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Dream weaver: Guilfoyle fulfills golf coach’s vision for team

PIAA western regional golf tournament

By Michael Boytim 6 min read

DuBOIS -- During his six seasons as Bishop Guilfoyle Academy's boys golf coach, Mark Scalice always listed three goals for his Marauder teams -- compete for a Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference championship, win District 6 and advance to the state finals.

The goals seemed lofty at first for a Marauders program that had never gone that far, but each year Scalice's teams got closer to all three goals.

On Dec. 28, 2024, Scalice died at 59 -- but his memory lived on through new Bishop Guilfoyle coach A.J. Marasco and the Marauder team he helped prepare for Thursday's moment -- the PIAA Class 2A Western Regional.

With their former coach on their minds, the Marauders topped Elk County Catholic, 334-345, to earn a spot in the PIAA championships for the first time and finished off Scalice's trifecta -- a LHAC title, a District 6 crown and a trip to states.

"In BG history, this is the first time the school has gone to states for boys team golf," Marasco said. "We lost Coach Mark over the winter. This was his dream -- get a Bishop Guilfoyle team to states. Being able to do this for him and complete his legacy drove us this entire season. We wanted this for him, and we couldn't have done it without him. He was my coach when I played, and coming back here helping these boys and passing down Mark's legacy means a lot."

Troy Nachtman was Bishop Guilfoyle's medalist, finishing with a 77 on the ultra-tight Silver Course at Treasure Lake.

"It's a big tribute to Mark. We wouldn't be here without him," Nachtman said. "We all played for him our first two years. He helped make us better. We're here because of him."

Carter Boland carded an 82, Grant Okonak had an 87 and Aidan Sheehan shot 88 to round out the scoring. All four players have led Bishop Guilfoyle in scoring at one point during this season in addition to Brody Gartmann, whose 91 didn't count in the team score on Thursday.

"We're all pretty equal and pride ourselves on working together," Nachtman said. "We're a well-balanced team. It's all based on practicing together and everyone getting better. It's a pretty big accomplishment for us. It's the first time in school history, so we're glad to be the first team to do it."

Bishop Guilfoyle's scores were higher than usual on Thursday, but a lot of that had to do with the course the golfers were playing.

"This is the tightest course in this area," Marasco said. "The strategy we had going in was to play the fairways. You can't go wrong with hitting a fairway here. It's OK to hit an iron off the tee. It's a shorter course, and an iron off the tee doesn't kill you. Hitting the fairway and laying up if we had to was the strategy."

The PIAA team championships will be held at Penn State on Wednesday, Oct. 22.

"We have a lot of good players," Marasco said. "Everyone stepped up at a certain time when we needed them this season. Troy, the last couple of weeks, has been playing phenomenal golf. It has been the best golf he's played in a long time, but what is great about all these boys is that at any given moment, any of them can go low."

Return trip for Tigers

A year ago, the Hollidaysburg girls came up short in the PIAA Class 3A Western Regional, but a few days later the Lady Tigers learned they advanced to the PIAA championships as a wild card due to having one of the better team scores without a regional championship in the state.

This year, Hollidaysburg took the more direct route by edging McDowell, 262-266, and DuBois, 262-296, to become regional champions.

That didn't make it any easier on coach Jill Hileman, who was following the live scoring online.

"Today I was stressed the entire time," Hileman said. "I kept refreshing my phone and hoping for the best all afternoon."

Crosby Denis earned medalist honors with a 77, Maliah Malausky carded an 86 and Laila Panaro shot a 99 to account for Hollidaysburg's score.

"I'm proud of all of them," Hileman said. "They all get to go to states, and that was our goal at the beginning of the season. Crosby did her thing, Maliah has been our solid No. 2 all season and Laila and Lucy (Carles) have been right there. I'm really happy for Laila that her score was part of the team score today. She's been putting in a lot of time. Sometimes her scores haven't been what she's expected, so I'm happy she was able to play well her last few holes and keep that lead for us."

Many of the girls were not familiar with Treasure Lake's Silver Course -- which is among the most challenging courses the PIAA uses -- prior to this week.

"I was a little nervous about that," Hileman said. "That's why I knew it was important we got up here and played. We came up Monday, and (Hollidaysburg tennis coach) Brian (Denis) was up here with (his daughter) Crosby on Sunday. He had two pages of notes for us already. We learned a lot from him and playing on Monday. It's just one of those courses that you have to keep the ball in play, and I think they did a good job of doing that."

Denis shot 2-over par as the course has a par of 75 for women. She hit her drive into the water on No. 14 after an unlucky bounce -- her fifth hole of the day -- but escaped with a bogey. Rather than get frustrated, she refocused and played 1-under par over her final 13 holes.

"This has been our goal all season long," Denis said. "Obviously we wanted to win districts, but we wanted to make our way back to states again. It's great to win it outright this time and save the stress of having to wait it out for a possible wild card entry."

A major part of the Hollidaysburg victory was the improvement of Malausky.

"She's amazing," Denis said. "I remember my sophomore year, she came out. None of us even knew if she was playing. Watching her these past two years and seeing her try to break into the 70s and lower her scores has been amazing. I'm so proud of her."

Little Lions cruise

State College, which was dominant in both the District 6 sectionals and championships, cruised to the PIAA Class 3A Western Regional title with a 299. Meadville was second with 323, and Punxsutawney was third at 336.

The Little Lions' Luke McGraw was the medalist with a 1-under par 71, and Brady Wager carded a 2-over par 74.

BOYS RESULTS

CLASS 3A

1, State College (McGraw 71, Wager 74, C. Ladrido 77, L. Ladrido 77) 299; 2, Meadville (Ferry 72, Mahoney 81, Konetsky 81, Mangine 89) 323; 3, Punxsutawney (Presloid 77, Stahlman 83, Day 84, Kunselman 92) 336.

CLASS 2A

1, Bishop Guilfoyle Academy (Nachtman 77, Boland 82, Okonak 87, Sheehan 88) 334; 2, Elk County Catholic (Wasko 84, Chamberlain 84, Vogt 88, Muccio 89) 345.

GIRLS RESULTS

CLASS 3A

1, Hollidaysburg (Denis 77, Malausky 86, Panaro 99) 262; 2, McDowell (Bickel 85, Kang 87, Deaton 94) 266; 3, DuBois (C. Kennis 86, A. Kennis 96, Imbrogno 114) 296.

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