T-L Photo/KIM NORTH FORMER WEIRTON Madonna girls basketball coach Mike DelRe looks through a scrapbook of the 1978 season in which the Blue Dons captured the West Virginia Class AA state championship with a win over University at West Virginia Wesleyan in Buckhannon. The team finished the season 25-0.

WEIRTON — As far as anyone can remember, Weirton Madonna has always been a Class A school as far as the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission goes. There was a time — in the fall of 1978 — when the Blue Dons played as a Class AA school. However, only in girls basketball.

The talented Hancock County squad made the most of the move up, defeating University High, 65-55, on Dec. 16, 1978 in the state championship game to complete a perfect 25-0 campaign. The game was played at West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon.

“In May of 1978, the head coach of Parkersburg Catholic called me and informed me that we (Madonna) were being moved up to Class AA for the upcoming fall season,” then-head coach Mike DelRe recalled. “I said ‘that’s weird because no other sport in the school moved up.”

It just so happens that North Fork had won the Class AA title the year before and had a lot of girls coming back.

“I don’t know to this day what happened, but back then it seemed really strange.” DelRe, who still resides in Weirton, noted. “I never got an explanation of why the move. I never got a phone call about it.”

The Blue Dons had played earlier in the day and beat Valley Fayette to reach the state finals. North Fork, which had a very long winning streak, was playing later against University. The much-awaited matchup never materialized.

“We went back to the gym to watch that game and North Fork. It was late in the game and a girl from North Fork inbounded the ball right to a girl from University who laid in it before the buzzer to win the game,” DelRe remembered. “The next day we beat University by 10 after we were ahead 57-32 after three quarters,” DelRe said. “I played all my subs because they deserved a chance to get on the floor. People thought I was crazy, but that’s the way I felt.”

The victory was also the first-ever state championship — Ohio or West Virginia — for the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference.

Team members included Janice Lammers, Colleen O’Brien, Jayne Andochick, Marialana DiMaggio, Diane Horvath, Mary Zeszutek, Maureen McElwain, Lisa Baselj, Lisa Herron, Kris Kostur, Mary Olashuk, Melanie Gulan, Lisa Musanti, Loraine Chido, Michelle Gulan and Lori D’Andrea.

O’Brien scored 19 points in the title tilt. Diane Horvath added 17 and Michelle Gulan 10. Jayne Andochick chipped in nine and Kris Kostur finished with six.

The Blue Dons averaged an eye-popping 85 points per outing using the boys-sized basketball and having no three-point shot.

“This was an amazing, amazing team,” he continued . “Jayne Andochick was first-team all-state. If (Mary) Ostrowski from Parkersburg Catholic was the best big girls in the state, Jayne was one of the best guards. Her and Colleen were the best 1-2 guard combination in the state.

“They were a gift to me.”

Those two, along with Horvath, were four-year starters for DelRe.

“Those three were really a gift,” he stressed. “They were very good players.”

Michelle Gulan was a 1,000-point scorer and also grabbed 1,000 rebounds in her career, the coach mentioned.

“They were so talented,” DelRe said when asked what made the team 25-0. “This group of girls probably played 25-30 games during the summer. There were 10-11 girls there every game. That is what made them so darn good.”