Mary Bolesky, microphone in hand, and with Lancaster Catholic’s student body and invited guests listening attentively inside the Crusaders’ venerable on-campus Berger Gymnasium, scanned the crowd.

Her eyes finally landed on four women seated in the front row.

“Thank you for your support,” Bolesky, Lancaster Catholic’s senior point guard and unflappable floor general said. “We’re so grateful for the example you set for us.”

Those women — Kathy Butz, Leslie Diehl Ziemer, Lynn Parks Strum and Sue Bitts Southward — were on hand, repping Lancaster Catholic’s first state championship girls basketball team, which won PIAA gold 50 years ago back in 1974.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Crusaders’ proud athletic program honored this past season’s girls basketball state champs — Lancaster Catholic cruised past Westmont Hilltop for Class 3A supremacy back on March 21 at Hershey’s Giant Center — and invited former Crusaders’ individual and team state champs from over the years.

That list featured five girls basketball championship teams, including that 1974 squad — which beat Baldwin out of District Seven for the title — plus PIAA banners in 1989, 1996, 2018 and this past season.

State Senator Scott Martin — a Lancaster Catholic grad and a state heavyweight champ in wrestling in 1990 — emceed the event. Earlier Wednesday, he welcomed Crusaders’ coach Charlie Detz and the team during a ceremony at the Capitol Complex in Harrisburg.

Wednesday’s event at Lancaster Catholic was dubbed 50 Years of Champions. Incredibly, this year’s girls basketball squad won state gold exactly 50 years after the team Butz, Ziemer, Strum and Southward helped win the PIAA crown.

What are those odds?

“Zero,” Southward said, giggling.

“It’s pretty special the way it worked out,” Detz said. “It was a magical year, from where we started to where we ended up. It was certainly a ride.”

With a PIAA gold trophy at the end of the rainbow.

Lancaster Catholic celebrates state champions [photos]

The coaches and players were introduced at the event. Bolesky and Detz spoke. And the crowd was treated to photos of previous state champs and a video compilation of the Crusaders’ title-game victory in March.

“Heck, I was in tears when they were showing the slideshow,” Strum said. “I’m so proud to have been a part of this program. This has been unbelievable and wonderful. It’s great to see that girls sports have come this far. They’re getting so many more opportunities than we got 50 years ago.”

Southward’s husband, Bill, coached Lancaster Catholic’s undefeated 2003 state championship boys basketball team. He is royalty in L-L League and especially Lancaster County hoops.

Sue Southward said she had an inkling this season’s team could go special places after the Crusaders captured the Section Three title back in early February.

“They had a solid connection, and they were a great team,” she said. “It was destiny after that.”

Lancaster Catholic delivered, capping a slick 29-win season with section, league, District Three and PIAA championships.

Hence the celebration Wednesday.

Ziemer’s message to this year’s team: Savor the moment. Plus, this is something you’ll cherish and remember forever.

“You think it’s great now, but it will only get better as you relive it and get those memories back,” Ziemer said. “For us, it wasn’t just about the trophy. It was the journey, and about getting there. You will look back at that.”

Fondly. Like that 1974 team, which found itself back in the headlines when the Crusaders were making their push this past winter, with a shot at book-ending two titles in 50 years.

Ziemer said Lancaster Catholic’s ride rekindled friendships from her youth, with former classmates and teammates from her high school days. Strum was in Lancaster this week visiting her family from her home in Virginia, and joined in on the fun.

“We’ve been reliving any memories we could think of,” Ziemer said. “Some of us remember bits and pieces. Some of us remember nothing. Some of us remember every fine detail. I don’t think any of us realized at the time how much it meant to people in the community and people in the school.”

It is a big deal. When former state champs who were in the gym were introduced Wednesday, they received heartfelt, thundering applause.

“Our team started it,” Southward said, “and we set the bar high. And everybody who came after us wanted to do that. The athletes here have a lot of pride because of what’s come before them.”

Detz wholeheartedly vouched for that.

“You never want to forget how you got here,” he said, “and that’s because of who came before you. We want to honor that and continue that legacy. Those women laid that foundation for us. They’re why, when you play basketball for Lancaster Catholic, our goal every year is to win championships.”

Lancaster Catholic’s girls basketball haul now includes 27 section titles, 17 league crowns, 21 district gold trophies and five state championships — book-ended between that pioneering 1974 team and, exactly 50 years later, this year’s bunch.

TWITTER-X: @JeffReinhart77

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