Hurricane warning in Pa.: Manatee wins 39-16

TURTLE CREEK, Pa. — Rein Mueller couldn’t have scripted it any better.

He’s a Bradenton resident and a Manatee fan. He and his wife, Ellen, also have friends in Pittsburgh and a son in Massachusetts they were planning to visit.

So on a cool but pleasant night in western Pennsylvania, the couple walked down a hilly road toward Turtle Creek Stadium — known as the Wolvarena — on Saturday night for Manatee High’s season-opening 39-16 win over Woodland Hills, Pa.

Mueller, 66, who attends all Manatee home games, was hoping to head to New Jersey, and so were the Hurricanes — they originally scheduled a game with Don Bosco Prep.

After that fell through, Manatee decided to head to Pennsylvania. The Muellers decided to join them.

“I was looking forward to (the Bosco game),” Mueller said “We found out they were coming here and figured it’s only 200 miles more (than New Jersey). So we thought, ‘What the (heck)?’ ’’

The Hurricanes-Wolverines game was the finale of the day-long Rally At The Wolvarena, which got under way at 11 a.m. when Steubenville, Ohio scored a 7-0 win over McKeesport, Pa.

Cocoa struck a blow for Florida when the reigning Class 3A state champion cruised past Thomas Jefferson, Pa., 43-7.

There was a nice crowd packed in to see that game, but that’s the norm at Wolvarena.

“We really like our football,” said Sean Mooney, a 15-year employee of the Woodland Hills school district who lives in Braddock, Pa.

Saturday, Mooney and a fellow district employee, Ted Roberts, sat on a pair of red folding chairs and directed traffic in and out of an empty lot lined with dirt and grass.

The space used to be occupied by an auto repair shop that eventually burned down. When it did, the land became a makeshift parking lot located about 100 steps from the Wolvarena. And with good reason — Roberts, who has been with the district for 35 years and has been working at Wolvarena for the past 15, said the stadium routinely sells out.

That’s pretty impressive for a place that seats 12,000.

“It’s a social gathering on Friday night,” said Roberts, a resident of nearby Plum, adding fans start rolling into the stadium at about 5 p.m. for 7 p.m. starts. “Some people come here to have their supper at the concession stands.”

Wolvarena underwent a major renovation roughly five years ago, installing FieldTurf and doing away with a hump that used to sit at midfield, turning the playing surface into a mud bowl whenever it rained.

“You had to see the players when they would come off that field,” Roberts said.

Now the hump is gone. And a sizable throng descended on the Wolvarena on Saturday, requiring shuttle buses to pick fans up from a nearby shopping center.

Will there be a Rally At The Wolvarena next year?

No one knows.

But Roberts knows where he’ll be for the next few Fridays of the fall — hanging out at Wolvarena, watching the cars and people come from all over the area to cheer a team that has become a community treasure.

The stadium has, too.

“I love it,” Roberts said. “This team has the nicest kids you ever want to meet.”