SAINT CLAIR
Michelle Swantner doesn't like to talk about herself.
The 48-year-old Saint Clair native likes to talk about her job as a crime unit supervisor with the Pennsylvania State Police, or about the nearly 20 nieces and nephews she has as one of Ronald and Barbara Swantner's six children.
It was the same way 30 years ago, when the extremely humble Swantner didn't have to do much talking.
Her play on the basketball court spoke volumes.
Swantner will be the featured speaker at today's 30th annual Female Scholar-Athlete Banquet, sponsored by the Schuylkill County Women's Athletic Association, at 3 p.m. at Pine View Acres in Mill Creek.
To the 15 senior scholar-athletes who will be honored, they will see a 5-foot-9 professional woman who will stress how important high school athletics is to their future.
Most of them will have no idea they'll be listening to the first Schuylkill County girls' basketball player to score 2,500 career points who once scored 76 points in a game and at one time was Pennsylvania's all-time leading scorer.
"It's funny," Swantner said recently by telephone from her residence in Chester County. "We recently had a new corporal come into our barracks, and he said, 'I know you. You once scored 76 points in a game.'
"With the job that I do now ... I don't share a lot about my life or my history. I don't talk about it. But every once in a while someone will come in and say, 'Did you know Corporal Swantner was a hell of a basketball player back in the day. This is what she did ..."
What Swantner did was rewrite the record books at Saint Clair Area High School, where she scored 2,857 career points and pulled down 1,136 career rebounds from 1980-84 and led the Saints to four straight District 11 playoff appearances and three trips to the PIAA Class A playoffs.
Saint Clair went 30-4 her sophomore year, 27-5 her junior season and 27-7 when she was a senior, when the Saints reached the Schuylkill League and District 11 Class A championship games before losing to eventual state champion Marian.
One of 19 Schuylkill League girls' players to reach the 2,000-point plateau, Swantner averaged 22.3 points in 128 career games - all done before the 3-point shot came into effect. Her total still ranks 11th all-time in Pennsylvania girls' basketball history.
"She had a complete game," said Burt Werdt, who coached Schuylkill Haven's girls' team from 1982-89 and guided the Hurricanes to the 1985 PIAA Class A championship.
"She was tall, she could put the ball on the floor, she could shoot from the outside, she could score inside and she had good players with her. She really had the whole thing going for her.
"She was a terrific player with a good team. She could score from every place on the court, which really made it tough."
Added John Powers, the coach at Pottsville High from 1980-85: "Versatility. She could do it all. In the five years that I coached, there was no finer player in the Schuylkill League than Michelle for overall ability, rebounding, ballhandling, passing. She's remembered as a scorer, but she could do everything."
The Early Days
Swantner grew up on North Nicholas Street in Saint Clair, where her parents still live. She had three older sisters: Debbie, Jean and Suzanne, a younger sister Lori, and a younger brother Ronnie. Only Debbie played sports - softball.
Her house was a block from the basketball courts at Morris and Franklin streets and a block from the courts near St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church. It was on those courts - and the one at the Third Street Playground - where Swantner laid the foundation for her greatness.
She began playing basketball on the playgrounds of Saint Clair when she was 8 years old, and started playing organized basketball at St. Mary's in fifth grade.
Swantner attended St. Mary's Parochial School through fifth grade, then went to Saint Clair Middle School in New Philadelphia for grades 6-8. As an eighth-grader, Swantner guided St. Mary's to the state CYO championships in Pittsburgh, where they finished among the top five teams.
Climbing the Charts
Swantner quickly made a name for herself at the high school level, helping Saint Clair join the Schuylkill League's elite at a time when Schuylkill League girls' basketball was the best in Pennsylvania.
As a freshman, Swantner established a school record for points scored in a single season and was the first freshman named to the All-League first team.
In her sophomore year, Swantner became the first 1,000-point scorer in Saint Clair girls' basketball history and led the Schuylkill League in scoring. Through two seasons, Swantner scored 1,267 points.
Swantner eclipsed the 2,000-point mark her junior season, the first underclassman to reach that milestone in state history. She scored 831 points in 32 games (25.9 ppg), with 351 rebounds, 93 steals, 69 assists and 13 blocked shots.
Those totals came on a team that included two other 1,000-point scorers - Jeanette Zembas and Cheryl Rodrian.
The Saints finished fourth in the district playoffs, qualified for the state playoffs, then defeated Bristol 76-51 and Columbia 66-32 before losing to Marian in the state quarterfinals.
"Of all the big scorers I've seen, Michelle is probably the most unselfish," Saint Clair coach John Holobetz said at the time.
The 1982-83 All-Anthracite Player of the Year, Swantner broke Dave Delenick's school scoring record of 2,018 set from 1969-73 and entered her senior season with 2,098 points. She also scored an amazing 76 points in Saint Clair's 122-44 victory over Freeland on Dec. 2, 1982.
A ball honoring that milestone sits in the trophy case at the Saint Clair Elementary/Middle School, along with a gigantic portrait of Swantner and her retired No. 32 jersey.
"It was just one of those things," Swantner said of that game. "By halftime, I was just short of 50. In the locker room, somebody made the comment that 'You're on a roll, keep doing what you're doing.'
"We didn't want to rub it in, but pretty much that night I didn't take a lot of shots from the outside. A lot of our points were on breakaways and layups. At the time, my teammates saw that I had a chance to break the boys' record, so they said, 'Let's keep giving it to you. Break the record.' "
Battle for No. 1
Swantner entered the 1983-84 campaign just 286 points short of the state record of 2,383 points set by Linda Paige of Philadelphia Dobbins Tech from 1977-81. There was one problem: Right on her heels was Mount Carmel superstar Maria Fantanarosa.
A 5-6 junior guard, Fantanarosa entered the season with 1,742 points after averaging 29.53 points as a freshman and 26.75 as a sophomore. Since Fantanarosa still had another year, it almost a given that Fantanarosa would end up as the state's all-time leading scorer.
But who would break Paige's record first? Swantner or Fantanarosa?
It would be Swantner, who accomplished the feat Dec. 30 against Nativity in the Officials' Tournament in Minersville. Five days later against North Schuylkill, Fantanarosa passed Swantner en route to scoring a state-record 1,318 points in one season. She would add 763 points in her senior season, and remains the state's all-time leading scorer with 3,823 points.
"Everybody was always talking, 'Who was going to break the state record first, Michelle or Maria?' " Swantner said. "When I sit and think about it, it puts a smile on my face and gives me a chuckle that I did it before her, but only by a couple of days.
"A lot of other people paid closer attention to that stuff than me. To break it first, obviously yes, it's a great achievement and I'm glad it happened that way. When I did that, we certainly celebrated."
Super Senior Season
Swantner's climb to No. 1 was a small part of a sensational senior season, one in which she scored 759 points and helped Saint Clair to a 27-7 overall record and the Schuylkill League and District 11 championship games.
The 1984 season was perhaps the most dominant the Schuylkill League has ever seen. The final four teams in District 11 Class A were from the Schuylkill League and engaged in an epic semifinal doubleheader at Blue Mountain.
Marian defeated Schuylkill Haven 57-39, and Saint Clair topped Shenandoah Valley 57-39. Marian beat Saint Clair 47-39 for the district title, but all four teams advanced to the state playoffs.
In states, all four Schuylkill League teams won their first two games to be the last four teams in the East and set up another epic doubleheader at Blue Mountain. This time, Shenandoah Valley, coached by current Marian coach Paul Brutto, ended Swantner's career with a 46-38 victory.
Marian downed Schuylkill Haven 65-42, then beat Shenandoah Valley 71-37 and Kennedy Christian 64-49 to win the PIAA Class A crown. Coached by the legendary Elsie Tolan, the Fillies featured 1,000-point scorers Maura Hydro, Gracia Perilli and Diane Decker.
That same year, Pine Grove was the state runner-up in Class AA.
"The Schuylkill League was loaded with great teams and great players at that time," said Powers, now a color commentator for WPPA radio's basketball broadcasts. "We had some coaches that were way ahead of the curve - Ron Rhen, Elsie Tolan - they made the turn to what was a little more physical basketball.
"Kids blossomed, but the teams played great defense also. That defense gave them more opportunities to get in the scoring column. It was a more upbeat game, the kids were more into the scoring part, and it proved it in the numbers.
"Schuylkill League was a physical defense, then an immediate run, run, run offense. Teams from outside the area were a little intimidated, especially on the defensive end, going up against teams from the Schuylkill League. It took them a while to catch up."
Moving On
After high school, Swantner went to Elizabethtown College, where she scored 1,342 points in 106 games and still ranks on the school's all-time list for career field goals made (578), career field-goal percentage (.484), career rebounds (738) and assists (322).
During her tenure, the Blue Jays won MAC titles in 1986 and 1988, appeared in three NCAA Division III Tournaments, won the 1986 MCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional championship and reached the Elite Eight.
Swantner was a three-time Middle Atlantic Conference Northwest Section first-team all-star and earned WBCA first-team All-America honors as a senior in 1987-88. She was inducted into Elizabethtown's Ira R. Herr Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997.
During her senior year, Swantner took a criminal justice class that got her interested in working in the juvenile probation field.
Swantner starting working for the Dauphin County Juvenile Probation Office shortly after graduation and worked there from 1988-94. She then went to the State Police Academy in July 1994. After a six-month stay at the academy, she graduated in January 1995.
Swantner was originally stationed with Troop J in Avondale in southern Chester County, and was a patrol trooper from 1995-98. She was then transferred to the Embreeville station near Coatesville to work with the crime unit and was promoted to corporal in April 2005.
She is currently the crime unit supervisor at the Embreeville barracks.
Lasting Legacy
Saint Clair never reached the success it had with Swantner after that 1983-84 season, enduring some tough campaigns until the high school was closed after the 1988-89 season. Currently, high school students from the Saint Clair School District attend Pottsville Area High School.
While the Saints no longer field a high school team, Swantner's numbers will never be erased. They serve as a link to the Schuylkill League's glory days, when girls' basketball in Schuylkill County was second to none.