Category: Mon Valley Miscellany || By

I'm not going to say what I think Serra Catholic High School's football team might be able to do this season. I don't want there to be an "Almanac jinx" like the Sports Illustrated jinx.

Let's just say I had a big, dopey smile on my face at Homecoming two weeks ago, when the Eagles pasted Bethlehem-Center, 54-14. My old religious studies teacher and faculty adviser, Mike Luft, was smiling, too.

"Did you ever think you'd see the day when Serra would score 50 points?" Luft, now principal, asked me.

"There were a few years when we didn't score 50 points all season," I said. I was exaggerating, but not much.

Our Fair City's other high school, up on Hershey Drive in Haler Heights, has plenty to smile about these days. Besides the football team's success under Coach Rich Bowen (they're ranked No. 2 in WPIAL Class A) things are looking good academically and financially, too, according to Luft.

Oh, yeah: And a few years ago, they finally put lights up at the football field.

When the Franciscan monks who had taught at Serra since its creation in 1961 announced they no longer had the personnel to send to McKeesport, a nasty rumor spread that the school was about to close, and enrollment fell. Now, there's a waiting list again.

. . .

I'm not going to make any specific claims that Serra is "better" academically than any other local high school. There are some awfully smart kids coming out of McKeesport, South Allegheny, East Allegheny, Woodland Hills, West Mifflin and elsewhere.

Also, Serra students are a self-selected sample ... do they do well academically because their parents insist they do well, or because of something they get at Serra?

Whatever the case, in my own graduating class, we had three National Merit Scholarship finalists, and we've now got a PhD, a couple of commissioned and non-commissioned military officers, a few corporate executives ... and me, doing whatever the hell it is I do. Serra continues to turn out good kids; one of last year's seniors, Luft said, received a full-ride scholarship to Notre Dame.

And the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh is allowing regional high schools like Serra to incorporate themselves as independent entities. It was done to help North Catholic High School build its new campus in Cranberry, but it will also insulate the other high schools from any financial problems the diocese might have, and will make it easier for them to raise money. Serra received its charter earlier this year.

Serra has been forced to adapt to the Mon-Yough area's steadily declining population base. Besides McKeesport and vicinity, the school now accepts students from Gateway, Woodland Hills, Steel Valley, Ringgold and other fairly distant districts. They're attracted by the school's reputation, small class size, and family atmosphere.

. . .

One thing, unfortunately, does hold Serra back.

"It's the Pittsburgh mystique," Luft told me. "We're recruiting against Central Catholic and Oakland Catholic." Students and parents hear "McKeesport" and decide one of the Pittsburgh Catholic high schools is better because ... well, because it's in Pittsburgh.

I can understand why a kid from Edgewood might turn up his or her nose at going to McKeesport. How you gonna keep 'em down on the farm after they've seen Commercial Avenue in Swissvale?

But a lot of McKeesport-area residents are swayed by the "Pittsburgh mystique," too. We seem to educate a lot of kids who go away to college, get a job back in Western Pennsylvania, and buy a house ... in Cranberry. Or Moon. Or Murrysville. "I'm not going back to McKeesport," they say.

. . .

There's a defeatist attitude among many people who stay in McKeesport, too: "Your doctor (or lawyer, or whatever) couldn't be any good if he's in McKeesport."

(It's not exclusively a McKeesport malady. I'm sure you can hear the same thing said in other older cities, like Latrobe, Uniontown, Monessen and Jeannette.)

That attitude sure didn't exist a century ago, when Edwin Crawford built the world's largest tinplate factory on the Youghiogheny River, or when Seph Mack and Walter Shaw took over the G.C. Murphy Co..

It didn't even exist two generations ago when institutions like the McKeesport Symphony, the McKeesport Little Theater, and Serra were founded.

Having pride in one's community doesn't mean ignoring the problems. It means addressing the problems.

And it doesn't only mean pride in your sports teams, though I'm rooting for the Tigers to clobber Upper St. Clair tonight.

It also doesn't just mean nostalgia. It means determination to save what you have that's worth saving, and to build new, too.

. . .

I wish I knew how to make sure that the "best and the brightest" from the Class of 2008 at Serra, McKeesport, South Allegheny and elsewhere will stick around and contribute something back to the communities and people that raised them.

We can't change the fact that these are relatively small towns, or that we talk funny, or that the buildings are old. But are those necessarily bad things? (OK, the yinzer accent isn't necessarily a good thing.)

McKeesport and vicinity have a lot of assets. As a community, we need to accept responsibility to leave things better than we found them --- and instill that sense of responsibility in our friends and neighbors.

It starts with us. We need to do less complaining and mourning over what we don't have, and more investing time or money (whichever we can afford) in improving what we do have.

In the meantime, the only "Pittsburgh mystique" I'm dreaming about is on the North Side.

I'm hoping --- just once --- that the road to Heinz Field will go through Haler Heights.

. . .

To Do This Weekend: McKeesport hosts Upper St. Clair tonight at Weigle-Schaeffer Stadium, 1960 Eden Park Blvd., while Serra hosts Frazier at the high school campus, Hershey Drive. Kickoff in both games is 7:30 p.m. ... Tomorrow, there's a "harvest ball" dance at 7 p.m. at the Palisades, Fifth Avenue at Water Street. Call (412) 678-6979 ... In Homestead, St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, 903 Ann St., holds its fall festival and craft show from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. tomorrow and 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday. Ethnic refreshments will be on sale Saturday, and there will be a bingo Sunday afternoon. Call (412) 461-9437.