JACKSON TWP — They were coached by legends, guided by seniors, cemented by a life-long bond.

And the 1989 Seneca Valley football team made history.

That was the first Raider team to reach the WPIAL playoffs in the program's then 25-year existence — and the only one to get to the district championship game before the current Raiders came along.

“Our team helped give Seneca Valley a football identity,” quarterback Sean O'Shea said. “It's shocking that it's taken this long to get another team back there.

“We've had a lot of near-misses and a lot of good teams since I played. Things just didn't work out in the postseason. People don't realize what it takes to get that far.”

The 1989 Raiders finished 10-3 — the program's first 10-win season — and defeated Greensburg Salem 35-20 and Brownsville 30-6 in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

The title game pitted Seneca Valley against Aliquippa — who the Raiders finished runnerup to in the Midwestern Athletic Conference — despite upsetting the Quips 18-7 a month earlier at Aliquippa.

Despite missing standout running back Mark Winters — who missed the final three regular season games with a knee injury — SV rushed for 246 yards in that win. Don Mars ran for 86 yards and Buddy Lott added 76.

The Quips got their revenge, 17-9, in the WPIAL championship game at Three Rivers Stadium. Seneca Valley had six turnovers in the title tilt.

“The turnovers hurt us, but we had to play the game from the pro hash marks instead of high school hash marks,” then SV head coach Terry Henry recalled. “That and playing on artificial turf really helped their speed.

“Aliquippa had played in the title games at that stadium the previous two years. They were used to it. We walked into that huge pro stadium for the first time ... We were overwhelmed a little bit.”

Clair Altemus, who went on to much success as head coach at Pine-Richland, ran the defense on that Seneca Valley team. The Raiders allowed an average of 11 points per game entering the championship contest.

“Those coaches were awesome,” receiver Mike Kaczmarek said. “They energized us and taught us. They were more than just coaches. They taught us about life.”

Winters agreed.

“We were extremely disciplined,” he said. “We didn't have any go-to players on that team, no Division I guys. We worked together and each person had the other person's back.

“The biggest thing I learned that year was that a team is more important than one person, that you can't be successful without other people backing you up. I've lived by that philosophy ever since.”

O'Shea went on to win a Division III national championship as quarterback at Westminster College. He is now coaching with Steve Nulph, an offensive tackle on the 1989 team, with the Seneca Valley youth program.

Mickey Flood, the punter-placekicker on the 1989 squad, has been a middle school teacher in the Seneca Valley district for 20 years and is head coach of one of the Raiders' middle school teams.

“I'm happy to see the kids succeed at this level again,” Flood said. “It's cool knowing I played a small part in helping to develop some of those players.”

None of the 1989 success would have happened without a come-from-behind 15-14 win over Highlands in Week 3 of the regular season. The Raiders trailed 14-0 and O'Shea replaced senior Justin Kingerski at quarterback in the second half.

Kingerski became a running back-receiver on offense and led the defense with eight interceptions that season.

“Your quarterback is always one of your best athletes,” Henry said. “Justin was going to be on the field somewhere.”

O'Shea guided the Raiders to a touchdown in the final two minutes as SV pulled within 14-8 in the Highlands game. Seneca Valley then recovered an onsides kick.

“There was maybe 10 seconds left and the coaches called the hook-and-ladder play,” Kaczmarek said. “I caught the pass and pitched it back to Mark (Winters).“He was running toward the sidelines and I saw a bunch of defenders around him. I figured, no way is he gonna be able to score, but he weaved his way through everybody and got to the end zone.”Winters said “that play was nuts. Kacz got the ball to me and I just knew I had to get in.”Current Slippery Rock High School head football coach Larry Wendereuz was a sophomore running back-defensive back on the 1989 SV squad. He recalled how close the senior class was on the team.“My gosh, they were tight,” Wendereusz said. “I remember we were jogging around the field during warm-ups for a game and a bunch of them got into a fight with each other.“Within five minutes, the fight was over and they were laughing and joking with each other again. They played for each other and the rest of us followed their lead.“I've always maintained a relationship with those coaches. Coach Henry came up to our camp at Slippery Rock during a 7-on-7 drill last summer. Bonds you form like that never go away,” Wendereusz added.Flood put a highlight video together of the 1989 season a few years ago and said “some of us still get together and watch it from time to time.”Kaczmarek insisted that team chemistry was as responsible for the 1989 team's success as anything.“Oh yeah, it's still there,” he said. “We may not see each other for five years, one of us bumps into another and the bond is still there.”O'Shea played on the Raiders' junior varsity team that went 10-0 in 1988 — the first undefeated season in any sport in Seneca Valley history.“We rolled that momentum into the varsity season the next year,” O'Shea said. “That and all those seniors ... We went into 'the Pit' at Aliquippa and used tempo, hustle and muscle to control the game. That Aliquippa team had Division I caliber players who wound up at Michigan, Ohio State, Pitt ... We had nothing like that.“We were a bunch of hungry, tough blue collar kids who loved football and couldn't get enough of it.”They had one other thing — fans shaking milk jugs filled with pennies from the stands. That Seneca Valley tradition began in 1989 and continued for years.“That noise was deafening. I mean, it was loud,” Henry said. “They disallowed those jugs during the playoffs and championship game. They thought it was a disadvantage to the other team.“We loved it, though. We got used to the noise and knew the community was behind us.”