Trending
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the latest in a series looking back at the top 10 softball teams, coaches, games and players from last decade
Williamsport did not always win when Quint Bower coached it from 2011-17, but rarely was it soundly beaten. If an opponent hoped to do defeat the Millionaires it had to beat them because they would not beat themselves.
Bower helped ignite a softball resurgence at Williamsport last decade and ability to have his teams mastering the fundamentals was a major reason why. The Millionaires pitched well and played excellent defense each of those seven seasons and that helped produced seven consecutive district final appearances, two district championships and six league titles.
Williamsport had closed the 2000s with the only two losing seasons in program history, but started an upward climb in previous coach Luke Wesneski’s final season in 2010. The climb accelerated when Bower took over in 2011 and the Millionaires captured consecutive District 2-4 Class AAAA championships, going 37-9 those two years.
"It’s been very enjoyable. We started out pretty much at the bottom and we had to work real hard to get all the way to where we’ve gotten," senior second baseman Brynne Buchner said following a 2011 state quarterfinal loss against Hatboro-Horsham. "I think we’ve come really far from where we started. Williamsport softball had been down for a couple years and we worked really hard to bring it back and we’ve come really far and we take pride in that."
Williamsport started that 2011 season 5-4 and a memorable year appeared anything but certain. Bower, however, gave the team a rousing motivational speech following the fourth loss and the Millionaires did not lose again until states. Bower’s daughter Alexis developed into one of the state’s best pitchers and different players repeatedly produced big hits and/or players in pressure-filled situations.
His daughter was one of several standout pitchers Bower developed during his seven years at Williamsport. His other daughter Mikayla, Taylor Brooks and Mikayla Aldenderer generated outstanding seasons and either pitched or are still pitching collegiately.
Pitching, defense and timely hitting had the 2011 Millionaires peaking at the right time and Alexis Bower did not allow a run in three straight playoff games as Williamsport captured its first district championship since 2007. The Millionaires also won the first of six Central Penn League titles under Quint Bower, defeated Spring-Ford in the opening round states and advanced to the stat quarterfinals, equaling their best season of the 2000s.
"All season long, the last couple seasons actually, we’ve wanted to bring back a good name for Williamsport softball and I feel we definitely did that this year," third baseman Brooke Pompeo said. "We had a great season. We made it so far and we learned a lot."
The learning continued a year later as Williamsport again swept the CPL and District 2 championships, finishing 18-5. Alexis Bower earned the second of three state all-state selections, Pompeo ignited the offense from the lead-off spot and Dominique Thomas delivered the game-winning bunt in the district final as Williamsport defeated Hazleton, 1-0.
The 2013 season was a near duplicate, Williamsport going 18-4, except this time it lost 1-0 to Hazleton in the district final. It was the 2014 season, however, in which Quint Bower really showed how good a coach he was. Alexis had graduated after being named the 2013 Class AAAA State Player of the Year and this was a new-look team. The Millionaires were competitive early, but lost a series of close games and started 0-5.
Instead of buckling, Williamsport kept getting better and was outstanding from that point on, winning 12 of its next 15 games.
"It made us humble," first baseman Samantha Fischer said after a 9-1 district quarterfinal win against Wallenpaupack. "We decided that we didn’t want to be that team. We didn’t want to collapse and we came out and worked our hardest and now we’re doing everything we should be doing.
The Millionaires were three outs from winning an improbable district title, but Hazleton rallied for two runs in the bottom of the seventh, edging it 4-3 in the final.
Following a 15-win 2015 season which included another CPL crown, Williamsport found itself again working out of an early-season hole. A young Millionaire team started 1-4. Again, Bower kept the team’s mindset positive, put the players in the right positions to excel and watched them take off. The Millionaires won 11 of their next 14 games and were back in familiar territory by season’s end, collecting a league trophy and playing in the district final.
"We started out knowing it would be hard for us because our schedule us really tough. We came in knowing the teams we would play would be challenging and we might struggle some at the start," left fielder McKenzie Tebbs said after going 5 for 5 in a double header at the Williamsport Tournament. "We worked hard through the winter, through the spring and now that we’re playing everything is starting to come together that we’re working on so I couldn’t be happier."
That 2016 comeback season ended as the previous three hard with Williamsport dropping a close decision against Hazleton in the district final. The 2017 season ended the same way and Bower resigned following the season to watch his daughters play college softball.
Bower left the program in good shape and Chase Smith has picked up where Bower left off, helping Williamsport improve its win total in each of his first two seasons.
The tradition continues and Bower is a major reason why.