Westmoreland high school notebook: Latrobe girls soccer coaches take on 1st season as husband and wife

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Saturday, August 19, 2023 | 3:39 PM

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Jamie Morrison and Ross Campbell will begin their eighth season together as coaches of the Latrobe girls soccer team. This will be their first season, however, as wife and husband.

The couple got married in June, nearly a decade after they met during a pick-up soccer game at Hempfield Park. If there ever was a soccer match-made-in-heaven, this is it.

Morrison, the head coach, was a standout at Jeannette before playing at Penn State. Campbell played at Mt. Pleasant.

Campbell proposed to her at a team banquet in 2020.

Morrison and Campbell are huge Liverpool Football Club fans. They attended a game in London around last New Years Day.

“It was our soccer sabbatical,” Ross said. “We’re all about soccer.”

Need more proof?

“We played ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ when I walked down the aisle,” Morrison said.

That song is otherwise known as the Liverpool anthem.

Morrison is waiting to officially change her last name because of a teacher exchange program that will send her to Austria in the winter. She is a physics teacher.

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Honoring the champs

Getting applause from the crowd at PNC Park can be a challenge these days with the up-again, down-again Pittsburgh Pirates taking fans on a choppy ride through the NL Central.

But two local softball teams garnered claps at the ballpark last weekend.

The Pirates welcomed all of the WPIAL baseball and softball champions before a Sunday doubleheader against the Cincinnati Reds.

Hempfield and Belle Vernon were honored, with their accomplishment glowing bright on the Jumbotron.

Hempfield won the WPIAL 6A title, and Belle Vernon won the 4A crown. The title was the eighth for the Spartans, and the Leopards celebrated trophy number five.

“They paraded us around the field,” Hempfield coach Tina Madison said. “It was nice being at the event together.”

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Off and running

Belle Vernon has a girls golf team for the first time this season. The Leopards opened play Friday with a home match against Bethel Park.

Vittoria Scaramucci hit the first tee shot for the program on the Red course at Cedarbrook Golf Course.

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Feeling her pain

Tears welled up in Latrobe girls soccer coach Jamie Morrison’s eyes when she began talking about her senior midfielder Ella Bulava’s season-ending ACL injury.

“Absolutely devastating,” the coach said. “We’re all crushed for her. She is the heart of this team and does so much to make us go.”

Bulava, a Maryland commit, suffered the injury during club season with the Riverhounds Academy.

But Morrison is proof that knee injuries do not define a person.

“I’ve had four surgeries on my knees,” Morrison said. “I tore my left (ACL) my sophomore year at Jeannette, and have injured my right (ACL) three times post-college. It’s a tough thing to go through, but we know Ella can handle it.”

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On patrol

With Ben Suchko taking over the Penn-Trafford boys soccer program in July and Robert Broadwater going from an assistant to head coach of the Yough girls, there are now at least three current or former Pennsylvania state troopers coaching in the county.

The other is retired state policeman Craig Spisak, the head baseball coach at Norwin.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Belle Vernon, Hempfield, Latrobe, Penn-Trafford, Yough