Decade’s best No. 4: Casey Waller orchestrated a dramatic turnaround at Hughesville in baseball

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the latest in a series looking back at the top 10 baseball teams, coaches, games and players from last decade

Drive past Loyalsock’s baseball field and one immediately can see the three state championship banners. The Lancers have captured three state titles since 2008, also winning seven district crowns during that time.

But there was a time when Loyalsock’s banner collection was sparse. It was Casey Waller who helped fuel a dominant run which continues today. He led the Lancers to their first district title in 2005 and their first state championship three years later before leaving following a 2009 state Final 4 appearance.

Two years later Waller was coaching again, this time at Hughesville.

And again Waller orchestrated a dramatic turnaround. The Spartans became a feared program during Waller’s six-year tenure, capturing their first district crown in 2013, adding a league title in 2014 and reaching districts all six years. The Spartans have not yet won a state championship yet, but players now believe the goal is within reach and the work Waller did there is a major reason why.

"They watched the guys before them do it and the guys that wore the HS across their jerseys and they want to be part of the legacy and tradition that Coach (Nick) Grove started and then Coach Waller added to," current Hughesville coach Chris Kish said after coaching his initial game in 2017. "Those guys have learned a tremendous amount of baseball from Coach Waller and now hopefully our staff can continue on that."

They have.

Hughesville extended the program’s playoff streak to 10 that season, returned in 2019 and had a team capable of making an extended postseason run this year before the COVID-19 pandemic ended the season before it started.

Whoever was on his roster, Waller was able to make them better players. And whatever record Hughesville had, it was a team nobody wanted to see come playoff time. Waller took Hughesville on the best six-year run in program history, going 93-38 and compiling a .710 winning percentage. The Spartans twice set program-records for victories and won 15 or more games four times. Consider that Hughesville had reached 15 wins just once before Waller began coaching there and it drives home the impact he made.

The former Minor Leaguer can forget more baseball than most people will ever know. He is ready for any situation, is a brilliant hitting instructor and put together teams which featured solid defense and deep pitching. More important, his teams were tough and possessed character. They mirrored the man coaching them.

"I learned a lot about baseball and life from Coach Waller," former Lewisburg coach Brian Zysset said in 2016. Zysset started for Waller at Loyalsock in 2008 when the Lancers captured the state title. Waller led Loyalsock to three district championships in his six seasons there and, although Loyalsock and Hughesville are rivals, those Waller-led teams shared a bond.

"It’s a blue-collar mentality at Hughesville," Waller said in 2014. Our guys come to work."

The work began in 2011 when Hughesville went 15-5 and tied the program-record for wins. The Spartans might have been the district’s second-best team that year, dropping a 4-3 extra-inning quarterfinal heartbreaker against eventual champion and state semifinalist Danville. The Spartans went 13-8 and won a playoff game in 2012 and had high expectations entering 2013.

Hughesville featured one of the state’s premier pitching tandems in Justin Lambert and Sadiq Burkholder, but the Spartans struggled throughout the season’s first half, starting 1-4 and still sitting at 5-6 through 11 games. Other teams might have crumbled, but Waller kept driving his players and convincing them something special could be achieved.

The Spartans fought back, won 13 of their next 14 games and took out Athens, South Williamsport and Southern Columbia en route to reaching their first district final. Hughesville faced defending champion and heavy favorite Loyalsock, a team which easily had swept the regular-season series. Hughesville would not let it happen again. Waller pushed all the right buttons, Burkholder threw a courageous nine-inning complete game and Jason Stroup and Zach Fry produced ninth-inning RBI hits as Hughesville won 7-5, capturing its first District 4 Class AA championship.

"We didn’t want our season to be over early so we all buckled down as a team and the focus came back," Burkholder said. "We started grinding every day."

Hughesville set a new record with 18 wins and reached the state quarterfinals after downing Kutztown, 2-0 in the opening round. Salisbury ended Hughesville’s season in the Elite 8, but with Loyalsock capturing the state championship, Hughesville had made a huge statement about how good it was.

"People used to think we weren’t a serious playoff team and this year we proved everyone wrong," catcher Brett Reitz said. "We’ve given ourselves a name now."

Hughesville enhanced its name a year later, sweeping the regular-season series from eventual repeat state champion Loyalsock and going 17-4. The Spartans captured the HAC-II championship, ending Loyalsock’s five-year title reign, enjoyed their best regular season ever and won another playoff game before losing to Loyalsock in the district semifinals.

This team featured several senior starters who graduated as the program’s most decorated class. Ironically, those players rarely won in Little League and other youth levels growing up. Then again, they didn’t have Waller coaching them.

"This is one of the better teams I’ve coached in terms of guys being respectful and having character and being humble," Waller said. "We’re putting Hughesville on the map in baseball and we’ll keep getting better each year."

Despite losing several starters from that 2014 team, Hughesville kept excelling the following season, surging late in the year and capturing the Backyard Brawl in its lone appearance there. The Spartans defeated Montoursville and Williamsport on the same day again sending a message throughout the district about how dangerous this program had become.

Waller’s final season at Hughesville also was one of his best. The Spartans tied the program-record of 18 wins and outscored six late-season teams, including five playoff qualifiers, 43-9. Hughesville earned the No. 2 seed that year and blanked Troy, 10-0 in the quarterfinals before suffering an 11-8 semifinal loss at Warrior Run.

That looked like it might be the last game Waller coached, but he now is coaching at South Williamsport. Before the season was canceled, Waller faced a daunting challenge. The Mounties were ravaged by graduation following a state semifinal season a year ago. It was just the kind of challenge Waller embraces and in the team’s lone scrimmage it played tough against back-to-back District 4 Class AAA champion Montoursville.

Waller has coached 12 seasons of high school baseball and has never suffered a losing season.

Don’t expect it to start now.