Ask anyone from a school in the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh and they’ll tell you just how hard it is to win a championship in any sport.
With numerous schools spread throughout the area and a large gap in enrollment that makes it tough for smaller schools to beat bigger schools, it’s usually the same suspects lifting the trophy.
But every once in a while, an event so rare becomes the exception that proves the rule.
For the Divine Mercy Academy Sabers of Monroeville, the 2025-26 athletic year will be remembered for a long time as three girls teams won a Pittsburgh Diocesan championship and the boys basketball team reached the title game.
“The Pittsburgh Diocese is made up of a great number of schools so these wins aren’t just local wins,” athletic director Jen Kessler said. “It’s not easy to win. And for many Catholic schools, winning a Pittsburgh Diocesan championship has never happened or maybe occurred once or twice in the lifetime of a school’s history.”
The girls volleyball team was the first to claim a championship by beating St. Kilian Catholic School and Ave Maria Academy on Nov. 3 in the Class B bracket.
Although the team didn’t win its section — it only lost three matches the entire year — it went on a tear at the end of the regular season and into the playoffs.
One of the biggest highlights was beating St. Gregory, a school in Zelienople.
“They’ve always been tough to beat, no matter the sport,” volleyball coach Justin Stephans said. “We lost to them in the regular season but went up and beat them in the postseason. I think they were the No. 1 or 2 seed. They expected to beat us, but we took it to them.”
It was a hard-earned championship for this year’s team. Last year, they were a young squad made entirely of seventh graders, took their lumps and learned from those tough experiences to come out on top this year.
Leading the way were Katie Kessler, Hannah Stephans, Emma Griffith and Chidera Gilliam. They have been playing together since third or fourth grade.
“They’re a very close group, very athletic, very competitive,” Stephans said. “My assistant coach, Paytin Engleka, who is a club player and coach, laid out game and practice plans and they continuously got better. They got their groove back with every rep and touch. They were unstoppable.”
Griffith and Stephans were selected for the Diocesan All-Star basketball showcase at the end of the season.
Stephans, who also was the girls flag football coach, would rely on that same core four to bring home a second diocesan championship for Divine Mercy.
Unlike the other sports where a full regular season is played and teams go through rounds of playoffs before a title game, the Diocese of Pittsburgh made girls flag football a one-day tournament.
Battling through frigid temperatures Nov. 18, the Sabers won five straight games against Sacred Heart, Holy Family, St. Therese, St. Gregory and Christ the Divine Teacher of Aspinwall to bring home the school’s second championship.
“Last year, we were competitive, but I don’t think we knew how to play flag football, like drawing up plays,” Stephans said. “We learned a lot from last year and redesigned our plays this year. One, because of how we got beat last year and, two, because of the athletes we have. This group of girls know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. That was a fun day.”
Kessler was named tournament MVP.
“It’s great to watch the growth of this sport,” Stephans said. “I know our girls had a blast that day. My daughter, Hannah, is thinking of playing when she gets to high school. I know Chidera and Katie are also thinking of playing.”
Then came the Divine Mercy girls track team, which brought home a third championship.
The season was successful despite the team losing a number of athletes to injuries in the fall and winter, which left them unable to participate.
“We had some athletes who didn’t make it to the season because they got injured in (the) preseason,” coach Beth Rembert said. “If we had those kids, we would have been even better. The kids that did show up came ready to run and ready to throw and did an amazing job.”
Leading the way for the girls track team were Gilliam and Kessler. Gilliam placed first in the 200-meter hurdles, second in the 100 hurdles, third in the 200 and sixth in long jump.
Kessler placed third in both the long jump and javelin and was sixth in the shot put.
“They’re both very athletic and naturally talented,” Rembert said. “We really foster a big supportive team. Both of them would joke around with the little kids and help them when they would do long jump. They’re great teammates, hard workers.”
Caroline Hartman placed eighth in the 3,200 while the 3,200 relay team of Ella Rembert, Leah Straub, Claire Guthridge and Hartman finished fourth at the diocesan championships.
“It’s been enjoyable to have worked with and coached these kids,” Rembert said. “I never thought I would have become a head coach, but my experience has brought me nothing but joy as I watched them succeed.”
Although they didn’t bring home another championship for Divine Mercy, the boys seventh and eighth grade basketball team also found success.
The team, which consisted of six eighth graders, two seventh graders and had a pair of sixth graders play up, finished the season with a 17-10 record after what was a roller-coaster year.
“Primarily had four kids who have been playing together since they were in fourth grade and they carried the bulk of the team,” said boys basketball coach Joe Hohman, who has been coaching at Divine Mercy for 35 years. “Joe Shanahan led us in scoring with 11 points per game, Andrew Nadarajan averaged 9 a game, Geno Saccomano was third in scoring, and Owen Brown led us in rebounding and shot blocking.”
The Sabers won a preseason tournament at South Hills Catholic; the girls team also won the same tournament.
“Both teams were rooting for each other in their respective championship games in that tourney,” Hohman said.
Then the boys hit a rough patch after being hit with illnesses and injuries, but they recovered to rattle off six straight wins and ended the year on an eight-game winning streak through the playoffs and into the championship game.
The playoff format this year was slightly different than in years past.
“What the diocese did this year was they split teams up into two different brackets. The A bracket had the higher enrollment schools, and the B bracket had the lower enrollment schools,” Hohman said. “We were in the B bracket, which benefited us because we were playing against schools in the same predicament as us, namely low enrollment numbers.”
The Sabers opened postseason play with a 32-16 win over Saint Kilian. The teams played each other twice in the regular season with Divine Mercy winning the first game by five and by double digits the second time around.
Then the team won a close 37-34 contest against Mother of Mercy from the Baldwin-White Oak area.
“We played them a couple times in the regular season and lost to them by one and won by two,” Hohman said. “We knew going in it was going to be a close game, but we were able to pull it off.”
That set Divine Mercy up to face off against Guardian Angel in the title game. The Sabers got into foul trouble early, lost their composure and were vanquished 50-38.
At the end of the year, Brown and Shanahan were selected for the Diocesan Roundball All-Star game and sixth graders Jackson Woodward and Dom O’Grady were chosen for the JV all-star game.
It was quite a magical run this season for Divine Mercy athletics, but with enrollment in the school declining, there might not be seasons for many of these teams that saw success this year.
“Going into next year, it isn’t looking good,” Hohman said. “We only had two seventh graders, and one of them is moving to Florida. We’re probably going to have to use a lot of sixth graders as seventh graders, have them play up, next year. We’ll struggle for fielding a team as well as competing.”
It’s the same outlook for Stephans and the teams he coaches:
“Hannah was the only seventh grader, so there won’t be a football, volleyball or basketball team next year, unfortunately. It’s bittersweet. I had four kids go through this school, and I coached them all, and this was by far the most enjoyable — not that I didn’t enjoy the prior seasons.”
But no matter what happens next year and in the future for Divine Mercy, what the Sabers accomplished this year will not be forgotten anytime soon.
“We told the girls at the end-of-the-year banquet, I went to Catholic school growing up at St. Colman’s and when I see my buddies from those teams now, we talk about youth sports and back in the day,” Stephans said. “I know when these girls get older, they’ll have fond memories. They might not realize it now, but they will one day.”