While planning out yet another Baldwin Invitational, Rich Wright said he has often muttered the following words when questions have come up in recent weeks and months.
“Damn, Ed. Where are you at? I would really like an answer on that,” Wright recalled.
Wright, though, never gets any answers back.
The Ed that Wright speaks about often and in glowing ways is Ed Helbig, the former longtime track and field coach at Baldwin who was a pillar of the Western Pennsylvania high school running community. Helbig was the head of the Tri-State Track Coaches Association, chairman of the WPIAL cross country and track committee, and served as director at many of the area’s largest meets. Helbig passed away last August following a battle with esophageal cancer. He was 72.
In what would have been Helbig’s 50th year coaching at Baldwin, the Baldwin Invitational will turn 51 on Friday. The meet was founded by Chuck McKinney a half-century ago, but Helbig eventually took over the event and helped it grow into one of the biggest and best meets in the area.
“It meant everything to Ed,” Wright said. “This is what he would look forward to all year.”
Wright and Helbig were very close. You could say Wright was Helbig’s right-hand man. If there was a big meet in Western Pennsylvania, chances are both would be there, along with a veteran group of helpers, to make sure everything ran smoothly. And with those two involved, you could pretty much be assured that it would.
“Even at his funeral, all of his brothers said they wanted to meet ‘our brother from another mother,’” Wright said.
Wright has taken over as meet director of the Baldwin Invitational, which as of Tuesday night had 60 teams registered. While Wright admitted that it has been more strenuous planning the meet than in previous years, he said that everything is coming together.
Wright and the other organizers have plans on honoring Helbig in multiple ways, as well. That includes the debut of the “Ed Helbig Two Mile,” a true two-mile race that will consist of the top 15 3,200-meter runners. The event will serve as the perfect complement to the “McKinney Mile,” a mile race that has been part of the meet for years that was named in honor of Chuck McKinney.
In addition, new medals — more colorful ones, Wright said — were purchased this year, all of which have the initials “EH” on them. The inaugural Ed Helbig JV Invite will then take place at Baldwin on Saturday.
“He wanted to have it for years, but we could never get the field,” Wright said of the JV meet. “So we finally got it.”
The Baldwin Invitational is scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m. Friday.
Latrobe’s Miller the fastest in the WPIAL … so far
Preston Miller won a WPIAL Class 3A gold medal as a freshman last season when he ran a leg on Latrobe’s winning 400-meter relay team.
A year later, he might claim gold in one of the individual sprints.
Miller ran a personal-best time of 10.74 to take home the title in the 100 at last week’s Westmoreland County Coaches Association championships at Latrobe Memorial Stadium. The time broke school and meet records, and was the fastest in the WPIAL this season. Miller also captured the title in the 200 after running a time of 22.16, which ranks among the best in the district this season. He ran on Latrobe’s winning 400 relay team, as well, so Miller won three golds on the day in all.
You could call it a hat trick for Miller, who also plays hockey at Latrobe in what is a unique mix of sports. It has been a breakout season for the sophomore, who also won titles in all three events at the Lady Spartan/Wildcat Invitational earlier in the month.
Scoop to make season debut
Miller will have plenty of competition at the postseason meets, the biggest likely coming from the past two WPIAL Class 3A champions in the 100 — New Castle senior Kaevon Gardner (2023) and Woodland Hills junior Scoop Smith (2024). The latter is expected to make his season debut Friday.
Smith, who had been dealing with a hamstring injury, said earlier this week that he plans on running in the Baldwin Invitational. It will be the first time Smith has competed in the event in his career. Smith ran a 10.64 to win the 100 at last year’s WPIAL championships and owns a personal-best time of 10.62.
A star in both track and basketball, football continues to be Smith’s first love. He’s picked up several scholarship offers in that sport in the last month, and a few weeks back his 7-on-7 team played in a tournament in Dallas that was televised by NFL Network. After finding the end zone in one of the games, Smith mimicked the touchdown celebration made popular by Shedeur Sanders while running toward Sanders himself, who was there watching the game.
Team playoffs Wednesday
Rainy weather forced the WPIAL team playoffs to be pushed from Tuesday to Wednesday. A total of 32 boys teams (15 in Class 3A, 17 in Class 2A) and 34 girls teams (18 in Class 3A, 16 in Class 2A) will compete in the semifinals. Each class will hold competitions at four different sites, with the winner from each advancing to next Tuesday’s championships. The Class 3A finals will be held at West Mifflin and the Class 2A finals at Peters Township.
Butler is the defending Class 3A boys champion and Quaker Valley the reigning Class 2A boys champ, while the North Allegheny girls (Class 3A) and Quaker Valley girls (Class 2A) are three-time defending champions.
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.