(EDITOR’S NOTE: The Times News is running a series of stories asking area coaches and athletic directors to remember their “Most Memorable” sporting event. Today’s Most Memorable moment comes from Pleasant Valley golf coach Steve Krechel)

By TJ Engle

tengle@tnonline.com

When asked to select the “Most Memorable” match of his 29-year coaching career, Pleasant Valley’s Steve Krechel asked if he could sleep on it.

That plan didn’t quite work out as he had hoped.

“I just couldn’t sleep that night,” Krechel said. “I was up all night thinking about all the different years and all the different kids that have gone through our golf program.

“I went into school the next day to get my books, and when I sat down and started looking at all the old pictures of kids that have gone through the program, I realized how quickly the time has flown by since my first year.”

That wasn’t all Krechel realized.

“Thinking about the different players and the different teams, I realized I was going to need some extra time to make my choice,” he explained.

Krechel finally narrowed his list down to three choices.

In the end, Krechel picked a match from Sept. 29, 2005, as the “Most Memorable” match of his coaching career.

Pleasant Valley compiled an impressive 15-1 regular season record that year, including a perfect 12-0 mark in the Mountain Valley Conference.

PV took those lofty credentials into the MVC postseason tournament at Great Bear Golf Course in East Stroudsburg, when it turned in the performance that Krechel called the “Most Memorable” of his nearly three decades at the Bears’ helm.

Evan Couchman finished first in the Championship Flight that day with a tournament low round of 74, while teammate Brad Yocum was second in the Championship Flight with a 77. Those individual efforts powered Pleasant Valley to the team title.

But the Bears were far from a two-man team that season.

In addition to Yocum and Couchman, the Bears also got strong performances from Mike Giannetto, Ryan Bogart, Dan Krauetler, Mark Ubbens, Drew Hoffman and Tommy Maddalena.

“Just looking back, we had five individual golfers that season who qualified to play in the District 11 tournament,” Krechel said. “It was just a great group of kids that pushed each other all the time in both practices and competition. They were a group that worked hard, and were determined not to lose.”

The performance at the MVC Tournament was the perfect finish to an incredible season.

“That team was probably the best one I’ve had in my career at Pleasant Valley,” Krechel said. “From top to bottom, we were really solid. It wasn’t like just one kid going out and shooting really low numbers and carrying us.

“We had kids up and down the lineup that really stepped up, joined together and pushed each other to work harder. They had the best overall team average of any group I coached at Pleasant Valley.”

That combination of talent and depth made for a memorable season - and one particularly memorable match.

“If you wanted to be in the lineup, you had to be shooting good numbers because there were quite a few kids that were playing well,” Krechel said.

The two other matches that Krechel considered were the 1997 MVC tournament, and the 1993 District 11 Tournament.

Similar to 2005, the 1997 tournament capped a sweep of the regular and postseason title for the Bears.

The 1993 D-11 tourney featured a third-place finish and a state qualifying berth for Robin Yarashas.

Krechel said one of the benefits of looking back and selecting the “Most Memorable” match of his career was the opportunity to reflect on his nearly three decades in charge of the Pleasant Valley program.

“My first year of coaching was 1992,” Krechel said. “Those kids aren’t kids anymore. But I hope we taught them some valuable lessons that they have been able to use after they got out of school and into the real world.

“That’s the thing that I have been thinking about the most since I started going back over my career and all the matches I’ve coached. Hopefully, what they learned as part of the golf program has made a positive impact on their lives.”

And now that he has finally made his choice, Krechel is hopefully back on track with his normal sleeping habits, too.