Westmoreland high school notebook: Big 5/6 recognizes area soccer, volleyball players and coaches

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Sunday, November 10, 2024 | 5:02 PM

Purchase Photo Options

The Big 5/6 Conference, a web-based outlet that recognizes the achievements of the WPIAL’s largest classifications, announced its all-section teams for boys and girls soccer and girls volleyball.

For girls soccer, local players to make the All-Section 1-4A first team were senior midfielder Robin Reilly, junior forward Annalyse Bauer and senior midfielder Maddy Petruzzi of Latrobe; senior forward Alexis Brown, senior midfielder midfielder Chloe Walton, junior defender Morgan Spudy, junior defender Anna Coy, and senior goalkeeper Rease Solomon of Penn-Trafford; junior defender Cameryn Reed and senior midfielder Julia Bursick of Norwin; and junior Jiana Patterson of Hempfield.

Petruzzi was the section player of the year, and Penn-Trafford’s Jimmy Mastroianni was the coach of the year.

Boys soccer Section 1-4A first-team picks included Hempfield junior midfielder Braden Crowe along with five Norwin players: senior forward Daniel Maddock, sophomore midfielder Ryan Schoemer, sophomore midfielder Chase Molinaro, senior defender Dylan Moyer, and senior defender Ryan Schiller.

Maddock was the section player of the year.

For volleyball, Tracy McDonald of Penn-Trafford was named the Section 3-4A Coach of the Year, and Warriors senior hitter Kylie Anthony won the section player of the year.

First-team picks included senior setter Mackenzie Myers, junior hitter Ashley Denniker and senior Mia Myers of Latrobe; senior Kacie DePalma, Anthony, sophomore hitter Ella McDonald, and senior setter Kam Pieper of Penn-Trafford; junior hitter Clair Mitchell of Hempfield; and senior hitter Addison Matovich of Norwin.

Holding court

Basketball can wait at Jeannette. At least that is the consensus around the school.

As in many previous years, basketball coach Adrian Batts will be shorthanded until the upset-minded football team is finished mangling the Class A playoff bracket.

Jeannette has seven football players who also played basketball last year: Kymon’e Brown, Noah Sunder, Jayce Powell, Markus McGowan, Xavier Odorisio-Farrow, McAlister Steele and Eli Jones.

Lonnie Greene also could return to basketball. Two other football players were on the junior varsity basketball roster last year.

“We will push tryouts back,” Batts said. “I’m OK with starting late. This run is going to help us tremendously.”

Jeannette (9-3), the 13th seed in football, plays No. 1 Fort Cherry (12-0) at 7 p.m. Friday at Canon-McMillan in the semifinals.

Basketball practice starts Friday.

Derry coach

The new girls basketball coach at Derry is Nathan Keller, a former assistant to Gene Brisbane, who resigned after five seasons.

Keller has been the middle school girls coach at Derry.

WCCA at a glance

The winter portion of the Westmoreland County Coaches Association calendar features three events.

The first is the girls’ all-star volleyball match, set for Nov. 19 at Ligonier Valley.

The annual boys basketball shootout will be Dec. 21 at Hempfield and Jeannette, and the always-popular wrestling championships will be Jan. 10 at Greensburg Salem.

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

Tags: Derry Area, Franklin Regional, Greensburg Salem, Jeannette, Latrobe, Norwin, Penn-Trafford