(Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a series of articles revisiting the best local sports teams from each Big 30 school. Teams chosen range from undefeated regular seasons, to district titles, to success at the state level. Today: the 1989-90 Northern Potter boys basketball team)

It wasn’t supposed to be the team receiving the District 9 championship medals on that March night at Clarion University.

Not after it started the season with a 1-8 record.

Not after it entered the D9 Class A playoffs as the No. 7 seed.

And certainly not after it was matched up with Elk County Catholic, the three-time defending Class champions, in the title game.

But there the Northern Potter boys basketball team stood. One of the smallest schools in D9 had completed an incredible turnaround, an almost impossible to believe 180 that even 30 years later everyone can still firmly agree was a true “Cinderella story.”

“(Longtime ECC coach) Aaron Straub caught up with me after the game and told me that he had watched us in the regular season and said that there was no way he would ever see us again in the playoffs,” Doug Kosa, the coach of that 1989-90 Panthers team, laughingly recalled. “I said, ‘I don’t blame you. I really didn’t think we would be there either.’”

OF COURSE, long before the Panthers would shock the Crusaders on the big stage, they first had to fight their way back to a .500 record.

The dismal start to the season stretched into early January until, according to Kosa, his team had a players-only meeting that helped right the ship for the remainder of the year.

“They had a team meeting by themselves and I don’t know what transpired or what happened but everything changed after that,” Kosa said. “Nobody ever told me what they said and I never asked.”

That meeting coincided with NoPo getting a big boost with the return of center Jeff Pirrung, who had missed six or seven of those first games with an ankle injury. Not only did he provide a scoring threat under the basket, he also helped to guide the team as they looked to make a push at the postseason.

“There was quite a bit of talent around and they just needed leadership, and I think that I helped bring that to the team,” Pirrung said. “There was nothing really all that special about the team except that we enjoyed each other. We had a great time playing together.”

Sure enough, that bond began to pay off in the win column. Northern Potter lost just twice the rest of the regular season and strung together several impressive wins against some of its North Tier League foes, including an 18-point fourth-quarter comeback against Austin.

They lost just twice the rest of the regular season, and despite finishing with 10 losses, still won the NTL that year.

“It was not pleasant at the start of the year, but the determination that those kids had to turn the season around …” Kosa said. “We never ran away from anybody and it almost seemed like every single game that we won was only by a few points.

“It took a lot of guts and courage to turn that season around, and they did.”

THE PANTHERS entered the 1990 District 9 Class A playoffs as the seventh seed in the eight-team bracket, sneaking into the playoffs with a 13-10 record. Their first-round opponent, A-C Valley, had dominated most of its opponents that year and to say that Northern Potter was the underdog wouldn’t begin to put the matchup into proper perspective.

But by that point, the Panthers had a nothing-to-lose mentality.

Led by 20 points from Pirrung and 16 by Dale Stokes, NoPo beat the Falcons, 69-68.

“They thought they could do it,” Kosa said of his team’s mindset before the game. “The senior leadership on that team was phenomenal and against A-C Valley, Pirrung, our center, swung outside and the big kid for them wouldn’t defend him out there.

“(Jeff) hit three 3s in a row and that changed everything and shocked A-C Valley. We upset them and that was just the turning point.”

The next game, a March 6 semifinal date against Brockway, belonged to Dale Stokes. In one of the best playoff performances in D9 history, Stokes set a school record with a 43-point outburst to lead the Panthers to a 74-66 win.

The shooting guard hit 16 shots from the field, including five 3-pointers, to offset a 30-point performance from Brockway’s Eric Bovaird.

“The one thing that really stands out about that night is that Dale was shooting over Pat Hook, this 6-foot-7, 6-8 kid who went on to play at Bucknell,” Pirrung said. “He had 40 points that night shooting over that guy. At that point, it was a meant-to-be kind of thing.”

THERE was little time for celebration in Ulysses, as Northern Potter had a date with mighty ECC just two days later at Clarion University’s Tippin Gym.

The Crusaders had won the previous three title games by nearly 19 points per contest. More remarkably, ECC was in the middle of nine-straight championship appearances, winning eight of those games.

Were the Panthers intimidated by ECC heading into that game?

“No,” Pirrung said bluntly.

In fact, there was an air of confidence around the team in those 48 hours leading up to the game. So much so that Kosa did something he had never done before in his many years of coaching.

“We had nothing to lose and everything to gain,” he said. “The practice the night before the game, we practiced maybe 30 minutes and I said to my assistant that we might as well go home because they are ready.

“I went to the library the next day and asked them if we could tape the game, because I thought that they were going to do it and I want it on film. It was the only game that I ever felt we were going to win in all of the years that I coached.”

The Crusaders, which entered the game with a 22-4 record, certainly weren’t going to bow down without a fight.

ECC led 11-8 after the first quarter, but NoPo went on a 17-12 surge over the next eight minutes. It was back-and-forth from there, but big games from Tim Walters (13 points), Stokes (13) and point guard Matt Phelps (11) proved too much for the Crusaders to overcome.

Phelps hit a couple of clutch free throws down the stretch and the Panthers withstood an ECC 3 in the game’s final seconds to win 49-48 and stun District 9’s basketball powerhouse.

“There was nothing like it,” Kosa said. “I mean the euphoria was just unbelievable for those kids. It was just something that all of us will remember. On the way back after we got through Coudersport, all of a sudden we picked up fire trucks and vehicles leading us into town. The bus came alive … just phenomenal.”

Added Pirrung, “We felt like as much as you can feel like a rockstar in Ulysses. We were made to feel pretty special and at the same time, we helped to make other people feel special.”

NOPO’S magical run ended in its very next game, as the Panthers fell to Union-New Castle, 86-66, in the opening round of the PIAA playoffs.

In total, Northern Potter went 16-5 after that dismal start to the season and set a few marks that still stand 30 years later. That win remains the only D9 championship on the hardwood — boys or girls — in school history and is just the second boys team from the NTL other than Coudersport (Smethport, 2012) to win a title since 1985.

Pirrung, who now lives in Jacksonville, Florida, said that the effort from his teammates and coaching staff to get better everyday is what turned that season into such a magical one.

“I would say that we got better every week. If you get better every week that’s a goal that’s attainable and you can have something pretty special come from that,” he said. “Eventually, we just knew that we could play with anybody.”

Kosa, who served nearly two more decades as the boys head coach and then had a stint as the school’s athletic director, said that he’s never been around a team as unique as that one.

“There is so much to remember about that team and about that year,” he said. “You just look at it as something that could never happen, but it did. It still just leaves you speechless.”