Missing season hurt college prospects of many area athletes
Waynesburg Central’s Taylor Shriver clears her opening height of 10-9 on May 16, 2019, in the WPIAL Class AA Track & Field Championships at Slippery Rock University. The sophomore won the gold medal with a record-breaking vault of 12-7 and went on to earn a PIAA bronze medal. Shriver was drawing attention from Division I schools following the 2019 season but the interest dissipated after her junior year was wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Taylor Shriver
They say hope springs eternal, and a year ago many high school athletes across the area had very high hopes for the upcoming spring season.
That season never came as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold of the country.
There were many athletes whose college prospects took a severe hit when their 2019 spring year went up in smoke.
Waynesburg’s Taylor Shriver was coming off an outstanding sophomore track and field season in 2019 in which she broke the WPIAL pole vault record and cleared 12 feet, seven inches in earning a bronze medal at the PIAA meet.
“We all felt like this was going to be her year and she was probably going to go around 13,” Raiders track coach Rick Layton recalled. “And that was her goal.
“But she had an injury during the indoor season last year so she wasn’t getting very good heights then. We knew that with the outdoor season she’d eventually heal up. Honestly, we thought she was going to compete for, if not win the state championship.”
Shriver never got that outdoor season.
“Boy, not getting that opportunity hurt her,” Layton said. “Now her indoor season has these lower numbers and that’s what college coaches are seeing.”
Shriver was being recruited by NCAA Division I schools after her sophomore year.
“She had SEC schools contacting her,” Layton pointed out. “That kind of dissipated after last spring.”
“I had a few schools out west that had shown some interest, too,” Shriver said. “It was very frustrating not being able to prove what I knew I could do when I lost the season.
“I definitely feel more pressure now to do well my senior year. I have high expectations for myself. I’m hoping to meet the goals I had last year and, hopefully, re-break records I broke my sophomore year.
“Then maybe those colleges that were looking at me before will come back.”
Layton pointed out what all athletes lost out on last spring.
“Competition and practice,” Layton said. “Those three months were critical. That five-or-six-days-a-week routine during the season, that’s where you make those big jumps.”
Mapletown’s Lance Stevenson is another athlete who was counting heavily on a good junior season. He had shown promise as a baseball player but had missed half of his sophomore season because of injury.
“Lance missed a bunch of games and still hit over .400 and made all-county,” Maples baseball coach Dom DeCarlo pointed out. “Lance had a very good freshman season, too.
“Seeing him miss his junior season and recalling what I went through when I played at Brownsville and knowing how important those underclassmen years are, this would have been a prime time for colleges to get eyes on him.”
“Lance was starting to get some smaller schools like Bethany and Grove City talking to him,” said Lance’s father, Chad Stevenson. “Some of them still are, but they want film of him. They want to see him live.”
Lance’s younger brother, sophomore Landan Stevenson, also is a talented baseball player, but he was able to play in a traveling league last summer.
“Lance, at his age, Carmichaels didn’t even had a Legion team so he didn’t get to play much,” Chad said. “It scares me. You take a year off of baseball … it’s a lot of repetition. I think the COVID hurt a lot of kids in the area.”
There are many other area players whose college chances took a hit with the loss of the 2019 spring season.
Jefferson-Morgan baseball coach John Curtis welcomes back senior Bryce Bedilion this year but wonders how much the time off will hurt him.
“Bryce wants to play beyond high school, and he was really crushing the ball early last year when we were getting ready to play,” Curtis said. “He did get to play in a summer league and I think he’ll draw some attention if he has the year I think he’s going to have.
“But he’d have been noticed sooner had we played last year. When you miss a developmental year like that, it affects you.”
West Greene softball coach Bill Simms said juniors Jersey Wise and Elizabeth Brudnock would’ve drawn some college attention starting for the high-profile, four-time-defending champion Pioneers.
Albert Gallatin senior baseball player Noah Mildren recently signed with West Liberty, which pleased Colonials coach Ron Popovich.
“I think he would have had more options but he lost that junior season,” Popovich said. “He was on many scouts’ radar.
“I had several sophomores also, Caleb Matzus-Chapman, Nick Pegg, Tristan Robinson and Nate McCusker, who would’ve all started last year. They’re all talented kids who lost one year to show what they can do and that will hurt their college opportunities.”