Wolverine Mountain, A Sheffield legacy
Tagged under: District 9, Gameday Hub, News
Sykotyk | October 10, 2024
Eleven years ago, it was just a game. One of many for me. But as I drove up to Sheffield, Pennsylvania. I knew it was something special. The small town along the Route 6 corridor was different. Their school was different. And so was where they played.
Wolverine Mountain
It didn’t always have that name. In fact, I personally take credit for its use. It may have been called that before. But when I had been researching my upcoming game, I could not find the name to the 120 yard by 53 1/3 yard patch of dirt and grass which Sheffield called home. Nearly every school has some given name for where they play. Gators Stadium, Carter Field, Oil Field, Dwyer Field, etc. It has to have a name. Certainly. A place that seemed to defy expectations needed a name. An official name. A name that evoked exactly where and what it was.
Wolverine Mountain
After exhaustively searching for any hint at an official name, I had only seen that the hill behind the school was named, either officially or unofficially, as Wolverine Mountain. And that was fitting for me. For all the Fields, Parks, Grounds, Stadiums, and Complexes. This was official: Wolverine Mountain.
Some teams play on a field. Some teams play in a stadium. But the Sheffield Wolverines? They play on a mountain.
No qualifier was needed.
Not Wolverine Mountain Stadium. Not Wolverine Mountain Field. Not Wolverine Mountain Sports Complex.
No.
This was Wolverine Mountain. Full stop.
I may not have given first breath to the name. I don’t know if or when it ever was called them before my fingers typed out that name in my endless log of games. But I do know from that day forward, that was its name. I didn’t give it that name. It told me its name. And I just documented it.
2013, was a magical season for the Wolverines. I was there in September and October for games. On October 19th, the Wolverines hosted Smethport in what would be the Allegheny Mountain League North clinching victory over Smethport, 29-26.
Securing a division title and a playoff berth for the team that not only played on a mountain but seemed doomed to the Sisyphean task of pushing their dreams up that mountain.
In 2013, they reached the top.
And though things didn’t progress as they had hoped, loss in the AML title game at Kane or an early exit weeks away from a state championship game appearance, they had made it. They had done what had not been done before.
They looked out from their Mountain and surveyed the season behind them and the future seasons ahead of them.
And with little fanfare, with little notoriety, they trudged through those seasons. A shrinking community and shrinking school.
The covid year cut short. The endless talk of consolidation. The small community seeing their identity at risk of being taken away. Theirs and Youngsville on the chopping block. A casualty of dollars. Of numbers written in a ledger.
But as the budget and population shrank, the end started to be seen in the distance. Decision makers beyond the arbitrary lines drawn on the ground denoting the borders of the town. Decision makers deciding the fate of this school, and this town. The identity of this town held aloft on that mountain.
Whispers of a future’s past. Haunting and forlorn. A town fighting the unenviable and unfair fight to save their school. Though they can try to take the school, they’re not getting that mountain.
Some towns have a football field. Some towns have a football stadium. But the town of Sheffield, Pennsylvania? They have a freaking mountain.
Come and take it.
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