Remebering Monaca: The 1982 PIAA State Basketball Champions

I’ve been spending a lot of time talking about the things we have available over at Shop YBC lately. In trying to come up with new ideas for t-shirts, I started digging around looking for significant events that might be on the verge of being forgotten, even by people who still make their homes in Beaver County.

I have always been a strong supporter of the Central Valley merger, but there is no denying that there is a certain difficulty that many graduates of both Center and Monaca are struggling with. So much of our identities are wrapped up in the high schools we attended, and to have them not exist anymore isn’t exactly easy.

So the question became, how can we pay tribute to a school like Monaca that isn’t around anymore without taking anything away from the students who are currently attending Central Valley?

The answer, was shockingly obvious. Ask a dozen Monaca graduates what the most significant moment in school history was, and most of them are going to tell you that it was the 1982 State Championship in Basketball.

There are probably a few Battle of the Bridge victories over Rochester on that list, but watching Bruce Fleming bring home that state title had to be something that no one in the school ever forgot.

1982 was an amazing year for the Indians. They went an astounding 28-1. Their only loss all year came at the hands of rival Midland.

The WPIAL Final was a hard fought battle against Serra Catholic that ended with Larry DeVincentis hitting a buzzer beater for the win. Monaca then continued through the state playoffs and ended their epic season with a 57-48 win over Elk Lake. State. Champs.

I’m sure that there were tons of shirts available back in the 80’s commemorating this massive victory for a small town on the banks of the Ohio River. But those shirts are long gone today…until now.

Thanks to the power of modern technology, we can now create new t-shirts paying tribute to that classic 1982 Monaca Indians basketball team. The shirts are currently available at Shop YBC. 

FYI: Center was also had a VERY good team in 1982. Had Central Valley existed back then, the merged team might have been one of the greatest in the history of the state.