WVC field hockey celebrates 40th season with scholarship funding

Scholarship fund kicks off in anniversary season

As hard as it may be to believe, not every field hockey player around the Wyoming Valley Conference gets a scholarship to play in college.

It only seems that way.

But at least one more athlete from the conference will receive college funding through field hockey, thanks to an idea embraced by the league’s coaches during its 40th anniversary season.

All proceeds from the sale of T-shirts commemmorating the anniversary season will be used to award a college scholarship to a selected player at the end of this season, and if those sales really take off, more than one player from the conference may be rewarded.

“I’d like to have at least two or three scholarships,” said Nanticoke Area coach Lori Dennis, a former field hockey player at Bishop O’Reilly High School who also previously coached at Berwick.

Dennis came up with the idea to include a scholarship fund to help celebrate the league’s milestone season, and the rest of the league’s coaches welcomed the endeavor. The scholarship money will come from the sale of commemmorative T-shirts listing all the names of the league’s players this season on the back with a 40th anniversary logo on the front.

The shirts are selling for $20 each, and are being offered around the league this season. They’re quickly becoming popular with this years players, as Dennis said she’s already heard from six coaches ordering of 20 shirts for eacb of their teams.

“I think the scholarship is a great idea,” said Crestwood’s second-year coach Patsy Moratori, who played on the school’s 1988 state championship squad and guided the Comets to a state title game appearance in her rookie season as head coach last year.

The endeavor can only add more prestige to a league piled with it.

Since 1998, 22 teams from the Wyoming Valley Conference have advanced as far as the state semifinals and 10 won PIAA titles – the last being Wyoming Seminary’s victory over Crestwood in the 2013 Class 2A state championshipe game. And the league has watched four of its other teams finish as a state runner-up, including Crestwood’s 2-1 loss to Villa Maria Academy a year ago.

A team from the WVC has played in the state title game in each of the last five years, winning four straight PIAA championships before the Comets were edged 2-1 in the finals last season. Wyoming Seminary leads the league with seven state championship appearances during that span of 16 years, followed closely by Crestwood with six trips to play for a state title. Those two teams actually met in the state championship game twice (with each school winning once), while Sem downed Lake-Lehman for the 2001 Class 2A state crown.

With a loaded lineup featuring four players already committed to play for Division I college programs next fall, Crestwood is a heavy favorite to play for a state title again. The Comets are rated as the best Class 2A team in Pennsylvania and ninth-best in the Pennsylvania/New Jersey Region in the Max Field Hockey preseason rankings.

And just last season, the league applauded the 600th career coaching victory for Wyoming Seminary coach Karen Klassner and the 300th for Wyoming Valley West coach Linda Fithian.

“I don’t think I’m surprised about the (league’s) success,” said Moratori, who took over for the legendary Elvetta Gemski – now a volunteer assistant with the team – last season. “I am surprised at how we made it so far (into state tournaments) every year. That does surprise me.”

No shock here.

Dennis estimates there were about 150 girls from the Wyoming Valley Conference playing field hockey for Division I, II and III college programs.

And there’s plenty more to come.

Among those joining the fray at the top collegiate levels are grads Casey Cole from Crestwood, who’s now at Ohio State; Wyoming Seminary’s Rebecca Weinstock, who will play for Drexel this fall; Hazleton Area’s Selena Garzio, who went to Penn; Holy Redeemer’s Greta Ell went to Virginia; and Berwick’s Liz Dyer and GAR’s Brea Seabrook, who will team up at Division I St. Francis.

“We have one of the best leagues not only in the state of Pennsylvania, but on the whole East Coast,” Dennis said. “A lot of (college) coaches refer to us as the hotbed of field hockey. When they come to look at the top players, they’re always looking around at others. You’ve seen kids from small schools go on to play Division II, Division III.”

The WVC has seen Paige Selenski go from a standout at Dallas to an All-American at Virginia to a United States Olympian, while currently joining Wyoming Seminary graduates Kelsey Kolojejchick and Kat Sharkey on the US national field hockey team.

“Being from the Wyoming Valley, I know the type of kids who are from the area and know how important sports is to the region,” said Crestwood principle and WVC field hockey president Chris Gegaris, a Hanover Area grad. “Field hockey’s obviously been a great opportunity for female athletes. It’s the best league in the state, if not the whole eastern seaboard. I think the success of the programs over the years has only made the league better and pushes other teams to get better.”’

The well continues to run deep with talent around the WVC.

This season’s Crestwood team is bolstered by four seniors already committed to play big-time college field hockey next year in Hannah Ackers (headed to Michigan St.), Cara Jarmiolowski (Delaware), Lizzy Dessoye (Maryland) and Ashleigh Thomas (Old Dominion). Honesdale’s Clayre Smith, only a junior, has already committed to play college field hockey for Penn State. Lake-Lehman will send senior Kate Supey to Syracuse and juniors Taylor Alba to Temple and Sarah Sabaluski to Louisville. Wyoming Area will feature Michigan-bound senior Bree Bednarski and fellow senior Grace Gober, is headed to Temple. Coughlin’s Brigid Wood is heading to Boston College.

And that cache of Division I college commitments is a list even before the 2015 season begins.

“I think in the past with field hockey, it was a sport you played in the fall,” said Tunkhannock’s fourth-year coach Ashlie Lewis, a WVC player from 1999 though 2002. “Now it’s evolved into a sport where, if you love it, you play all year around. I definitely think its changed. I think it’s for the better, too. It’s one of the better areas for college scholarships.”

Now the sport will award at least one more in a special anniversary season. And that’s really something to celebrate.

“I’m really proud of our girls in the area and in District 2,” Gegaris said. “I know how much respect I have for young, female athletes. When you think about Northeastern Pennsylvania, the first things that come to mind are football, wrestling and field hockey’s becoming a premier sport – having great athletes and enjoying scholarships all over the place.