Very few towns have a rich history of a sport more than Minersville has with softball.<\/p>\n
As fans of SEC schools in college football like to say, \u201cIt just means more.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Minersville, softball is not just a sport. It\u2019s a way of life. Young girls dream of being a Battlin\u2019 Miner and playing for Minersville, and understandably so. Minersville High School softball has won a PIAA record 10 state championships, four more than the next-closest program.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody in Minersville knows the rich history of softball,\u201d Minersville manager Matt Withelder said. \u201cThat helps our numbers at the Little League level, because we get a lot more girls who want to come out and play the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you think Minersville, you think of their numerous state championships that they won at the high school level,\u201d he continued. \u201cI think that excites the younger generation to want to try to compete for that and follow suit.\u201d<\/p>\n
But to have that consistent level of success, a strong youth program is a necessity, and much like those at the high school level, Minersville youth softball has a great history of success.<\/p>\n
Four teams in the town\u2019s history have reached the Little League Softball World Series; 15 teams have won state championships across multiple age groups.<\/p>\n
Minersville was hungry to return to the state tournament<\/p>\n
Now, the 2026 Minersville Little League Softball Major Division all-star team is the latest team to make its mark.<\/p>\n
For the second straight summer, the team is making a trip to the Pennsylvania state tournament after defeating Carbon 2-0 in a three-game series last week to win the Section 6 championship.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll be making the long trip to Union City outside Erie for the state tournament that begins on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
While they fell short in last year\u2019s state tournament, this year\u2019s squad, led by a handful of players returning from last year\u2019s team, is excited for its return trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe girls are already hyped enough. I don\u2019t have to hype the girls,\u201d Withelder said. \u201cA lot of these girls, this has been their goal since the onset of the season. They didn\u2019t even know they were on the all-star team, but they worked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of last year\u2019s roster, seven players returned for this season, including Emalyn Daubert, Payton Withelder, Maddie Graver, Aly Heffron, Mallory Hopkins, Kenzie Gressens, and Grey Hopkins. For Withelder, Graver, and Heffron, this is their third year on the all-star squad.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s looked to those three to be leaders of this year\u2019s team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have those three girls. This is going to be their third year on this podium, and quite frankly, I really look to them to carry the load and get these other girls on their backs,\u201d Withelder said about their importance.<\/p>\n
But the team\u2019s success goes well beyond those three players; he credits his seven returning players as a whole for providing the hunger that is needed for teams to make deep summer runs.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou got seven of these girls returning. They made everybody else hungry,\u201d Withelder said. \u201cThey\u2019re hungry themselves. That\u2019s awesome for me to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
A small town bond<\/p>\n
One advantage of playing in a smaller town is the relationship and familiarity players have with each other. In bigger towns and cities, players may know each other by name or face, but may not be close friends.<\/p>\n
For Minersville, that\u2019s far from the case, as many of the girls have been playing sports with each other for several years. Not only have they played together, but they\u2019ve played under Withelder in the process<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been coaching this core of girls since they were five years old,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve coached them in multiple sports. I\u2019ve coached them in soccer. I coached them in softball. I coached some of them in travel.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a unique coach-athlete relationship that isn\u2019t often seen at this level.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis group has bought in to me since they\u2019ve been four or five years old, coaching them,\u201d Withelder noted. \u201cWe\u2019ve won at a lot of levels, whether it be Little League, whether it be soccer. We\u2019ve had multiple soccer championships in the school league with a couple of these girls on this team, even at the travel level.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Minersville coaching staff has also spent a lot of time with each other, but their time together goes well beyond that of youth athletics.<\/p>\n
Withelder is joined by John Hopkins and Scott Graver on the Minersville coaching staff. Like their daughters, Withelder, Hopkins, and Graver grew up playing sports together and now coach together.<\/p>\n
As their girls begin to age out of Little League, it also means their time coaching their girls is nearing its end as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all played ball together going up through high school,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just an opportunity, an awesome opportunity to sit back and actually watch our girls be able to take that stage. It\u2019s kind of an exclamation point at the end of our coaching careers, because all those guys have coached for a long time as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Memories that will last forever<\/p>\n
Withelder will be the first to tell you he\u2019s a little bit against the grain. While Little League as an organization is known for pushing for having fun over the results, Withelder will say the quiet part out loud: everyone has more fun when you win.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re winning, you\u2019re having fun, and I know that\u2019s a little bit against the grain sometimes of what people think, but it\u2019s the reality of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That being said, win or lose this week in Union City, Withelder is excited for his team to make lifelong memories.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing I said to my team after they won the section\u2026 \u2018Girls, you\u2019re going to have different experiences throughout your life in athletics. But I can guarantee you, based on a dad\u2019s standpoint and somebody who went through some walks of life with athletics, prepare yourself for one of the funnest weeks of softball you\u2019re going to have coming up here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year was one of the most fun experiences I\u2019ve ever had,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve had a lot of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amid all that fun, Minersville knows battles await.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not going to run into any slouches up there,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to run into eight quality teams that want to win. And you win your state, you get to go on ESPN, which is pretty awesome. Those girls really love it. That\u2019s what they want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Minersville\u2019s return trip is a testament to the players\u2019 hard work over the years.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the years, the players have attained high levels of success in multiple sports. Now, they have come to the point where we all hold each other accountable to raising that standard each and every year,\u201d Withelder said. \u201cIt\u2019s for this reason they have become easy to coach. They want to work hard and practice often in an effort to set their sights on bigger goals. That\u2019s one of the main reasons I have loved coaching these girls and look forward to sitting on the sidelines one day and watching their hard work play out.\u201d<\/p>\n
If all goes to plan, Minersville will add another state championship to the town\u2019s rich softball history. But no matter the result, the team has once again made its softball-crazed town proud.<\/p>\n
Minersville fans who weren\u2019t able to make the trip to Union City can follow along online via Gamechanger. The link to the stream will be available through the Minersville Little League Facebook page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Very few towns have a rich history of a sport more than Minersville has with softball. As fans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[102194,28,30,29,231,726],"class_list":["post-237203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-minersville","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-schuylkill-county","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}