Summer 2025

TRAVELIN' MAN -- Zach Guth is only 10 years out of high school, but his career is

already checkered, so to speak. The 2015 Franklin grad, brother of current Vanderbilt hurler Luke Guth, Zach just finished his first season as pitching coach at Shepherd (Shepherdstown, West Virginia.) The Rams, who play out of the PSAC, finished 25-25 after a slow start. And not only did he tutor the young arms at Shepherd, he earned his degree from Arizona State. Guth made a lot of stops to get to Shepherd after posting a 14-1 record and helping Franklin to a District 10 title his junior year. (That season included a game in which he struck out 19 of 20 Titusville batters.) Guth went to Maryland, but things didn't work out at the Big Ten school, so he transferred to Hartford Community College. An 0.57 ERA got him taken by the Atlanta Braves in the 26th round of the 2018 draft. He played a season each in the Atlanta and Colorado Rockies systems before taking a job as an assistant director of scouting in Pennsylvania for Prep Baseball Report. Two years later, in 2020, he was off to Mercyhurst where he served as an assistant baseball coach -- among other tasks -- before heading to Shepherd.

AND WHATEVER HAPPENED TO... -- Franklin had another player drafted in the class

after Zach Guth. Mike YaSenka was taken by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 26th round of the 2018 draft. As with Guth -- and plenty of other hopefuls -- YaSenka didn't make it to the majors; in fact, he was released in March 2023. But, after playing for five teams, he did reach AA and appeared in 65 games (29 starts) while toiling 200.2 innings (214 strikeouts). Some -- most -- could only dream of making it that far.

OILERETTES TO REUNITE (AGAIN) -- Jodi Gault is having another OCHS girls basketball reunion of sorts. It's on July 27 at her home in Seneca. Starts at 4 p.m. Retired coaches Dixie Agnew and Dottie Valimont will be there, too. So if you know anybody, pass the word...

FROM 150s to ALL-AMERICAN -- Just saw on X (Twitter) that Corry's Nolan Carey threw 220-2 to take second in the javelin in the Nike Outdoor Nationals. That made him an All-American. The winner was Bryson Jacobs of Drexel, Mo., who was one inch better at 220-3. Jacobs and Carey are the new Nos. 2-3 Carey in the national rankings behind a 225-2 by Colby Shamblin of from Colbert, Wash. Carey (5-9, 185) is also Corry's all--time leading passer in football with 5,156 yards. Carey's previous best in the jav was the 206-7 he threw on April 30 against Franklin. He was in the 190s five other times last spring. His best throw as a junior was 172-11. The 2025 state and two-time D-10 champ threw in the 150s as a sophomore.

JAVELIN LEGENDS -- Nolan Carey's exploits in the javelin bring to mind others from this

Oil City's Scott Moon held the state meet record for a while.

vicinity who have excelled in that event. Oil City has had two state champions in Scott Moon (1981 and 1982) and Ben Koyack (2010). Moon threw 230-8 in 1982 to break the state meet record set in 1968 by Ray Mushinski of Ambridge. His winning throw in 1981 was 215-6.

Franklin hasn't had a state champ, but both Bay Lawrence and Rich Hancox were quite good. Not sure what Lawrence's best throw was in high school, but he was up around 229 at Tabor College before becoming an All-Pro defensive back for Atlanta. And he was a state place-winner. Hancox broke the Franklin record in a 1966 meet with Titusville's Jim Kocan. Hancox first threw 179-7, but Kocan bettered it with a 189-51/2 for a Rocket record. Hancox broke his record the next year against Warren, tossing 188-7. He also took a third in the state meet that year, but I don't know the distance.

Kocan's record was broken by another two-time PIAA champ, John Clark, who was going eyeball-to-eyeball with Warren's Ed O'Neil in the 1970 state meet. O'Neil's first throw went 215-4, but he settled for second when Clark came back with a 222-4. Clark's winning throw the next year was 216-5. Both Clark and O'Neil played some football for Penn State. In the case of Clark, an outstanding punter, it was a little; in the case of O'Neil, it was a lot. He was one of the Nittany Lions' many All-American linebackers.

That brings us to Robert "Skip" Cummins of Grove City, an All-Ivy linebacker at Dartmouth, who held both the Dartmouth and Ivy League javelin records. He threw 248 as a senior in 1976 and 246-10 as a sophomore. Cummins was over 200 four times as a high school senior in 1972 before winning the state title with a record 223-3.

There no doubt have been others from District 10 -- and District 9 -- but these are the guys who first come to mind. In fact, one year back in the 1970s, Clarion had two guys in the 220s -- Kurt Lehnortt and Mike Hartle. What's more, Greg Wolfe from neighboring Clarion-Limestone -- I was told you could see his house from CHS -- was around 215. So think of the javelin relay they would have been.