STATE COLLEGE -- There's a long and proud tradition of baseball in Hummelstown and the outlying areas of the Lower Dauphin School District.
A large turnout of talent annually becomes the boys of summer within age groups from 5 to 20. Those volunteer coaches instruct their budding stars with one goal in mind – stay within the system.
That system creates as many postseason all-star teams as needed to get deserving players the experience they need to succeed as long as they stick with the sport.
Players who follow that path to the high school roster know each other well, they respect the game, they've been taught how to play it the right way.
Many go through a consistently strong American Legion program that has made more than a few state tournament appearances as well as a trip or two to national Legion competition.
But what the Falcon Family hasn't done collectively was win a Pennsylvania high school championship. Ironically, LD is surrounded by nearby towns that have trophy-case proof of PIAA gold as teams from Hershey, Palmyra, Elizabethtown and Annville-Cleona have had past success stories over the years.
Thus, finally reaching the pinnacle – the Class AAAA title game against North Penn on Friday night -- was a fitting tribute to the young boys, the young men and the older gents of Hummelstown whose years of sweat, sore arms and dirt-stained dedication finally resulted in a state finals appearance.
The Friday night lights memory of this game, though, might come with the satisfaction of getting there but not the lasting look-back-and-smile feeling of winning it.
LD and North Penn battled through a nine-inning gem of a game, but it was the Knights celebrating a 6-5 win at the end and the Falcons humbly watching them receive their gold medals while their silvers dangled around their own necks.
Really, though, this one was for the people who have stuck their necks out for years to help the program. The Hummelstown families such as the Kulinas and the Gourleys and the Umbergers who have put two generations of players through the system.
Or a guy such as Ron Collier, who has worn the LD blue-and-white for 43 years as a coach in the program.
That's what makes Friday so frustrating but somehow still rewarding.
"I can't say enough about our feeder program,'' said Kulina, whose system is followed by coaches on up through the various age-group teams.
"We just have a lot of people in the community who want to work with kids and they're good with kids, and our players really believe in the program from high school all the way down to the tee-ball.
"That's special. And you know what, that's why we're here because we need that.''
Kulina said his entire staff is made up of "former Falcons,'' citing that there's just a "lot of continuity.''
Ron Gourley is one of those former Falcons. And so is his father, Ron Sr., who coached at LD before Ken Kulina.
"I grew up with Kenny,'' Ron Jr. said Friday. "I love coaching with Kenny. We think alike most of the time because we are; we're both competitive guys and it makes it fun being a part of his staff.
"And Coach Collier has been around for 43 years now. This is a pretty special run for him. Having Matt Umberger around is nice. Having all these guys come back is nice. We've seen a lot of guys from our program come back this week.
"The coaching stability in our school has been kind of amazing. We've only probably had three in the last 45 years. My dad coached for 15 or 16, Kenny's been here 16 or 17 now. The longevity of the program keeps it where we want it to be. And that's very important.''
Gourley was quick to add that "the success of this program has been made years ago and we'll try to build on that, obviously. Maybe someday we'll get back here and we'll win one of these things.''
If and when they do, they'll have a strong contingent of fans watching.
"I can't say enough about our fan support,'' Kulina said. "They're just like our players and they support each other. I know our fans and I know our school district and I know they're proud of what we accomplished. They know we gave a good effort tonight.''
And because of the system, countless players who have come up through it can look back and say that, yeah, a good effort can still result in a good feeling about a good program.