Showing leadership pays off
Bella Stefanowicz was looking forward to one more season on Seneca Valley's swimming and diving team.
But when her father, John Stefanowicz, was hired for a job in New Jersey last August, she faced the prospect of a much different senior year of high school.
“I couldn't have imagined moving last year and leaving my team,” said Stefanowicz, who was still able to compete for the Raiders and graduate from Seneca Valley. Her father rented an apartment in New Jersey so that she, her brother and mother, Lisa Zucco, could remain in Pennsylvania through the end of the school year.Stefanowicz, who is now living in New Jersey, where she will study at Rowan University, qualified for the WPIAL championship meet all four years. Her specialties were the 200 and 500-yard freestyles and 100 backstroke.SV head coach Brian Blackwell saw her as an important part of the team, not just in the water, but for her demeanor when on the deck.“She's always been one of the loudest and most prevalent voices during meets,” he said. “Except when she was swimming her events, she was always cheering for her teammates.“It showed the other athletes what they should be doing. That's important. It sets the standard for a program where everyone supports each other.”
Blackwell nominated Stefanowicz for a Positive Athlete of Western Pa. Award and she was chosen last week as the girls swimming recipient.“My parents always pushed me to be a leader and I learned that from a very young age,” said Stefanowicz. “I will carry that into my college career. I'm very honored to win this award.”Three other Butler County senior athletes were among the 29 honored — Slippery Rock's Ashley Shea (girls track), Mars' Alaina Metal (girls lacrosse) and Freeport's Maya Borghol (softball).According to www.positiveathlete.org, the award “is a celebration of young athletes who have overcome difficult circumstances, given back to their schools and communities in a significant way, or just have an infectious positive attitude that makes everyone around them a better person.”The honor was first bestowed on athletes in Western Pa. in 2013. Annually, student-athletes from 150 schools in the region are nominated.Slippery Rock track and field coach Tom Meling said Shea was an invaluable contributor for the Rockets.
“She's very talented, but was also willing to do anything for the sake of the team,” he said. “Her best event was the 800, but she had the ability to run the 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1,600.“We'd say, 'Ashley, we need points in this event or that event.' She never questioned it and it's an honor to coach someone like that.”Shea, who is headed to Penn State University to study engineering, joined the girls soccer and track and field teams in the seventh grade.“Ever since then, I did whatever the team needed me to do,” she said. “Team success has always been the most important thing to me.”Metal, the starting goalie for Mars' girls lacrosse team, helped the Planets to the first WPIAL title in program history last month.But Mars coach Monica Ewansik said another position should have been listed alongside her name: Team Mom.“If anyone forgot something, she had it,” she said.
Metal would pack extra water, band-aids, stick tape, even a screwdriver in case a piece of equipment needed fixed.As for her play on the field, Metal went from saying very little to “losing my voice by halftime,” she said.Communication with her teammates was vital and Metal became very proficient with it.“She was in a leadership position and really grew into it,” said Ewansik.Metal will continue playing at Muskingum University.“It was hard to leave the high school team behind,” she said, “working with the same girls for three years, that really helped with the chemistry.”Borghol, who will study nursing at Duquesne University, missed most of her sophomore year on the softball field due to severe pain in her lower back caused by a condition known as spondylolisthesis. She had surgery, which resulted in two rods and four screws being inserted in her back.“Directly after my surgery, I'd never felt that much pain,” said Borghol. “I thought I was never going to heal from that.”Whether or not she would've been able to play as a junior was rendered a moot point when the 2020 season fell victim to COVID.So when this spring rolled around and Borghol found herself on the field with her teammates, it was, as she put it: “The best feeling ever.“The first time I had to slide, I kinda scared myself. I just laid there for a moment until I realized I was OK. My back was fine and I don't feel any more pain.”Borghol, a center fielder, helped the Yellowjackets to the WPIAL playoffs this spring with a .344 batting average, mostly as a leadoff hitter. She scored 16 runs and drove in 15 more.“I knew she was determined to come back,” said Freeport coach Sam Ross. “Two other (former) players for us, Alexis Roenigk and Tori Radvan, have won this award. I appreciate what all three did for our team.”
