The Parkland and Shaler boys volleyball teams had more in common this season than just the fact that both were district champs and state finalists.

The PIAA volleyball championship played out at Penn State University on Saturday between two teams with several comparisons between them. With Parkland taking the gold medals, the comparisons between their 2023 state champions and the 2015 Parkland state champions are also uncanny.

To say that both teams are junior-laden is an understatement. Parkland has two seniors on its roster in Isaac Uthappan and Chase Robbins, with Robbins being a prominent player for the Trojans. Joey Gannon is the lone senior on the Titans roster and leads the team in several offensive categories. Both teams have 12 juniors among their active players and rely heavily on them.

Both schools also have prominent sports programs. This spring alone, Shaler sent three teams – baseball, softball, and volleyball – to states and all three played for state championships. Unfortunately for Shaler, only the baseball team headed home to Allegheny County with gold medals.

The heavy corps of juniors means that the two teams could find themselves on a collision course to meeting each other in the finals again next season.

This year’s team also draws comparisons to their team that won gold medals back in 2015 under coach Scott Trumbauer. Shaler represents District 7 just as Parkland’s opponent, Fox Chapel, did back in 2015.

“Both teams were undefeated, both rosters were made up of 80 percent juniors and this guy (pointing to assistant coach Sean Lewis) was on that team and now he’s a coach,” said Trumbauer with a broad smile. “There are some smaller ones, as well. Both outside hitters were basketball players and both teams lost just five sets all year.”

Fox Chapel and Shaler were also the number-one ranked team in the state when they came into states.

One part of history that they do not want to see repeat is that back in 2016, the season after their state title, the team again won league and district championships but fell to Hempfield 3-2 in the state quarterfinal round.

“It’s going to take a lot of hard work and guys are going to need to continue to step up like they did all season, and they have to play really well like they did today,” said Trumbauer of what is needed to repeat as state champions. “Nothing is every guaranteed in this state and losing Chase (Robbins) is going to leave a big gap that we have to fill next year. We need to fill that outside position, the passing position. We also need to fill the leadership and all that stuff that we lose with him.”

Trumbauer took over the team for the 2002 season and finished 7-11 but there was to be no long turnaround period for the new coach. In 2003, Parkland finished 18-9 and were district champions. Their next district championship came in 2008 and the next season they won their first league title under Trumbauer. The first state title would elude the school until 2015. Overall, Trumbauer is 356-100 as the coach of the Trojans.