West Greene inducts 4 into hall of fame
West Greene High School inducted four new members into the Pioneers Athletic Hall of Fame last Friday night during a ceremony at halftime of the Pioneers’ football game against Monessen.
The inductees are John Bristor (football, wrestling, basketball, track and field), Ryan Crouse (football, basketball, track and field), Ronnie King (football, wrestling, track and field) and Emily Mathason (basketball, track and field).
John Bristor
Bristor is a 1973 graduate who went on to play in the National Football League and the Canadian Football League.
Despite being undersized for much of his high school days, Bristor competed in four sports. He showed how versatile he was in the winter sports when he competed in wrestling as a freshman and sophomore, basketball as junior and wrestling again as a senior.
In the spring, Bristor ran sprints and relays for the track team. He teamed with Kevin Wilson, Rick Rohm and Arnold Wilson in 1972 to place sixth in the 880-yard relay.
Bristor’s best sport was football. He started five games at safety as a freshman for California State before transferring to Waynesburg, where his career took off while playing for a nationally ranked defense.
After college, Bristor played professionally with the Miami Dolphins, San Francisco 49ers and in the CFL for the Ottawa Rough Riders.
Ryan Crouse
A 1990 graduate, Crouse played quarterback and defensive back for the football team, was a three-year letterman in basketball and a member of the Pioneers’ playoff team in 1989.
In the spring, Crouse excelled at the distance races for the track and field team. He finished fourth in the WPIAL as a sophomore. As a junior, King won the 1,600 and 3,200 meters at the Southern Qualifier and went on to win the WPIAL title in the 3,200 and earned a podium spot by placing sixth at the PIAA Championships.
Crouse repeated as WPIAL champion in the 3,200 as a senior and was the fourth-place finisher at the PIAA meet in Shippensburg.
Crouse still holds the school records in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200.
Ronnie King
A 1977 graduate, King lettered three times in two sports and was a four-year letterman in wrestling.
On the mats, King was a section champion at 91 pounds as a freshman and the section and WPIAL runner-up at 105 pounds as a sophomore. As a senior, King won another section championship, this time at 132 pounds.
In track and field, King won the WPIAL championship in the mile run in 1977 and was part of the school’s record-setting mile relay team with Dave Whipkey, Rick Lough and Scott Orndoff. The group placed 10th at the PIAA Championships.
Emily Mathason
Though Mathason was a four-year letterman and senior captain in cheerleading, she made her mark in track and field. She excelled in the high jump, and event in which she finished as the WPIAL runner-up in 2003 and medaled in the PIAA Championships with a sixth-place finish.
In 2004, Mathason won the WPIAL championship in the high jump and cleared a career-best 5-5. She finished in ninth place at the state meet and shortly afterward Mathason was diagnosed with stage-2 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Following several rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatments, Mathason returned to “normal activities.”
In her senior season of track, Mathason was the WPIAL runner-up in the high jump and finished seventh at the PIAA Championships for her second state medal.