The 2025 fall sports season at Norwin will be known as the last season before the "Castle" -- Norwin Knights Stadium -- was demolished to the ground to make room for a new venue.
It will be remembered for that ... and so much more.
It also was a time when the Knights added some more décor to the trophy case and gym banners. Indeed, it was a fall to remember.
The cross country team was just fine setting the pace.
The girls won their first WPIAL team title since 2009, dominating the meet to win by 57 points, and made even more noise at the PIAA meet with their first state championship.
The Knights ran away with the PIAA crown, too, topping Downingtown West by 93 points (54-146).
Annie Czajkowski was the top finisher for the Knights in Hershey, taking 11th in 19:12.
Norwin sophomore Ben McBride captured the program's first WPIAL boys individual title in 30 years with a time of 15 minutes, 27.8 seconds.
He is Norwin's first WPIAL champion in boys cross country since Justin Gaydos in 1995.
The football team followed up on positive preseason expectations by finishing third in the WPIAL Class 6A conference and qualifying for the playoffs for the first time since 2017.
The Knights (7-4) reached the WPIAL semifinals for just the second time in program history before falling at North Allegheny, 34-17.
The boys and girls soccer teams also made playoffs runs.
The girls won their first section title since 2019 and posted their first playoff win since 2021. After a first-round bye in the 4A tournament, the Knights blanked Mt. Lebanon, 1-0, in double overtime before falling to Seneca Valley (5-4) on penalty kicks after the teams went through regulation and two overtimes tied 0-0 in the semifinals to finish 15-3.
Second-year coach Ashley DeVito has turned around a program that hit a rough patch and missed the playoffs for two years.
The boys soccer team continued to be a perennial threat in 4A, finishing second to nemesis Plum in Section 1 and blanked Woodland Hills, 4-0, in the first round before falling to Plum in penalty kicks, 4-1, after the teams played even at 2-2 through 110 minutes of regular time and two overtimes.
The Knights finished 11-5-3 and allowed two goals over their last nine games.
In golf, the girls team made the WPIAL finals and finished eighth out of eight teams. Alena Robb finished ninth in the WPIAL 3A individual tournament.
Riley Shaffer and Landon Stoner qualified for the WPIAL 3A boys finals.
Bayleigh Vilage played in the WPIAL 3A tennis singles tournament and joined Cassandra Halascynski in the doubles bracket.
The field hockey team also made the WPIAL postseason, falling to Pine-Richland in the semifinals.
Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at [email protected].