Robert Veach
- Post by: mcalibrary
- January 12, 2024
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INDUCTEE
Today, Bobby Veach gets to join his father Robert as a member of the Ed Romance Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame, an exclusive fraternity within the Hall. Bobby spent four years with the Leopards of Lafayette College as a safety for Coach Bill Russo. Bobby helped to make history with Lafayette as Russo made his way to the winningest coach in the annals of Lafayette football. Lafayette football has been around since 1882 and Russo managed to win 103 games from 1981-1999. Veach was there as the Leopards won the Patriot League Championship in 1994 and was on the field for great program wins over Harvard, Columbia, Colgate, Bucknell, Cornell, and Holy Cross among others. He earned 3 varsity football monograms as a safety while with the program.
Bobby’s football training began with Coach Jazz Diminick and extended into the Whitey Williams era. Bob played mostly safety and tight end with the Tornadoes and was an integral part of laying the groundwork for the state championship teams to come. He led the 1993 team with 7 interceptions and also chipped in with 6 TD’s on 17 receptions for 309 yards from the tight end spot. He ended with 111 tackles and 9 passes defended. That ’93 team would qualify for the District XI playoffs and ended up losing to Allentown Central Catholic by a 27-6 score. (ACC ended up winning the state AAA Championship with a 47-6 win over Blackhawk). Bobby was named to the Press Enterprise All-Area team and earned the Ed Romance Award at the annual football banquet.
Veach was also a huge part of the history-making boys basketball team at MCA, winning the first-ever District Championship in 1991. As a freshman, Bob was Coach McKay’s defensive specialist and was almost always assigned the opposition’s best player. He was a huge part of what has been recognized as MCA’s most successful era in basketball, qualifying for District play on 3 separate occasions and playing for 2 Championships – winning one. Bob also contributed offensively with 373 points, 91 steals, 111 assists, and 230 rebounds. He was the annual winner of the VFW defensive player award on a number of occasions.
Bob also was a mainstay of MCA track and Coach Mike Woytowich, specializing in the sprints and relays. He and Scott Sebastian, Gary Spears, and Joel Gonzalo were the District XI 4 x 400 meter relay champions in 1993 and just missed the medal stand with a 9th place finish at the PIAA meet. He, Dave Slater, Spears and brother Brett won a 2nd place District medal in 1994 in the 4 x 100.
Bob went on to graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Lafayette in 1998 and a Bachelor of Science in Physician Assistant Studies from MCP Hahnemann in 2001. He is currently a Physician Assistant for Sun Orthopaedic of Evangelical Hospital in Lewisburg. He and his wife Amy make their home in Selinsgrove and are the parents of a daughter Giovanna (8) and son Robert (4).