He is the son of former UCLA coach Gene Bartow.

Elsewhere in basketball recruiting, Penn Hills senior guard Byron Knight, a member of the Post-Gazette Fabulous Five, has been offered a scholarship by Robert Morris. Knight recently scored high enough on the SAT to be eligible as a freshman, and some other Division I colleges, including Kent State, have been showing more interest lately.

Lacrosse in WPIAL

The WPIAL will sponsor girls' lacrosse next season. In years past, schools fielded only club teams that were not members of the WPIAL.