New Castle athletes make clean sweep by winning three section titles
Nine athletes from New Castle High have strung together a historic feat for the scholastic sports season.
In an impressive 2025-26 season, the football, boys basketball and boys track and field team have claimed section titles for each sport in one season.
The nine athletes - Damian Harrison, Jermaine Walker, Travis Whetzel, Chase Lemmon, Keiarie Stewart, Qualin Davis, Alex Williams, Jayden Shaffer and Mardez Stewart - all competed for Ne-Ca-Hi on the gridiron, hardwood and track and were pivotal to the success of each program.
For the nine players, it started with finding success at Taggart Stadium. The football team captured a share of the Parkway Conference championship and finished the season after reaching the WPIAL Class 4A semifinals with a 9-3 overall record.
"(They're) just outstanding athletes; outstanding young men," New Castle football coach Fred Mozzocio said of his nine players. "They compete at the highest level in all sports. It's important to them when they put on the red and black and they wear that uniform, no matter what sport it is, that they want to represent their brothers, teammates, school and community. That's a heck of a legacy to leave, especially for those seniors."
Mozzocio also serves as the athletic director at New Castle and he saw the success from the football field roll into the next sport.
"I think when you can get off to a good football season, and a successful football season, especially coming back after some bad seasons, the excitement growing in the school itself bounced right over to the basketball court," Mozzocio said. "They had a tremendous year (in basketball) and from there the guys were still hungry, wanted to compete, got into track and started doing it there as well.
"I know right after basketball season, I walked into the locker room at the field house and coach (Jeff) Shaftic had a sign saying ‘Football section champs?' check and then ‘Basketball section champs?' with a checkmark and he had a question mark by track. Those guys took to that challenge and brought it home for us. We got a three-peat this year."
On the hardwood, the nine individuals helped their basketball team cruise to a WPIAL Section 1-6A championship and reach the WPIAL Class 6A championship round to earn silver. The ‘Canes finished their season after reaching the PIAA Class 6A quarterfinal round to end with an overall record of 25-3.
"I think it's remarkable and, obviously, rare," New Castle basketball coach Ralph Blundo said of the nine athletes' accomplishment. "I'm not sure it's ever happened before, but they're a great group of competitors. Those guys, if they could compete in tiddlywinks, they'd do it. If they're keeping score, they want to be part of it and want to represent our school. We're proud of them."
Blundo said he could see success coming from most of the athletes since the ninth grade and that they were good competitors.
"They've gotten used to winning and that's a great habit to have," Blundo said.
Blundo is an assistant principal at New Castle and gets a day-by-day look at the student athletes, garnering success on and off the hardwood.
"I think it's the habits they created of doing things right. They're leaders in the school, they conduct themselves right on a daily basis, they work hard in the classroom and are committed to all of their sports," he said. "The results of that are success, and it's really awesome for other kids to see."
On April 13, the nine individuals helped the boys track team claim its third straight Section 8-3A championship after defeating Beaver and Blackhawk to go 6-0 in section action.
"What a remarkable thing for those guys to be part of," New Castle track coach Jeff Shaftic said. "I believe it's history. In 1984, that was when they started keeping track of section championships for track. What a testament to these young men that all year long they put on that jersey that said New Castle.
"To help their team and help their school win another championship, I couldn't say enough about these young men. I'm proud of what they did...Putting on that New Castle jersey means a lot. It means a lot to the kids; to the community. I'm happy to be a small part of what they did this year."
Shaftic said the nine individuals are just natural competitors, especially the seniors like Harrison, Lemmon, Whetzel, Davis and Shaffer.
"Many are committed to go play football and other sports," he said. "They were going to help their team one more time because they'll never get to win that for their team one more time."
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