Letterman legacy: Bartals entrenched in the history of Lebanon County athletics

Matt Bartal was three decades removed from high school athletics when the final puzzle piece aligned. It was a family member who brought the realization to his attention.

Olivia Bartal, a 2022 Lebanon graduate and four-year pillar of the Lebanon Valley College women’s golf team, echoed the sentence in a small office space. The words popped like fireworks in Matt’s mind. Everything he poured into his self-driven project, all the family history he surfaced, suddenly made sense.

“It’s always the Bartal family,” Olivia said. “It’s never just one of us (being referenced). It’s how everyone says it.”

“That’s a good point,” Matt said in amazement. “It’s weird to hear it out loud, and you really don’t understand it until you hear it out loud. When somebody does talk about it, or you’re talking to somebody about anything, and they reference a Bartal, they’re like, ‘The Bartal family.’ It’s almost like we’re something rather than someone.”

Matt has built “something” the last few months. He’s thumbed through four generations of family athletic history and bubbled up a thought-provoking collection of information.

Through his extensive digging, Matt has tallied 153 varsity letters among the Bartal family. Eighty of the letters were earned at Lebanon while the remaining 73 are scattered across other districts in the county.

The number is believed to be the most in Lebanon County history. If not tops in Pennsylvania, it’s certainly entered the discussion.

“The grit and determination, I guess inherently, it’s with us and bred in our biology,” Matt said. “I think we’ve been able to prove time and time again, if you go down through each and every single one of us, being successful is subjective. You could define it any way, shape or form that you want. But if you look at each and every single one of us, we are successful in our own way.”

The ‘light bulb’

Helping launch the Cedar Bowl. Four straight generations of captains at Lebanon. Coaching stops that cover various schools and a range of sports. Hall-of-fame entries and an array of records.

The Bartal family’s fingerprints douse Lebanon County athletics history. There’d be unmistakable voids, polarizing gaps without them.

Matt didn’t raise anchor on his family project to garner attention. Sure, he wanted each family member to receive their share of recognition, but the mission stretched far beyond the Xs and Os and the gaudy stats.

“Our intent is that this can hopefully reach other families and have them dig into their family history,” Matt said. “And perhaps see if anyone can challenge us and find out if their families have earned varsity letters in the roundabout district of 80 (in the county) and 153 (overall).”

Matt’s “light bulb moment” wasn’t singular but rather was compiled through years of family conversations and gatherings. The Bartals would visit grandma’s for weekend dinners and spent countless birthdays and holidays at relatives’ houses.

While the family reunions served their purpose, athletics were always the strongest tie. As Matt grew older, the shared sports experience stoked a more meaningful appreciation.

“It’s the bond that it has created through the years,” Matt said. “Not necessarily the unique wrinkle of competition, and it building the characteristics that it does for you as an individual, but how competition, whether you win, lose or draw, you decide how you as an individual are going to create your tomorrow or your next moment, and how you’re going to handle that. … So as I did all of this, I could picture every single person, in my mind’s eye, how we all, somewhere along the lines, were together at some point.”

‘Determination’ bred versatility

Scan the document Matt has formatted, and you’ll come upon a clip of similarities. A swath of football and wrestling letters. Splashes of track and field and field hockey, and sprinkles of baseball and softball.

But woven into the fabric are budding branches. Ones that haven’t been harvesting for long but are vital to the distinctiveness of the family tree.

Take Olivia’s golf journey, for example. She stands alone with varsity letters on the links and has carved her own chapter amid the long-form feature.

“Something that I have pulled out of golf is I’ve taught myself how to be my own best friend in moments where I really need a friend,” she said. “In the sport of golf, it can be really easy to feel like you’re on a deserted island all by yourself. You’re just kind of out there in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of grass and maybe no one else to be found for hours. And you get put in a lot of challenging situations where you really have to hype yourself up and say, ‘Hey, this maybe wasn’t my best shot here, but what am I going to do in the future to make this better?’”

“And I don’t know if many others can say that.”

Where golf can be a solo effort, the forward frame of mind was something all Bartals possessed. The fortitude covered the athletics landscape but spilled into all walks of life.

Work. Outreach. Every base was blanketed.

“I think it’s the determination,” said Doug Bartal, Matt’s uncle and a 2010 Lebanon HOF inductee. “Once we focus on something, we finish it out to the end. That’s one thing my dad always taught us, ‘You start something, you finish it.’”

‘Going to stimulate all these discussions’

The gears Matt hoped his findings would turn are already humming.

Matt was on a phone call with longtime friend, Jerome Simone, earlier this month when he mentioned the family project. Simone, a big-picture thinker like Matt, rang his dad about the idea as soon as the initial conversation ended.

“I kept thinking to myself, ‘Matt, this is a genius idea,’” Simone said. “Because knowing Matt the way I do, it’s not just about the result of what your number is. It’s that journey to get to the result, and he is going to stimulate, just like he did with me, all these discussions, all this reminiscing about your family.”

Simone has taken Matt’s proposal a step further. While beginning to browse his family’s athletic background — which he believes is in the 80 varsity letter vicinity — Simone pondered the angle of history in other crafts.

Simone said he comes from a bloodline of educators. For other families, it could be business start-ups, coal mining, farming, and military.

“Even though Matt’s initial avenue was sports,” Simone said, “can you imagine the discussions that you could have about people and their heritage and that whole generational business? That’s something that people take pride in and talk about.”

And that’s exactly where Matt’s venture started. The pride and passion for his family have led to a culmination he never anticipated.

The final puzzle piece has aligned.