My Little Town

 "Whenever I go and whatever I do, the experience of growing up in a small town travels with me. The memories are too deeply etched to fade. Things that happened in high school or even grade school seem to have happened only yesterday, and there are places in the town that still glow with the expectations of my youth.

I did not go back home, But, in a sense, I also never left. I will always be as much from that small town as I am from anywhere."

Top photo: Austin Little League team circa 1974-1975. Gerald Duffee is second from the left on the top row. 

Bottom photo: the rest of the Austin LL squad.

The Potter-McKean Little League has always been one of the most well-known and competitive leagues in Pennsylvania.

It was 1951 when the Potter-McKean team won the state championship and advanced to Williamsport for the Little League World Series. The P-M team lost their opening game to a team from Stamford, Connecticut, 4-2 in the single elimination tournament. The names of those players and coaches are still familiar to some of the citizens of the towns they represented. That team was coached by Eldred's Joe Wolcott, Gerald Carley of Roulette, Buzz Shirey of Roulette, and Cecil Gamble of Port Allegany. 

Above: A new year begins in the mid 70's with seven teams (two in Port Allegany). Gerald Duffee Sr. is the manager of the Austin team. Jim Woods (Shinglehouse) and Gus Kuratomi with Mike Shirey lead the Coudersport squad. 

This was my first year of coaching the Eldred team. I was still a college kid and although the team had been struggling for a few years prior and during my opening two years (only five wins in two years), we were able to build competitive youth programs in the following years. Two winning seasons (16 wins total) began to turn the page. The most encouraging part of baseball growth in our town was the number of kids who played little league or "farm team" baseball- 65-70 youngsters.

Until I saw this clipping, I didn't think that Gerald Duffee ever pitched against us. It was a brief outing, but we did face him for a couple of innings, That was enough! As you can see, Austin had no problems scoring runs. Duffee was 4-5 in this contest.

Shinglehouse always had a well-coached team with Jim Woods managing the club and players like Stan Dunsmore.

Many of the readers of this blog piece will identify themselves as residents of a small town. We all know that northwestern Pennsylvania and the southwestern New York area was made up predominantly of small towns.

I wrote a book in 2017 entitled "Austin, Pa's Major Leaguer- The Mark Corey Story." The most enjoyable part of the book for me was gathering information about the towns in Potter and McKean County and how one's perception changes through the years. 

Mark Corey was a dominant pitcher for the Austin Little League in the late 80's and later for the Coudersport American Legion team. He played three years for Edinboro University before being drafted in the ML 1995 free agent draft by the Reds in the fourth round. He was called to the big leagues on an infamous date in American history, 9/11/2001.

Here's Coudersport clinching the league going 11-1 overall. Bruce Fink homered for the Phils of Port Allegany. Gerald Duffee helped Austin defeat Roulette-this time as a left-handed catcher.

I can recall as a young player thinking that Austin was at least 50 miles from Eldred when the actual distance was 30 miles. The population of Potter County is slightly over 17,000 people (last census), the 5th least populous county in Pennsylvania. The county seat is Coudersport with 2600 residents followed by Galeton, Shinglehouse, Roulette and Ulysses.

Duffee homered in loss to Sayre.

Gerald Duffee grew up in Austin like many young athletes in a town of less than a thousand people. There was only 20-25 students in the senior classes and the athletes played baseball and basketball. If the gymnasium was locked, the youngsters shoveled the courts or some player was lucky enough to have been loaned a key to unlock the gym doors. The baseball program consisted of little league and Babe Ruth programs. When the players reached American Legion age, they played in Coudersport or Emporium. Mark Corey played in Coudersport while Duffee and star Austin athlete, Randy Cooney played in Emporium,

I found this clipping to be written in a somewhat disturbing manner, over- emphasizing the fact that Brenda Bates lost a 2-0 game to P-M in the playoffs. Duffee's HR were the only runs driven in by the Potter-McKean team. It's now very unusual not to see female players on ESPN's coverage of the LL World Series.

Austin's little league and later, Babe Ruth coach, Gerald Duffee. Mr. Duffee passed away in 2009 at the age of 77. He was employed in the Austin school system for many years as a history teacher, athletic director, guidance counselor, drivers education teacher retiring in 1985 as high school principal.

We won one game vs. Austin in my tenure, a one run win after his son Gerald had moved on to Babe Ruth.

His son's path was not unlike a few other Austin athletes through the years: little league, Babe Ruth, American Legion and high school basketball, amateur league Alle-Catt baseball and college baseball at Mansfield University. The one difference that separated Gerald from most athletes was his domination of each sport at each level. There's very few area athletes that combined the baseball and basketball skills that this young man displayed year after year. The numbers are stunning.

The collection of clips below are only a part of  his weekly performances. I don't like compiling many lists because inevitably you leave off some key names, but the town of Austin has produced some outstanding athletes and at times has put together  teams that are playoff contenders in both baseball and basketball.

Some of those players include: Tom Ripple, Dick Logue, Randy Cooney, John Frank, Steve Kudlock, Gary Price, Greg Garzel, Doug Dow, Joe Keck, Marty Corey and Darla Shepard and several more that I'm sure I'll be reminded of as the days go by.

Ten managers named in the Babe Ruth League.

The newly formed Austin Sports Boosters Club (1978). Club officers are: bottom row- Cliff Gledhill, Peg Rotello, and Doris Ianson. Top row-Sally Duffee, Gerald Duffee and guest speaker Richard Danielson. Danielson, former Smethport High Coach became the head coach at Pitt- Bradford.

Early season basketball scoring leaders (Duffee's) junior season. Jeff Kockler of Emporium is ninth. 

Duffee's sophomore year as he and teammate Todd Lamar are in at slightly over 17 points per game. Port Allegany's Randy Riale is third at 22 ppg.

Austin wins tournament game with only Gerald Duffee (27) and Joe Karpinski (23) putting points on the board for the Panthers.

Duffee scores 39 in overtime loss to Coudy.

Duffee leads area with 25.8 a game in his junior year. Cuba with St. Bonaventure recruit,  Andy Moore, is 17-1 overall. Northern Potter is 21-2

Top Big 30 players- left to right: Andy Moore, Ron Lindsey (Wyoming), Dave Baker (Portville), Jeff Jovenetti and John Dry (Salamanca) is below Jovenetti.
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Northern Tier All Stars- Duffee leads the way as a junior. Doug Glenn of Otto-Eldred and Jerry Mitchell (Oswayo Valley are also on the squad.

1980-81 North Tier All Stars are left to right- Duffee, Jeff Kockler (Emporium),Don Thompson (N. Potter), Doug Glenn (O-E) and Port Allegany's Marc Petzold

North Tier All-Stars are all seniors with Duffee making the team for the third consecutive year. Joe Hollencin (Emporium), Don Thompson (NP), Tim Erway (NP), Jerry Mitchell (OV) and Art Fenstermaker (O-E) make up the 6 man team.

North Tier All-Stars plus second team and honorable mention players. Joe Karpinski of Austin is an honorable mention selection.

Early season- Moore leads Duffee by a point.

Duffee clinches scoring title in junior season. Austin goes 2-17 and Duffee provided half the team's 49.1 ppg. 

Duffee wins title as senior over Olean Walsh's John Neeson.

Continuation of Big 30 team with Dave Hellwig (Ellicottville) and Thompson (Northern Potter)

Big 30 Coach of the Year Award Winners and Scoring Champions through the years: Duffee wins in 81 and 82. Other winners: Don Hurlburt (Hinsdale) in 1969 and Paul Dorman, 1972. Matt Grimone (Emporium) wins in 1975. Jim Thompson wins coaching award in 1972 and Hal Hansen (Bradford) wins in '73.

Big 30 photos- John Dry (Salamanca) and Duffee (Austin)

Gerald Duffee takes his baseball skills to the Emporium Legion team (Austin did not have a team) and hits a game winning homer with two out in the ninth inning.

Duffee strikesout 11 in shutout win.

Duffee strikes out 13 in another Emporium win- this time over Bradford. Above and below clip.

Duffee throws a one hitter in win over McKean.

Basketball clip slips in with Scio's undefeated mark. Emporium was 19-5. and Port Allegany, 18-6

Repeat clip of Emporium's win over Kane- Jim Slusarik homered for Emporium.

Duffee throws two hitter against Smethport.

TOP and BOTTOM- Duffee homers in Emporium win. Schager hits 9th HR for Emporium (bottom) Top- Duffie pitches 7-2 win over Smethport.

Gerald Duffee is on his way to pitch at Mansfield University, but still keeps his name in the local papers by playing Alle-Catt baseball for Emporium and Austin.

Emporium defeats Port Allegany 16-2 in Alle-Catt play. Duffee gets the W.

End of the season Alle-Catt playoffs- Duffee (now with Coudersport)strikes out 13 and gives up only two hits in win over Fillmore.

Gerald Duffee strikes out 20 in this Alle-Catt win. That game would lead to a discussion of one of baseball's unwritten "rules"- Never bunt to break up a late inning no-hitter - that's always a highly debatable topic for a good coffee shop argument,

Coudersport wins over Little Valley as Duffee homers. Steve Gustin, left-handed pitcher for the Shinglehouse Shantys, struck out 15 in win over the other Shinglehouse team. Gustin pitched for me at Saint Bonaventure. **** Clip listed above.

NOTES- Kim Tingley of Coudersport is the tenth leading career scorer in Pennsylvania history with 2,905 points. Melinda Martin of Northern Potter scored 2,140 points  (1995-1999).

Gerald Duffee scored over 1,500 points in his high school career and was a 4-year varsity starter. He also won back to back scoring titles in the Big 30.