The highlight of the Portage County softball season arguably came on a distant field, well beyond the county's confines.
It wasn't just that two local teams — Aurora and Field — competed for a district championship, with the Greenmen advancing to the regional level for the second time in program history.
It was the deep ties that bind the two programs, with a number of the Falcons' starters playing for Greenmen coach Sam Petrash during the summer.
Indeed, roughly two weeks after the district championship, Petrash's Finesse team was in action at Uncle Charlie's Best of the Great Lakes, with Finesse featuring Aurora's Sophie Petrash and Abby Dalessandro and Field's Maddie Burge, Kailyn Gressman, Mckayla Miller and Averi Weis.
Was it a little awkward reuniting after that district title game?
Hardly, said Sam Petrash.
"These kids love each other," Petrash said. "They hang out with each other. Obviously, the Field players were upset that they got knocked out, but they were friends afterwards. They know how to leave it on the field."
Aurora, Field were on a collision course
The Falcons and Greenmen long talked about — and dreaded — that Division II Jefferson District title game. For both communities, it has been clear for years their talent could lead to long tournament runs. The programs seemed to be on a collision course.
That meeting took place on May 16, 2024, but the stage was set many years before, albeit under different names as the Raptors (Aurora) and Bombers/Titans (Field) battled in youth ball.
"This goes back 10 years," Petrash said. "This goes back with Chuck Ulrich and [his daughter] Tia, when he was doing his Bombers team and then he had his Titans team and we had our little Raptors team and we always seemed to be playing against each other in Spano ball or during the summer and we just knew back then. The conversation started that there's something special going on here, and the seeds planted.
"And then we started talking about high school ball, and the fear was that this day would come where two good teams with very good softball players are going to have to play against each other and one's going to have to go home, and I wish it wasn't that way."
They were on a collision course all year long as Aurora won its first 19 games and Field won its first 11. Both went undefeated in their respective leagues. Both ended up with 24 wins.
During the 2024 season, the Greenmen players came to watch a Falcons game. They were there to support their friends, but Burge suspected Aurora had multiple motivations for being there.
"I feel Coach Sam is definitely sneaky like that," the Field ace jokingly said. "He knows our weaknesses and our strengths, and I feel like we know the girls' weaknesses and their strengths."
When the seeding came out and Aurora earned the one and Field the four, the matchup became ever more likely, but the Falcons had to survive close calls against Jefferson Area (5-4) and Howland (7-3) first. After the latter, Field junior Mckayla Miller started to think about what it would be like to go against her travel coach and many of her friends from travel ball. Adding a wrinkle, Miller noted Petrash often calls Burge's pitches during the summer.
"It's definitely going to be weird," Miller said on May 14. "I mean, all season we've been going to support them. They come to support us. So it's definitely going to be different rooting against them."
Although their district championship game was weird, it was also the best of high school sports. Too often, enmity pervades sports. On a Thursday afternoon in Jefferson, there was nothing but respect.
"You hear it all over the place, teams and all the friction and all the intensity and everything else," Petrash said. "You want to compete and have fun, but you're supposed to have fun doing it, right? This is, and they were class. I mean, things didn't go their way and they were very, very classy and we still had fun and that's the way it's supposed to be."
Aurora-Field in the 2024 Division II Jefferson District title game. That's not likely to be replicated in 2025, given the Ohio High School Athletic Association's division expansion, but could the Falcons and Greenmen meet once again in the regular season?
Never say never.
"I would love to put them on the schedule and maybe do a grill out afterwards or something like that and that's it," Petrash said. "I think these two programs are pretty close. The players are really close. I've known the Dyers for a long time. I'm close with [Falcons coach] Beth [Dyer] and Tom, her husband, and it's the way the experience should be."
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