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Miele takes reins for Belle Vernon boys

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, August 17, 2017 | 7:54 PM

In his two seasons as the boys soccer coach at Elizabeth Forward, Rob Miele was making strides. He led the Warriors to their first playoff appearance in five years and had no plans of leaving.

That was until an opportunity opened to return to Belle Vernon, and he couldn't pass that up.

Miele is a 2005 graduate of Belle Vernon and was a part of the first boys soccer team to win a section championship.

“When the opportunity came up, it was an easy decision,” Miele said. “I wasn't looking to leave EF at the end of last year because I thought what we had done in two years was really good, but I wasn't sure how many more opportunities like this would come up.

“I just thought the group of kids that Belle Vernon has and knowing some of the kids personally, it was an easy decision.”

Miele is taking over a team that won the Section 3-AAA regular-season championship with a 13-4 overall record and 9-1 mark in the section. The Leopards were bounced in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs though, losing 3-0 to West Allegheny.

Belle Vernon is returning one of the top scorers in the WPIAL, junior Markello Apodiakos, who last season was named All-WPIAL and Section 3 Player of the Year. This season, Miele is looking to get him some help in the offensive zone.

“Last year, he was kind of running around by himself at forward,” Miele said. “We have changed some things around offensively to help him out. This way if teams focus on him, he will have some help.”

Some key players helping him out this year are seniors Jackson Guess, Mark Lovett and Peyton Lovitz and junior Hunter Martin.

The Leopards will have 12 seniors on their roster, but in terms of varsity minutes, they will have some growing up to do with the addition of freshmen and sophomores.

“This group also needs to mature in terms of how they handle adversity,” Miele said. “They can't worry about the things they can't control. We have a lot of seniors, but we also have some freshmen and sophomores that are going to push them.”

The games will start Sept. 2, as the Leopards host McGuffey and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in a doubleheader in the Paul Sasko tournament.

“I think they are looking forward to it,” Miele said. “We talked briefly about that weekend and what it means. The girls are hosting as well, so it will be nice for the district. We are looking forward to it, and right now all of our focus is on that first game with McGuffey.”

Drew Karpen is a freelance writer.

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