By David McElhinny

Every fall in Western Pennsylvania, high school football dominates the local sports pages, as the sport has become an essential part of this area’s culture. For sports fans, there is something irresistibly endearing about Friday night football.

However, there are many success stories that occur below the radar in the fall. These student-athletes sacrifice their free time to improve their skills in the hope of experiencing success on the playing field in sports that rarely find the front page of a newspaper’s sports section. These athletes push themselves to the limit with the knowledge that they will likely not become household names.

Volleyball players sweat buckets, enduring jammed fingers and bruised bodies as they sprawl across the wood floors to make digs while participating in stifling hot gyms throughout the
summer months.

Soccer players, who essentially no longer recognize an off-season, take their battered knees, feet and ankles onto the field, playing through the pain.

Cross country runners push through brutal summer heat as they churn along in a lonely endeavor to improve. They will their bodies through the agony of thumping feet and burning lungs, making small goals along the way to keep themselves going. To make it to that next tree, that next sign, that next telephone pole.

Why do it?

The answer is simple. They do it for the love of the sport and along the way are learning the value of hard work and discipline, characteristics that they will carry with them for the rest of
their lives.
At Peters Township High School, there is a rich tradition of sports that have had huge success, yet do not take place on the gridiron. But make no mistake about it, these kids are tough as nails and driven to succeed.
For instance, last year the girls soccer team had a wildly successful season as they compiled a record of 19-4-2, advancing to the WPIAL and state semifinals. One of the top teams in the area seemingly every year at Peters Township, winning is something the girls strive for as the majority of the athletes play year round.
“Success breeds success,” says Terry Adams, who has been the head coach at Peters Township for the past four seasons.

“A lot of these kids play all year round in different leagues because they want to be good players. To be successful in any sport the athletes must be committed. People like to say that practice makes perfect. I say that good practice makes perfect because if a player learns the proper way to play the sport, then goes out on the field and executes, the results will take care of themselves. Sure we are demanding of the players but that is what it takes and these kids are learning important lessons about commitment in the process.”

The girls volleyball team has also been very successful as the program captured a section crown in 2003 and the rich tradition of the sport also has athletes working year round to be a part of the squad.

“There has been a pretty high standard set here as there is a long history of success and tradition,” says fourth year head coach Henry Mulholland.

“These kids play club and rec league throughout the off-season to improve. The number of athletes coming out for the team is continuing to rise and the fact that we now have a very strong middle school program is a big advantage because kids are getting the basics much earlier and therefore are becoming much stronger players. These days, finding athletes who play two or three different sports is very rare. Kids now choose to specialize in one sport many times so that they may reach a higher level of play.”

A great example of commitment to their craft was evident as seniors Kim Windstein and Liz Metzmaier, who were both playing for the Pittsburgh Elite volleyball team at Nationals in Utah earlier this summer, did something that blew Mulholland’s mind. Upon the completion of Nationals, the two players hopped on a plane and flew back to Pittsburgh where they landed at 2 p.m. Less than four hours later, the duo showed up at Peters Township to take part in voluntary open gym volleyball.

Is it any wonder why both of those players are being recruited to play college volleyball?

“It’s that kind of work ethic and commitment to the sport that top players demonstrate,” says Mulholland.

Dave Barr is involved in one of the most grueling, yet least recognized sports in high school athletics as he coaches the boys and girls cross country teams at Peters Township. Even though his program has sent at least one athlete to the state championships every season for the past seven years and this year’s team boasts both boys and girls teams who are returning as the Washington County as well as Big Seven champs, the sport remains largely anonymous.

While getting little recognition, athletes like Peters Township seniors Melissa Vignetti, Nate Yancheff and Dan Schulte will be logging between 40 and 50 miles a week to prepare for the cross country season.

“There are times when this sport is definitely going to hurt,” says Barr.

“It takes a special kind of kid to take part in cross country. You must be self-motivated and have a lot of discipline.”

Barr cites the discipline that these kids exude as a big reason for the success in the classroom that nearly every member of his team has.

“I’m just as proud of our team’s grade-point average as I am about any success they have in the sport. The work ethic they are learning now will serve them well beyond their high school
athletic careers.”