Hempfield softball celebrates past, showcases future with WPIAL championship

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Thursday, May 28, 2026 | 7:38 PM

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A rainbow beamed down just beyond Lilley Field on Wednesday night as a swarm of Hempfield softball faithful — players, coaches, families and friends — snapped a multitude of cellphone photos after a WPIAL Class 6A championship win at Cal (Pa.).

If this were 40 years ago, the infield would have been glowing with flash bulbs. But the rainbow was the brightest light to those who saw it — and felt it.

Coach Tina Madison spotted the colored spectrum and smiled.

Somewhere, Bob Kalp was smiling, too, she thought — many thought — after his pride and joy of a program added to its mystique.

Hempfield won its 10th WPIAL championship to tie Baldwin and Sto-Rox for the most in league history.

The Spartans (21-1) repeated as champions, taking their third title in four years and eighth in 11 seasons, and also qualifying for the PIAA playoffs.

“Hopefully, he’s out there and enjoying what we’re doing, looking down and smiling,” Madison said of Kalp, the longtime leader of the Spartans for whom she played and later replaced as coach five years ago. “He created this program … We all live by that. I think he’d be proud.”

Kalp was 80 when he died in March.

Around the same time, Mike Ryce, the grandfather of Hempfield senior pitcher Julia Varhola, also died. He was 79.

Hempfield was away on a spring training trip in Orlando, Fla., when the news came in.

Varhola teared up as she talked about her pap, grasping the ribbon holding up her gold medal.

“I wish my pap had seen me play more,” said Varhola, the winning pitcher in Wednesday’s 11-1, six-inning victory over Seneca Valley. “This championship win is for all the people who came before us.”

The win was about the past but offered a nod to the future. Case and point: two photographs.

In 2023, when Hempfield won its eighth WPIAL title, then-freshman Lauren Howard posed with then-sixth graders Jocelyn and Jayelyn Luft on the same field at Cal.

Three years later, they recreated the shot — as proud teammates.

“We said we wanted to get here and win (a championship) too,” said Jayelyn Luft, who had two hits and scored three runs in the title game. “We’re all one big family. We all worked together to get this win. It’s about 1-0 moments.”

Said Jocelyn Luft, who had a single, double and three RBIs against Seneca Valley: “I’ve looked forward to this for five years, and here it is.”

The Luft twins got to celebrate the title with Madison, their mother, and their step-father, Bob Madison.

Howard said the combination of experience and youth in the lineup rounded out the Spartans, who are now focused on winning their fifth PIAA title — which, while on the subject of records, would be the most by a WPIAL team. Their last state title came in 2018 to cap a remarkable three-peat.

“We won as a team,” Howard said Wednesday. “Nobody cares about their stats, they just care about winning.

“This was just another game and win. We want to win the state more than anything.”

The latest title win had some tense moments, but they were quickly alleviated when a potent lineup stepped on the gas.

Hempfield’s early lead was cut to 2-1 in the top of the fifth inning, so Madison pulled her players together around the pitching circle.

“I told them, you guys are too special to let it go down like this,” the coach said. “They stayed the course.”

Did they ever. The Spartans hung six runs on the board in the bottom of the inning and blitzed the Raiders, who had played them close in two section games.

It had super-fan Jordy Madison, the youngest of the family who wore blue-and-white checkered overalls and a Spartan helmet and stole the scene again, going wild.

“I am super proud of these girls,” Tina Madison said. “They play with a little bit of an edge.”

While the torch is slowly being passed to the next crop of standouts, the veteran players aren’t done leaving their mark.

Hempfield’s six seniors — Varhola, Howard, Ella Berkebile, Emily Bozek, Clair Mitchell and Hailey Uhrinek — have won three WPIAL titles. They are 83-8 in four seasons.

Hempfield will play at District 10 champion McDowell on Monday at a time and site to be determined. Host districts alternate from year to year, which is why Hempfield has to travel. The Spartans hosted first-round state games in 2023 and last year.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Hempfield