I found myself in a nostalgic mood the other day. I was going through some boxes in a closet and stumbled upon my high school yearbook.

Usually, it gets pulled out about once a year. Something will come up where I think I've seen or heard about someone and I go scrambling through the box.

I found myself going through the pages pretty slowly — it's hard to believe that senior year was 25 years ago. I start thinking about what my friends are doing, if they've gotten married and started families.

I found myself drawn, however, to the simplicity of the sports section, those wonderful days when the basketball players still wore short shorts, baseball players wore stirrup socks and the swimming teams wore those antiquated uniforms, the kind you'd see in the 1956 Olympics.

I'm sure my past might not seem interesting to you, but I'm sure your thoughts have taken you back to those high school days on occasion as well.

I found myself wondering, "Who was that bony kid running cross country and track and why wasn't he faster?" The pictures showed my lack of upper-body strength, but I was nothing more than an average runner at best.

Still, it was great looking back on some of those things.

For instance:

Rifle and boys soccer were our strong suits back then at Trinity High in Washington, Pa. Rifle still is. Soccer? Not so much.

The yearbook stated our team went 32-4-4 that season (I find that hard to believe, perhaps it was 12-4-4). Anyhow, that 1983-84 team finished runner-up in the WPIAL, losing to Moon, but roaring back to be named — co-state champions?

Pretty unprecedented, but how does something like that happen?

Apparently, against Bethlehem-Freedom in the championship game, the teams played the full 80 minutes of regulation, then 16 five-minute overtime periods for 160 total minutes before the game was ruled a draw and the squads shared the title.

To reach the finals, Trinity had to win a 1-0 contest in shootout.

Another curiosity that didn't mean much then as it does now:

At our senior homecoming football game, Trinity played Seneca Valley. The Raiders led 6-0 late in the game. Trinity, which has never fared well in football for most of the program's history, had the ball at the SV 1 in the closing minutes before the Hillers were stuffed and lost the ball on downs.

On the next play, Seneca Valley fumbled the ball away. Trinity cashed in and pulled out a 7-6 win.

Also, there was a young assistant football coach for Trinity who would go on to greater success as a head coach. He would guide a team to a pair of WPIALClass AA championship games. That young assistant coach? Current Mars head coach and athletic director Scott Heinauer.

We suffered a lot from mediocrity at Trinity in those days, although our boys basketball team, which to my recollection was never really good, won 15 games and placed third in the section, which was huge deal.

The yearbook was always kind, using words like "rebuilding" or phrases like "the future looks bright" or "better days are ahead."

We always knew better.

But, it's always fun to look back at how you once were. Honestly, I really wouldn't change anything — although being faster would have been nice.

Sam Tallarico is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.