Mirror photo by Nate Ritchey
Eight individuals were inducted as the 2024 Bedford County Sports Hall of Fame class on Saturday afternoon. The inductees are (from left): First row—A.J. Nastasi, Bonnie Garner, James Benbow. Second row—Irwin Brambley, Dan Caro, Mark Gartner, Jeff Mills and Shawn Husick.

By Nate Ritchey

nritchey@altoonamirror.com

EVERETT — There was never any question on if Northern Bedford’s A.J. Nastasi would be in the Bedford County Sports Hall of Fame — it was just a matter of waiting for the required minimum time limit to expire.

On Saturday afternoon, Nastasi was officially inducted as part of the Class of 2024 at Everett Area Elementary School.

“I feel honored and privileged to be part of the Bedford County Hall of Fame,” Nastasi said. “… Congratulations to my teammates of the Class of 2024 — well deserved.”

Along with Nastasi, Claysburg-Kimmel graduate Mark Gartner was honored with induction from the Mirror’s core coverage area.

While it’s true that Nastasi broke the Pennsylvania state scoring record of 3,608 on Feb. 7, 1998 — a record previously held for 28 years by Mansfield’s Tom McMillan — neither he nor his presenter and dad, Joe Nastasi Sr., chose to focus on the record itself.

A.J. finished with 3,833 points, and the record still stands.

Rather the theme was the journey it took to all the accomplishments and the people that helped push and guide him along the way.

“I was demanding of all the kids (I coached), but I was especially hard on Joe (Jr.) and A.J., and they took it very well,” Nastasi Sr. said. “They wanted to be good. We had conversations about how good they wanted to be, what goals they had set and they had goals way beyond high school. So, I pushed them and gave them one bit of advice, ‘I said when you feel you’ve had enough, let me know.’ … I made the decision that they were going to tell me when they had enough, and they never did.”

Nastasi Sr. eluded to how A.J.’s older brother, Joe Jr., and his friends never took it easy on A.J.

“A.J. always competed against his older brother,” Nastasi Sr. said. “The Drenning are here, Jason Drenning — they were always competing. He was always competing with older kids. It was frustrating for A.J. at times, but he endured.”

Nastasi faced a lot of challenges within his own house, but it helped him become ready mentally and physically for whatever came throughout his high school career at NBC and at college as a wide receiver at West Virginia University.

“Like my dad touched on, I was always getting beat up as people were always older than me,” Nastasi said. “I went older because I thought older is better because they are better regardless. They are going to keep hammering you. You can’t quit or it looks funny. You see people fold all the time, but I’ll surround myself with any athlete because they know what it takes.”

Nastasi Sr. made mention of the fact that A.J. was very much a targeted player from the time he started playing.

“The challenges that were ahead of him were pretty extreme. Everybody sees the good parts of what’s going on in someone’s career,” Nastasi Sr. said. “It’s not easy and A.J. was pretty much born with a target on. Having a father that’s a teacher, having a father that’s a coach and having your brother that’s a star athlete before him was a little difficult. … A lot of people can’t take that pressure or the expectations. But, to A.J.’s credit, he wore it like a badge of honor. He embraced it, and he ran with it.”

Nastasi took those lessons he learned to heart from the get-go.

“I had many athletic skill sets, but I learned at a very young age that three things would never happen,” Nastasi said. “Never be outworked, never be out-prepared, and three, never be out-disciplined.”

Nastasi had the opportunity to be coached and guided by some top-tier coaches no matter whether it was football, basketball or baseball.

“I had the privilege and honor to play for three high school hall of fame coaches: Coach Nastasi, Coach (Lew) Ewart and Coach (Ed) King,” Nastasi said. “And, one hall of fame college coach in Coach (Don) Nehlen. And also maybe a second college coach, Coach (Rich) Rodriguez, if he keeps winning.”

Nastasi gave plenty of credit to his teammates, trainers, opposing players and anyone that had an impact whether on or off the field.

“You had to rely on a lot of people in athletics to get to the highest level — it’s not just one person,” Nastasi said. “It’s not just this coach, it’s not just this player or this teammate. It’s many people along the way that help you.”

It wasn’t until Nastasi was concluding his speech and John Topper, board member of the hall of fame and emcee, spoke up and asked what was his greatest thrill in sports.

“I would have to say the state basketball record as it was held for 28 years by Tom McMillen. So, coming out of high school, no doubt it was the Pennsylvania state scoring record,” Nastasi said. “…West Virginia football meant a lot to me as well because I caught passes against every team in the Big East, except for Miami, but let’s not talk about that one because they were pretty good back in that day.”

“Every coach in the county, every coach throughout his career, worked on schemes to stop him,” Nastasi Sr. said. “Whether it was to foul five people out, hold him, push him, they did whatever they could. Box-and-one, triangle-and-two, a double team in football. It was amazing to me that he was able to succeed.”

Nastasi put all things in perspective from a standpoint of it being 26 years after he left the halls of Northern Bedford.

“What you go through in sports is unmatched — it prepares you for life,” Nastasi said. “Somebody yells at you, somebody does something at work — big whoop! You move on and you learn that in sports to be tough — mentally and physically. You can defeat anything because not everything is easy, not everything is given to you.”

Gartner’s path was completely different as his family moved from Philadelphia to the Claysburg-Kimmel school district in time for his seventh grade year.

Gartner had no plans to play sports when making the move.

“I moved to Queen in 1989 after my father had some difficult times,” Gartner, who traveled all night from a family vacation to be able to attend, said. “When he decided to move, we left the suburbs of Philadelphia and landed in Queen, which was kind of a culture shock for me. … I had never participated in any organized sports as we had never done the little league thing because we didn’t have those opportunities as a family.”

A few friends and an important coach convinced him to change that.

While waiting for basketball practice to start, Chris Harr, then the wrestling coach, asked what he was waiting for and guided him in a different direction.

“He said that practice was downstairs, and since I wasn’t one to argue and because I was already nervous,” Gartner said, “I went down and he threw these funny shoes at me and this headgear. I said that I’m here to play basketball. He said, ‘You’re not a basketball player, you’re a wrestler.’ So, that was the start of my sports career at the strong arm of Chris Harr.”

Later that year, Brad Weise, Chris Burket and a few other friends allowed Gartner to not play football.

“So, in eighth grade I did (play football),” Gartner said. “From there, being a part of these sports teams and building the bonds with our brothers through sports, it saved me from continuing down a path that would have led nowhere.”

Fortunately, that path led in a different direction after talking to his guidance counselor who nicely informed him that he hadn’t done enough to put himself in a position academically to play football in college.

Instead, Gartner enlisted in the U.S. Army upon graduating from Claysburg in 1995 and was apart of the 25th Infantry Division.

It didn’t take him long to realize he had the intelligence to get an education and nearing the end of his first enlistment, he approached his battalion commander and expressed his desire to go to college.

“He enlisted in the service and that was probably the best move that he ever made,” Former Claysburg football coach and presenter Jeff Lingenfelter said. “Eventually, the time came when he stopped in on a winter day and his enlistment was about up. He said, ‘I want to go to IUP, I want to play football and I want to get an education. … Naturally the coaches were impressed because they don’t get too many 6-foot-3, 245-pound guys walking in off the street that are 21-years old and veterans through the military and want to play football. So, they welcomed him with open arms.”

IUP allowed him to play and even held up to the same commitments they offered out of high school.

“He (IUP assistant coach Tom Rogish) said no need to walk-on, we’ll honor everything we offered you in high school,” Gartner said. “So, three years since I’d been seen and I was rostered on that football team.”

The greatest honor Gartner had in his football playing career came following the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

“When I was at IUP, I was also enlisted in the Army National Guard at the same time, so on top of football in college, I had a military obligation as well,” Gartner said. “… they allowed me to miss my weekend drills during football season so that I could go play football. … After September 11, 2001, Tom Rogish came to me before one of our home football games and he handed me this enormous flag because I was still currently serving. He gave an emotional speech and asked me if I would, from that point forward, lead the team onto the field with that flag. It was probably the biggest honor in my sports career.”

Other inductees were James Benbow of Everett and Bedford, Irwin Brambley of Bedford, Dan Caro of Bedford, Jeff Mills of Everett, Shawn Husick of Tussey Mountain and coach Bonnie Garner of Everett.

Also inducted were teams: 1987-88 Tussey Mountain wrestling, and the 1976 and 1977 Everett girls volleyball.