IC girls basketball team determined to win 1986 title

Bound and determined.

Thirty-five years later, to a player, the members of the champion Comettes of 1986 speak of unity, togetherness, friendship, determination and accepting nothing less than ultimate victory.

That IC team was the first girls’ basketball team in Washington County to win a WPIAL championship. Only two – Washington in 1992 and Chartiers-Houston in 2017 – have reached such heights since.

It’s a special and rare accomplishment. The Comettes, a committed group of seniors who played a lot of basketball together in their formative years, reached their destiny March 8, 1986 at the University of Pittsburgh’s Fitzgerald Field House, defeating Farrell, 48-33, in the WPIAL Class A title game.

A year before, the Comettes lost to St. Francis Academy in the championship game.

The talent, will, and sheer determination was present for IC in its crusade to return for a championship run in 1986.

“We were much more than a team. We were sisters,” said Renee Hardie-Post, a starter on the team.

“We realized we had given up an opportunity to win something we all wanted very much. This was our last shot. We understood that all we had worked for, all we dreamed and all those games we played since we were 9 had come down to that game. That day.

“We were this wee-little school sitting between two larger schools (Trinity and Washington) and their students, their families and friends came to root us on throughout the playoffs. Especially in the championship game, Wash High sponsored a student bus because they played later in the day but sent the students to our game hours before. To see all of our fans and IC students and Wash High students coming together to cheer us on in unison was so special. I’m not sure how often you see something like that today.”

For head coach Mary Mosley, it was her third trip to the WPIAL finals, and likely to be IC’s last chance at the gold medal as the school closed in 1989. “It was exciting to accomplish that,” said Mosley, who now resides in West Mifflin. “That team had great chemistry and we had just the right combination of great inside play and outside shooting. Those girls loved competing and they loved playing basketball.”

Some important members of the team included Becki Burlingham, Kim Spencer, Karen Silbaugh Lebar, Tricia Natili, Renee Hardie-Post, Carrie Pisani and Dina Albano. Other members of the team were Amy Relich, Denise Greco and Sally Cook.

“That group worked very hard and very well together,” Mosley said. “We really had a strong inside game with Becki and Kim.”

Mosley also credited her assistant, John Dorsey, for making a huge impact in the program.

“John was the X and O guy,” Mosley said. “I was more of the defensive end of the game. We were both on the quiet side. I was not a screamer from the bench. We’d do our talking more on the side, pull a kid aside and explain. We were more of a cerebral side rather than the screaming side.”

Spencer, who transferred to IC from Beth-Center after her freshman year, credited Mosley and Dorsey for playing a huge part in the success of the team and the program.

“Mary was a great coach,” Spencer said. “Her heart was all in with the team. It was all about teaching us to play basketball. She was never caught up in anything.

“She was fair. She always played who was the best. Mary never let ego get in the way. She had a lot to offer.”

Building a Confident Winner

The seeds to the success enjoyed by the 1986 girls’ basketball team were sown as many as nine years before through youth practices and games, and some hotly contested battles at the Brownson House against their neighboring rival schools and other schools in the surrounding area.

While Spencer entered the scene for the 1983-84 season, the Comettes lost Nikki Holmes who transferred to Washington for that same season. Mostly, however, the cast was the same for nearly a decade.

“It was truly a team,” said Natili, the lone junior starter on the squad. “We spent so much time together on and off the court. We grew up together. We were a competitive bunch, always wanted to win.

“We knew we were going to do well. We worked hard every day to be better.”

Hardie-Post said playing together since they were 9-years-old helped the team evolve and led to teammates understanding one another’s strengths, weaknesses and tendencies.

“Under the guidance of (the late) Camillo Trapuzzano and Mr. Dorsey in youth league, we started to become a cohesive unit.”

Silbaugh Lebar said the base core of the team grew when Spencer transferred to IC.

“I think that because we played together since grade school helped us understand what kind of team we were and could be,” said Silbaugh Lebar. “When Kim came in and joined us, she added something. With Mary and John leading us, and the fact we were such competitors, just made us that better.”

Burlingham and Spencer were special in tandem, a difficult matchup for opponents. Natili, Silbaugh Rebar and Hardie-Post did their jobs and knew their roles and were tenacious players in their own rights. With Pisani and Albano contributing, the Comettes – champions of Section 17 AA-A – were ready to be Queens of the Court.

Championship Day Legacy

“We walked in there (Pitt Field House) determined,” Silbaugh Lebar said. “I think we were plagued by nerves the year before against St. Francis. We just couldn’t finish and grab the gold. It was definitely a different venue than we were used to playing in. This time we knew what to expect.

“The court was so huge there, especially coming from our little gym. I remember us focusing on what we had to do there and what we wanted to do.”

Farrell entered the game as a defensive minded team, which had allowed just 34.1 points per game. In its three playoffs wins, the Steelerettes limited opponents to 27.6 points per game.

The Comettes were the top scoring team in the WPIAL with a 68.8 points per game average. In the playoffs, they defeated Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, 63-27, Jefferson-Morgan, 44-28, and Shannock Valley, 52-30.

Prior to the game, Farrell Coach Nick Cannone was quoted in the Observer-Reporter: “They are a good basketball team. I think we can play with them. They are the leading scorers in the WPIAL, and we’ve shut teams down in the playoffs, so something is going to give.”

Farrell slowed IC a bit, but nowhere near enough.

Silbaugh Lebar’s two long jumpers spurred a 12-1 lead for the Comettes. While Farrell battled back and actually cut the lead to six early in the fourth quarter. But Spencer’s 21 points and six rebounds and Burlingham’s defense buoyed the Comettes chances. It was strong fourth quarter efforts by Burlingham and Pisani that ensured the victory.

Natili said the win has allowed her to earn family bragging rights.

Her brother Raymond Natili III was an outstanding player at IC in the late 1970s and in 1980 and excelled at Waynesburg College. He has been a respected and decorated NCAA Division I official for many years.

Her father Raymond Natili is a well-known and highly regarded retired basketball coach and athletic director at IC and also a basketball official.

“I always tease my brother about it,” Tricia Natili said laughing. “Every so often I remind him. They are the big basketball guys and I’m the one with a WPIAL championship.

“Honestly, winning that championship… I don’t know how you could feel any better.”

“We felt accomplished and happy,” Spencer said.

Silbaugh Lebar said the championship has taken on more meaning as time has passed.

“It was such an exciting time,” she said. “We had worked so hard and wanted it something fierce. As exciting as it was then, I don’t know that it’s more meaningful now. When you look back, it is amazing that little IC was the first team in Washington County to do it. To think only two other teams have done it since makes it extra special.”

Added Natili: “I could not have asked for a better group to play with or coaches to be coached by. It’s one of the best experiences of my life.”

Mosley, who left IC after that season to coach a volleyball program at Waynesburg University, thinks the reason for success was basic.

“They were a special bunch,” Mosley said. “They played together and determined. They were not just physically talented but intelligent. They weren’t going to let it slip through their fingers. They were going out champions.”

They did just that. Bound and determined.