Joe Colella has been on the go since the middle of January.

First, he worked indoors on getting Hopewell High School players ready for a WPIAL baseball season that included winning the Class AAA championship and advancing to the PIAA quarterfinals.

Then, after a couple of days off, he took the field with the Hopewell American Legion team that was comprised of just about the same players who won the WPIAL title. The Legion team played just about every day in making up for games postponed during the high school season and won the Beaver County championship.

After another couple days off, the Hopewell Legion team competed in the Region 6 tournament in Plum, playing five games in six days en route to winning that title.

Last week, Hopewell played in the Pennsylvania American Legion tournament. But this time it lost two consecutive games for the first time this year -- 7-0 to Boyertown and 12-3 to Spring City -- and had its season come to an end.

"That's the way it goes, but I'm very happy with the way things have gone this year," Colella said. "No excuses, we just ran into a couple very good teams."

Between the high school and American Legion season, Hopewell compiled a 48-6 record. The Legion team finished 25-4.

"We played a lot of games," said catcher Matt Rubino, who hit .534 during the Legion regular season with 13 homers and 42 RBIs and will be a senior at Hopewell. "We just weren't at out best the last two games."

There are a couple of reasons for that. The Hopewell players had been living out of suitcases for two weeks. Plus, the state tournament games were in Boyertown.

"The teams that finished one, two, three [at the state tournament] were all from that area," Colella pointed out, referring to Spring City, Penn Ridge and Boyertown. "They were going home every night and sleeping in their own beds and eating home cooking.

"We stayed in a motel in Monroeville for the region tournament and in a motel out there with three and four guys to a room. I'm not making an excuse ... we got beat by pretty good teams. But being away for that long wears on you."

Colella also said teams in the eastern half of the state approach American Legion ball differently.

"The focus out there is on Legion ball, not the high school schedule, and they don't have players involved in AAU very much," he said. "Here, it is just the opposite. We put more emphasis on the high school season than we do Legion games in the summer. It makes a difference when you reach the state level."

The biggest task facing Colella will be rebuilding the high school and Legion teams. Most of his top players -- Scott Dierdorf, Kevin Welsh, Garrett Covalt, Paul Rosenstein, Mike Broughner -- were recent high school graduates. Plus, he had Dylan Schwegler and Brad Kubis back after freshmen seasons in college.

Covalt, Dierdorf and Rosenstein are eligible to return to the American Legion team next summer but could choose to play on college-age teams.

Rubino, who is sure to get a lot of college attention, will be the cornerstone of the Hopewell teams in 2011. He plans to play for the Allegheny Pirates in the fall and will start to look at colleges.

"I've been fortunate to have a good group like this the past two years," Colella said. "They have played well, they got along with each other and were just a great group to be with. You know it has to come to and end. You don't want it to, but you know that it will."

So, what does Colella do now that the season has ended? He does what any veteran coach/manager does. He goes and sits in the stands and watches games.

In Colella's case, he will spend some time watching his grandsons play. That's where he was this past Sunday afternoon.

Catcher Matt Rubino has had an outstanding summer for the Hopewell American Legion team.

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