On a sunny, low-80s September Friday, nine two-player teams of local government employees from Mt. Lebanon and Upper St. Clair meet on the Mt. Lebanon Golf Course for the 20th time to compete for the coveted Managers’ Cup, which had been resident in the Upper St. Clair Managers’ office for the past year.
The idea for the cup was hatched by Steve Feller and Doug Watkins, who at the time were managers of Mt. Lebanon and Upper St. Clair, as a way to deepen the ties between the neighboring communities. Watkins died in 2010, and Feller in 2019.
Mark Mansfield, Upper St. Clair’s assistant manager, was involved in the planning of the Cup.
“We had been toying with several different friendly competitions,” he said. “We tried softball — we did that one time and found out right away that the chances for injury were higher than our tolerance level.”
They tried bowling, and while that didn’t result in a raft of injuries, it still didn’t quite hit the mark.
“So we threw golf in there,” Mansfield said. “It worked in a lot of ways bowling and softball didn’t.”
Mansfield said they patterned the event after the Ryder Cup, which happens around the same time of year.
“It gives us an opportunity to match up players from similar departments, to talk about work issues. Folks get to meet others in a cordial setting, while they may not have the time otherwise.”
Although the first Managers’ Cup was in 2004, the competition had to be cancelled twice, once during the pandemic and another time when schedules could not coincide, making 2025 the 20th meeting. Over the years, Lebo has notched six victories, USC racked up 10 and three times the match ended in a tie.
“It’s just fun seeing fellow employees,” says Bob Hlebinsky, Mt. Lebanon’s former director of recreation facilities. “But I don’t’ think I’ve ever been matched up with anyone from their rec department.”
“That’s probably by choice,” says golf course manager Colin Agster.
“Yeah, their choice,” Hlebinsky says with a smile.
Finance Director Andrew McCreery has played for the Managers’ Cup many times, but one moment from 2014 sticks out.
“Although Lebo lost, I got my only hole in one in my life so far, at the St. Clair Country Club Terrace course,” he says. “What a thrill and something I can talk about my whole life.”
Hlebinsky remembers that day as well.
“We heard it from three holes away!”
Editor’s note: Seeing as how the only golf courses I’ve ever been on had windmills and dinosaurs, there was a learning curve. As I was approaching the first hole, Ron Gray, our assistant IT manager, told me if I enjoyed remaining conscious, I should get out of the way of his shot. When our photographer began shooting, I instinctively ducked out of the way of that shot, but apparently not the one that might hospitalize me.
Today’s match is just a blip on Agster’s schedule, with another outing following this one, giving him about a 15-hour workday, followed by an event on Saturday and another one on Sunday, as so many golfers rush to take advantage of what might be that last good golf day of the year.
“The one bad thing about fall is that I don’t get any breaks on the weekends.”
Mitch Montani, USC’s public access coordinator, is playing in his second Managers’ Cup.
“It’s awesome. It’s great to get out and have fun, and also nice to be connecting with one of our neighboring municipalities.”
Fire Department Deputy Chief Larry Celender and Lt. Steve Noorkbaksh were down 2-1 with their USC opponents, Jesse Lachimia, code enforcement officer and Kevin Killoy, chief building and code enforcement officer, “emphasis on the chief,” as his subordinate reminded me, but Noorkbaksh was optimistic.
“Still a lot of golf left to play,” he said.
Public Works Director Rudy Sukal summed up how his game was going with an economy of words.
“Bad.”
Which turned out to be prophetic, because at the end of the day, the trophy returned to its home south of the border.
Well, always next year. Like Noorkbaksh said, still a lot of golf to play.