When people talk about lifetime sports, they generally are talking about things like golf, bowling, tennis and swimming, things that you can do from age 8 to 80 if not longer.
Oliver “Bugsy” Resh made softball a lifetime sport.
Resh, who died earlier this week at the age of 89, was involved in local softball for decades and at a variety of levels.
He was immersed in the East Penn Men’s Fastpitch League as a player, coach and league officer.
He coached high school girls softball, serving as the head coach at Allentown Central Catholic and Catasauqua and assisting at other places.
When his coaching ended, he got involved as an umpire and was a member of the Lehigh Valley Softball Umpires Association and worked dozens of youth and travel league games for years.
But he didn’t leave coaching totally behind. He organized and coached one of the Patriots Oldtimers teams and still got on the field long after becoming a senior citizen.
He was inducted into the Lehigh Valley Softball Hall of Fame in 2010. He also served on the Hall of Fame’s committee, the Carole Weil Memorial Scholarship Fund committee and virtually everything involving local softball.
In 1992, he was given the East Penn Men’s Fastpitch Softball League’s Brian “Buddy” Hahn Award which saluted him for contributions to the league and local softball.
At the time he was presented the award, Resh said, “Receiving this award is a great honor that I can be most proud of. It has special meaning for me because I played softball with Buddy Hahn in the 1970s when we were members of the Farmington Grille team. Buddy was a real hard worker who did a lot for softball. He kept pushing people and he did a lot of work, all the time without complaints. I had a great amount of respect for him.”
The words Resh used to describe Hahn also applied to him because no one worked harder to promote the sport – often without receiving any glory – than Resh. If he could help in any way, he would.
His soft-spoken manner served him well, including his tenure as the game timer at Allentown Central Catholic basketball games at Rockne Hall. The fans and coaches could be screaming, and the games would often coming down to the final seconds, and Resh would calmly do his job amid the chaos.
Hall of Fame umpire Jim Corpora said, “Bugsy absolutely loved the game of fastpitch softball. He loved coaching it and loved umpiring it as well. He took the avocation of umpiring very seriously and strived hard to become a respected umpire. His passion for the game was always evident.”
Patty (Walko) Mengel knew Resh from a different perspective.
“When I first started coaching at Northwestern Lehigh, Bugsy was my JV coach and he was so supportive and knowledgeable about the game. The team loved him as he was full of energy and passion for the game. I loved spending time with him, just taking in his knowledge of softball and life. Back then, we would meet after games when we had to call in the results to the newspapers. The one thing I’ll always remember was his smile. It was always there.”
Two of the Hall of Fame pitchers who thrived at ACCHS while Resh coached were Melissa (Linn) Knecht and Eileen Schmidt.
Knecht pitched the Vikettes to District 11 titles in 1987 and ’88 and became the first scholarship player at the University of Notre Dame. Schmidt led the team to league and district championships in 1990 and went on to become an ACC Player of the Year and an All-American at the University of Virginia and later became the school’s head coach.
“He was a great man and a great coach,” Linn said.
Typical of Resh’s unselfishness was his comments when he won the Buddy Hahn Award. He thought it should have gone to one of the area’s top players.
“We had a local guy, Mike Smith, who won a national Class A championship for D.C. Tire by hitting a game-winning home run and also got the pitching win in the same game,” Resh said. “There are a lot of great players in this area. I’m just touched that people consider me a hard worker who always had the game in mind. To be included among the past winners of this award is just a great thrill.”
Calling hours for Resh are 9 to 10:30 Thursday morning at Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church in Whitehall. A service will follow at 10:30.
His loss will be felt in a Lehigh Valley softball community still mourning the loss of legendary coach Ed Stinner last September and Allentown Patriots president Jim Adams in November.
Lehigh Valley Diamond Classic
Lehigh Valley Carpenter Cup’s Mari Eiswerth (Emmaus) pitches to the West All-Stars on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, during the Lehigh Valley Diamond Classic at Patriots Park in Allentown. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Two all-star games are scheduled Wednesday night at Patriots Park to give area seniors one more opportunity to showcase their talents as high school players.
In Game 1, the 2026 Lehigh Valley Carpenter Cup team will play members of the 2025 Carpenter Cup squad.
And then at 7, there will be a game matching the top senior players from the just-completed season. In honor of the late Ed Stinner, one squad will be called Team Kyle Miller and the other will be called Team Carole Weil. Stinner was close to both who died after battles with cancer.
Carol Weil Team
Bangor: Kaylynn Figurski, Cameron Howarth, Kelli Snow. Catasauqua: Makayla Bird. Easton: Emily Materna, Thalia Burns. East Stroudsburg South: Johanna Carey. Freedom: Namelia Duro, Landry Guman. Liberty: Leah Onia, Adelynn Smith. Nazareth: Gianna Perillo, Briana Recchia, Kylie Grover, Taylor Friel (will play only in Capenter Cup game). Northampton: Hannah Duerr (will only play in Carpenter Cup game). Notre Dame-Green Pond: Kelsey Bedics. Pen Argyl: Ashlyn Oessenick. Pocono Mountain East: Karlie Jurasits. Saucon Valley: Matty Seyfried, Ryan Gall. Stroudsburg: Dot Elko, Madison Perez, Isabella Thomas, Katren Lavra. Wilson: Brianna Williams.
Kyle Miller Team
Allentown CCHS: Kairi Charles, Hailey Kahr, Jenna Dalrymple. Dieruff: Jennibel Cerda Liz, Nylyn Gomez. Emmaus: Brianna Gitski. Jim Thorpe: Hannah Zacharias. Lehighton: Morgan Myers, Keira Herman. Northern Lehigh: Kylee Snyder, Aubrey Reinhard. Northwestern Lehigh: Abby Dunstan, Lily Kinnon, Lizzie Diehl, Molly Schlofer, Ella Bressi, Emma Freeman (Will only play in Carpenter Cup game). Palisades: Catie Russo (Will only play in Carpenter Cup game). Palmerton: Hailey Barry, Grace Schneider. Parkland: Addison Fritzinger, Ami Patel, Elizabeth Pinkham. Pocono Mountain West: Julia Macphee, Sam Rider. Southern Lehigh: Demi Lewis, Isabella Germani (Will only play in Carpenter Cup game). Whitehall: Josie Shutlz, Molly McFetridge, Morgan Laub (Will only play in Carpenter Cup team).
2026 Carpenter Cup team
ACCHS: Gianna Menecola. Emmaus: Sydney Bennett, Mari Eiswerth, Morgan Schwab. Freedom: Payton Besecker, Maddie Bixler, Brooklyn Pronovich. Nazareth: Sydney Ryan. Northwestern Lehigh: Natallie Conner. Northampton: Rylee Gable, Kiley Henritzy, Josephine Siegfried. Notre Dame-Green Pond: Natalie Lilly, Riley Palank. Palmerton: Hailey George. Salisbury: Tessa Kemmerer.