(EDITOR’S NOTE: The Times News will be running a series of stories asking area coaches and athletic directors to recall their “Most Memorable” sporting event. Today’s Most Memorable moment comes from Pleasant Valley volleyball coach John Gesiskie)

By TJ Engle

tengle@tnonline.com

In 1994, John Gesiskie was asked to start a varsity girls’ volleyball program at Pleasant Valley High School.

It came just a year after Gesiskie got back into teaching, after having been away from the profession for five years.

Not much has changed in Bear Country since, as Gesiskie is still teaching - now instructing driver’s education at PV - and has remained at the helm of the Bears’ volleyball team since its inception.

The veteran mentor has experienced plenty of success during his tenure, and is only three wins shy of 500 career coaching victories.

When it comes to his fondest memories, Gesiskie has plenty of options, including multiple seasons in which one or more of his three daughters were members of the Pleasant Valley team.

“Geez, that’s tough, and I will tell you why it’s tough,” said Gesiskie. “First of all, from 2000 to 2006 is when I had my girls (Nikki, Jamie and Jackie) play for me.”

During that time, the Gesiskie trio and the Pleasant Valley volleyball program had tremendous success.

That was especially true for the five-year span from 2002 (Nikki’s senior year) until 2006 (Jackie’s senior year) when the Bears racked up 50 consecutive Mountain Valley Conference victories, and posted a mark of 134-29 during that period.

PV also won five Mountain Valley Conference Championships, and Nikki, Jamie and Jackie were all Most Valuable Players in their senior years.

The sisters combined to set 11 school records, which according to Gesiskie, still stand to this day.

“They did whatever they could in the offseason, as far as like club teams,” he recalled. “So, coaching was a dream back then. So, that was the best years that I had.”

But while coaching his daughters was the most enjoyable and successful period of his coaching career, ironically, Gesiskie’s “Most Memorable” match didn’t come from that era.

“If you’re looking at one particular, there is one that stands out for me. It’s actually one that we should have won easily, but we didn’t,” Gesiskie said. “We should have blown Stroudsburg out, but we were struggling.”

Gesiskie was referring to the Mountain Valley Conference championship match against the Mountaineers on Oct. 25, 2012.

“We were down 2-0,” Gesiskie said. “And in the third set, Stroudsburg was up 21-19, and we were only four points from being annihilated.”

With its backs to the wall - and facing the possibility of losing its first MVC match since 2009 and being denied a three-peat as conference champions - Pleasant Valley fought back.

“I remember calling a timeout, looking at them, and saying something like, ‘Ladies, you’re four points away from losing this match; there’s no way this team should be in this game with you,’” Gesiskie recalled. “‘I think you need to look at each other and realize you’re family. Realize you have the capability. I have told you what you need to do to win this match. I told you where to go on the court. I told you what to do.

“‘But it has to come down to you people. You’re the only six on the court. I can’t play the positions for you.’”

Gesiskie remembers singling out one of his players during the time out.

“I remember looking at MacKenzie Dorney, and saying, ‘You’re the one. They look to you. When you put your head down, they put their head down. If you pump them up, they’ll pump up.’

“I then said, ‘I’m going to walk away right now. You have about 30 seconds left.’

Gesiskie said at that moment he believed the Bears were going to find a way to write another page in the program’s already decorated history.

“During that 30 seconds, I heard her take charge. She started to call out orders and was barking encouragement to her teammates and I was like ‘here we go’.

“They got on the court and came back to win Game 3, and I remember thinking ‘this is the team I know. They’re back.’”

The Bears finished off the comeback by winning the next two games, capturing the MVC championship, 23-25, 19-25, 25-21, 25-18, 15-11.

Breanna Joseph (10 kills, 10 blocks), Dorney (20 digs, seven kills), Kiersten Griesback (18 assists) and Steph Schmitt (21 assists) all had huge performances in the Bears’ victory.

Gesiskie continues living his dream of coaching, one he shares with his wife, Kathleen, who has been by his side the entire time as his assistant coach.

He had plenty of huge victories before that 2012 MVC championship match - including an upset of powerful Allentown Central Catholic in 1997, along with the Bears’ first-ever District 11 playoff victory in 1995 that stand out in particular. While Gesiskie has had plenty of big victories since then, the 2012 comeback against Stroudsburg is one that still stands out to him nearly a decade later.