Team spirit high at Southmoreland with Scotties on track for banner year

Southmoreland’s Russ Grimm Field is brighter this year, with new LED lights and artificial turf, and so are the prospects of the Scotties football team.

With a 7-0 record heading into Friday night’s showdown with visiting rival Mt. Pleasant Area, the team is riding high on a new wave of optimism and carrying the school community along for the ride.

It’s a feeling shared by the pro football and WPIAL hall-of-famer who lent his name to his alma mater’s football field.

“It’s been down for a while,” Russ Grimm noted of the Southmoreland football program. “It’s good to see it get turned around. I think they’re doing a good job.”

The team seems to be hitting its stride this season — after at least two decades of mostly losing records, followed by a 6-5 season in 2023 and a 7-4 record last year.

The Scotties’ 7-0 season start is their best since 1964, when they opened 8-0.

“It’s always good to have a winning program,” Grimm said. “I think it gives people something to talk about when they go to the movies or out to a restaurant.”

After graduating from Southmoreland in 1977, Grimm went 22-2 in two seasons as Pitt’s starting center. He later won three Super Bowls playing guard for the Washington Redskins.

Now living near Seven Springs, Grimm often returns to his namesake field to see the current version of the team he once quarterbacked. He’ll be there for the homecoming contest against Mt. Pleasant Area’s Vikings.

“The field is different, but the atmosphere is still there,” Grimm said, thinking back to his senior year with the Scotties in 1976. “I just like the area back here. People treat people the way you want to be treated; you grew up respecting people. And they love sports.”

The mutual love between the team and the Southmoreland community is more apparent than ever this season.

“It’s been a heck of a year with a lot of excitement, ” said Amanda Nagy, a 2002 South­moreland graduate and president of the Southmoreland Football Parents Association.

She’s seen attendance pick up at Scotties games.

“At our last home game, there were lines outside the door,” she said. “I’ve never seen the stands that full, with the energy the crowd had.

“The (Sept. 12) game at Blackhawk was ‘a nice little jaunt,’ and the away section was pretty full.”

More than 700 tickets were pre-sold for the Mt. Pleasant game.

Nagy said the Scotties have gone the extra mile to connect with the larger community. That included players helping with a 5K race Sept. 20, in conjunction with the annual Scottdale Fall Festival.

They passed out water and snacks to the race participants and presented medals at the finish line.

“The runners were getting a kick out of the team members cheering everybody on,” Nagy said. “The community is loving the team getting out there.

“There’s been a lot of online presence of people shouting out the team. It seems like the community is making sure this year that they’re recognizing the things the boys are doing. I’m not sure I’ve seen a team come together quite so much in several years.”

During the Oct. 3 game against Yough, Southmoreland Senior High Principal Charity Colebank noted, the Scotties players stood by during the halftime marching band routine instead of retreating to the locker room.

“The players took their helmets off and watched the band perform,” she said. “It was respectful. It brings a nice vibe. It’s nice to see everybody on the same page.”

Thanks to an anonymous donor, a local barber came to the school fieldhouse to provide haircuts for several players. First-year head coach, 24-year-old Dustin Shoaf, joined in and also got a trim.

“He is the youngest coach in the WPIAL,” Colebank said. “He’s full of energy, and the kids thrive off that energy. I constantly see him involved for the kids’ well-being.”

Shoaf said he and his coaching staff are stressing a positive team culture that’s expressed in part through community service.

“If you have a strong positive culture, you’re going to do great things on the field and even better things off the field,” he said. “We’re all in this together. Everybody’s arrow has to be pointing in the right direction.”

Shoaf said there is a positive buzz about this year’s team because “our kids are doing the little things right, and it’s adding up.

“It’s been great to see our kids go out there and put in the work all week, buy in and connect the dots.”

While preparing for the Mt. Pleasant game, he said, “We’re excited to play another week of high school football. They’re still hungry. It’s an opportunity to get another 1-0.”

It’s also an opportunity for Grimm to recall the 12-10 victory in 1976, when his Scotties defeated the Vikings — including his cousin.

“We only won three games that year,” Grimm said. “We weren’t very good.”

Still, he said, “To this day, I’ll call my cousin up and say, ‘12-10.’”