Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League

Led by the late Ben Hartman as head coach, the 1983-84 Seton LaSalle Girls’ Basketball team dominated the sport’s Class 4A landscape despite having an enrollment two classifications below and its entire roster shorter than five-foot-seven. The Rebels went 35-1 and captured the WPIAL and PIAA Class 4A championships. For the WPIAL title, Seton LaSalle topped Beaver Falls, 71-59, to win the league’s first Class 4A championship and successfully defend its 1983 crown. To claim the school’s first PIAA title in any sport, a sophomore, Pam Wiseman, buried a 22-foot jumper with three seconds left in overtime to give the Rebels a 55-53 win over Strath Haven. Seton LaSalle boasted three 1,000-point scorers in Suzie McConnell, Kathy McConnell, and Lisa Heuer, and saw four student-athletes play basketball collegiately and a fifth compete in track & field. Suzie McConnell was a Parade Magazine All-American and went on to having a successful career at the next levels of the sport, earning All-America honors at Penn State University and All-WNBA accolades with the Cleveland Rockers. She brought home a pair of Olympic medals with gold in 1988 and bronze in 1992, and was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008. Her sister, Kathy, played in four NCAA Tournaments at the University of Virginia, including two Sweet 16 appearances and one Elite Eight. Hauer went on to play basketball at Saint Vincent College, Wiseman played at Seton Hill University, and Carol Vogel was on the track & field team at the University of Villanova. The full Rebels championship team consisted of Suzie and Kathy McConnell, Pam Wiseman, Lisa Hauer, Kim Kolinger, Maureen Finocchi, Lisa Kozlowski, Jeanie Foley, Carol Vogel, Cherly Micheli, Shelly Dippia, Kristin Trainor, Lynn Surdzial, and Mary Sue Wantorek.