SHADYSIDE – Moments before the start of Saturday night’s Ohio Division IV state championship game, Firestone Stadium PA announcer Don Ursetti announced to the crowd that ”History had been made at Belmont Park” with American Pharoah winning the Triple Crown.

Little did anyone know that about two hours later, more history would be made in the final championship game of the day in Summit County.

Up until Saturday, Affirmed was the last Triple Crown winner in 1978. That was two years after the Shadyside High School boys’ track and field team brought the school its first state championship.

Little did anyone know it would be 39 years before another gold-plated trophy would make its way down Central Avenue. But when Kaitlyn Weaver slid across home plate on Lindsey Dunn’s suicide squeeze in the bottom of the eighth inning, the dreams of a team, a school and a community came true.

Did it really happen?! Did the Shadyside High School softball team just win the state championship?!

The scoreboard showed it – 1-0.

Home plate umpire Ralph Merritt signaled it.

Ohio High School Athletic Association Director of Information Services Tim Stried announced it.

Still, though, it didn’t seem real to the hundreds who made the nearly 2-hour trek north up I-77 to see it.

The players came out, one by one, and received their championship medals from high school superintendent/principal John Haswell and soon made their way to left field, where family members and almost anyone wearing Orange and Black was allowed in to savor the moment as the moon rose over the emptying stadium. That stadium quickly turned Orange.

An Akron police officer just shrugged her shoulders, smiled and said ”I knew this would happen.”

What did she think was going to happen? This is Tigertown, a community starving for a state champion. And one that supports its kids.

It’s boys track and field team almost won a crown again in 1979 and since then the football team and girls’ basketball teams have come within a whisker of bringing home the top hardware.

But on this day, fate shined brightly on the Lady Tigers, a team that beat four-state ranked opponents en route to the title. Not only that, it became the first team in the 38 years of state softball tournament play in Ohio to win two extra-inning games at the state tournament.

That was certainly cause for celebration. And the community, as well as neighboring ones, showed it.

The team bus didn’t roll back into town until a little after 1 a.m. I’ve lived in Shadyside for 11 years. Normally, downtown Shadyside at 1 a.m. is as quiet as a mouse. Not Saturday night.

Fire trucks from Shadyside, Barton, Martins Ferry, etc. – maybe numbering about 15 or so, met the team bus at the village limits and started a parade for the ages through ”The Loop.”

Folks young and old lined the streets, waving, honking horns, shaking hands and turning the place into a virtual Mardi Gras.

As journalists, we’re supposed to be unbiased. But when you live in a community, it’s gets tough. I drive through town every day to go to work. I drive through town every day to get my groceries, go to the post office, buy my gas. I’ve seen the signs supporting the team, I know the people on a personal basis.

It was hard not to pull for this team and their coaches.

It just so happened I returned to town from the office after covering Saturday night’s game just as the bus was pulling into town. It was a sight I’ll never forget.

And one, I’m sure, the folks of the community won’t either.