Westmoreland Senior Spotlight: Mt. Pleasant’s Hannah Gesinski

By: Anthony Difilippo
Monday, October 18, 2021 | 9:46 AM

Hannah Gesinski

Mt. Pleasant soccer

If you were to ask high school girls soccer players when they started in the sport, most would probably say relatively young — in some cases, shortly after they learned to walk.

Mt. Pleasant’s Hannah Gesinski is not most high school girls soccer players. She started playing when she was 12.

“I got into it because my sister (Riley Gesinski) started playing it,” Gesinski said.

Gesinski is now a starter on a playoff-bound Vikings team, one that is leading Section 3-2A with an 8-1 section record. She is also planning to attend Pitt-Greensburg and play soccer next year.

Coach Rich Garland, who’s in his second season, is trying to lead Mt. Pleasant past the first round for the first time since the 2015-16 season.

With the WPIAL playoffs nearing, Hannah Gesinski took time for a Senior Spotlight Q&A.

How do you think your season has gone?

So far, I think this is one of the best seasons I’ve ever been a part of with this team. We’ve all come to work together and grow with each other. Our biggest thing this season has been teamwork and working together because we do have a lot of the same people from last year. We do have some new freshmen and some other people who came back from previous years that have really stepped up and brought us to where we are now.

How has the emergence of some of the freshmen (Rylin Bugosh, Maddie Barrick and Adi Belanger) contributed to the team’s success?

There’s always been really good potential with the freshmen that have been coming up. This specific group of freshmen, they have been playing together their entire lives through things like travel and rec. So, they know how to work well with each other. Some of our sophomores and juniors have also played with them, so they’re really good at connecting and combining in the midfield and up top as well.

How far do you think this team could go in the playoffs?

Personally, I think we will be able to get past the first round depending on if we get a pretty decent seeding, which I’m very certain we will. I think we can go very far, especially with the level of competition we’ve been playing against and how well we’ve been able to control and contain our composure playing against them. I think we can pretty much handle anything that we come across.

What do you think your biggest strength is?

I think my biggest strength is finding where the ball’s going to be at a certain time and stepping in and making sure it doesn’t either get through the back line or through me. I make sure I get it out as quickly as possible, so there’s no (threat) for the goalie or anyone else.

What is your relationship like with your sister, Riley, being on the same team?

We’ve played together for a while and it’s nice having her on the team because I know I have someone that I could talk to and I can always help her out and she can help me out. Sometimes we do have our issues, just like any sisters, we’re always going to have that.

Being able to play with her has been such an amazing opportunity because she was the first one in our family that started playing soccer, and she has helped me grow into the player that I am now.

What is one thing that people may not know about you?

One thing that people may not know about me is that I’m not supposed to be a senior right now. I’m actually supposed to be a junior, but I moved up early from kindergarten to first grade. So, I’m kind of young for my grade and people don’t really understand that about me. I started as a freshman only being 13, so my first varsity soccer game, I was only 13 and I was playing against seniors. So, I have definitely come a long way, but not many people know that about me.

Tags: Mt. Pleasant