Alizabeth Schuler (12) and Abigail Lorson (22) of South Williamsport celebrate after Schuler scores the first run of the game against Muncy at Elm Park. South won 2-0. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

South Williamsport had not even reached Portland, Oregon yet when this reporter first started hearing what became a similar mantra.

“They’re good now, but just wait until they are in high school.”

This was five years ago when many of the current South Williamsport softball players were helping their team reach the Little League World Series. It was an amazing achievement, but as many are prone to do, including this guy, we started looking ahead.

The thing is, doing so back then was foolish. Success at 11 and 12-years old doesn’t guarantee anything when they grow older. Heck, it didn’t guarantee anything the next year. Sports are wildly unpredictable and gauging a team or group’s future based on Little League success, quite frankly, is silly.

The road is littered with teams who dominated at the Little League and/or other youth levels but did not carry that over into high school. It’s the same reason teams which win championships in professional sports and are said to be launching a dynasty never win another championship.

And that’s because it’s extremely hard to win. That goes triple in a sport like softball complete with young, talented and driven athletes when it becomes playoff time.

Well, South has made it to the Class AA state championship and will play Neshannock today at Penn State’s Beard Field for Pennsylvania’s top prize. Turns out the kids did have an amazing future.

But the moral of this story is that South is not playing in today’s state final because it was great at 11 and 12. It is here because it kept improving every year since then. The Mounties are here because they never stopped working. It was not destiny that brought South to Penn State.

Instead, the Mounties shaped their destiny.

“Us being that good at 11-12 really sparked us into the people we are today. It really helped us grow,” South pitcher Alizabeth Schuler said. “We like to look back on that all the time and say, ‘Listen, we were good at that age, but we need to be better at this age.'”

They are. And not just because of talent. There is a price for glory and so many pay it without experiencing the payoff that South is. The Mounties took their natural talent, received great coaching, kept grinding, kept learning and overcame all sorts of obstacles to earn today’s opportunity.

Nothing was given to this team because it played so well in Little League. If anything, it made things even harder because everyone circled South on its schedule. Through it all, this group kept rising up the ladder and reached the state final following heartbreaking losses in the 2022 state quarterfinals and last year’s semifinals.

From those tears came renewed fight and South kept improving to finally stand tall as the best Class AA team in Eastern Pennsylvania. Today it tries winning the whole prize.

So, while many might not understand how much work South has put in since 2019, it and its fans know it has been all about effort.

“Having that target on our back has made us better. It really is amazing to see how far we’ve come with everything,” Schuler said. “We have natural talent but we work hard every single day.”

“I think sometimes there are some people who don’t understand how much hard work it takes and how hard it truly is,” shortstop Gianna Goodman said. “At the same time, we have so much support throughout our community. They really do appreciate our hard work and are really happy for us.”

Those fans have seen South put in all that time, whether at the field, the batting cages or the weight room. The mistake some made when these players were winning the Little League Mid-Atlantic championship was assuming South would always be this good. Whatever the sport, some players pursue other athletic endeavors or other non-sports activities. Others mature quicker than others; others lose their passion for the game.

All those are significant factors as those players grow older. So is the simple fact that there are so many other great teams and players out there. They have lofty dreams, too, and also are putting in countless hours to try and achieve them. Sports are not just a battle of skills but a test of wills.

The bottom line is reaching this point is a grind. Just look at phenomenal Little League all-star teams form the past. Jersey Shore made a run at the Junior League World Series in the 2000s but was denied district championship glory come high school. Keystone finished third in the U.S. field at the 2011 Little League Baseball World Series but also never captured a district championship at the high school level.

You know why? It wasn’t from a lack of talent, quality coaching or work ethic. It was because it is really hard winning championships.

And think about it. Baseball and softball are sports where one can literally do everything right and still fail. A batter can square up a ball and hit an absolute laser but it goes right to a fielder for an out. Conversely, someone can get jammed and knock a swinging bunt a few feet from home and earn a single. There’s just so much randomness to these sports.

That is why I laughed when some predicted this South team could win four straight state championships when they reached high school. They had no concept of how crazy that statement was, how seemingly impossible it is.

And I say impossible because it literally has never been done in Pennsylvania high school softball or baseball history. Throw in that when these players arrived in high school most were 14 and playing against 18-year-olds and it adds to the lunacy of those predictions.

Also consider that everything resets every year. Just because South made the state’s Final 4 last year did not mean they would make a similar run this time. Everyone starts at the bottom come March and it’s a battle to move up and up as the year continues.

Just this year alone, South loaded its schedule with tough opponents to try and put itself in the best position to make a run at the state title, knowing getting there would be difficult. Winning it will be hard, too, with Neshannock a loaded team, but South has played loaded teams throughout the year and faced multiple Division I pitchers, so it has prepared itself well.

To try and win the fight, South had to go through a whole bunch of fights, highlighting how hard it is reaching the year’s final game.

The first time I watched this group play in person was during the pandemic in 2020 at the Elm Park Summer League. There, South played a Montgomery team which was laying the foundation for a 2022 Class A state championship. Most of the Mounties were going into eighth grade that fall but they played a phenomenal game and won.

My thought that night about watching them in high school was, “This is going to be fun.” And it has been a blast. But never once did I think that any kind of state championship run was a given.

It takes everything to reach this point. It takes all that work, all that quality play and it takes some breaks. South found the right formula this season, but the success earned these last three years is not because the Mounties were great in Little League.

It is because they made themselves great in high school.

“Outside people don’t understand as much what it takes but our fans who are here know how hard it is to get there,” third baseman Kendall Cardone said. “That’s all that matters is that we have our fans’ support and they know how hard we work every year.”

South is playing in its first state final since 2003. That alone reveals how hard it is to reach this point since the program has had so many outstanding teams since that year. These Mounties made the breakthrough by playing hard, playing as one and playing for each other. That is how dream became reality.

“People might see our names in the paper and see that we won,” right fielder Sage Lorson said. “But I feel like they don’t realize how cohesive we play as a team and how well we do with each other until they watch us play.”

When I was younger, I often wrote stories in which my alma mater Garnet Valley would win basketball or baseball championships. For me, that is all they remained–dreams on paper. South has turned dreams into reality.

They lived one dream five years ago when they reached the Little League World Series. Now, because these players kept pushing, South is living another. What a special time for them, too. The Mounties earned this moment and what I wouldn’t do to go back to high school and have another shot at trying to mount a run like this one.

If I was granted that wish, I would enjoy every moment before, during and after the game. It’s so hard to reach this point, so might as well savor every aspect because nothing in the future is guaranteed. Play hard, have carnival-like fun and see what happens. Do that and South should have no regrets, regardless of the game’s outcome.

This team was pegged for high school greatness five years ago. Turns out the prognosticators were right.

Just never forget or stop appreciating that South earned this greatness the hard way.

–Masse may be reached at cmasse@sungazette.com. Follow him on Twitter at @docmasse