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<p>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.</p><p>It only seems that way.</p><p>But at least one more athlete from the conference will receive college funding through field hockey, thanks to an idea embraced by the league&#8217;s coaches during its 40th anniversary season.</p><p>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.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;d like to have at least two or three scholarships,&#8221; said Nanticoke Area coach Lori Dennis, a former field hockey player at Bishop O&#8217;Reilly High School who also previously coached at Berwick.</p><p>Dennis came up with the idea to include a scholarship fund to help celebrate the league&#8217;s milestone season, and the rest of the league&#8217;s coaches welcomed the endeavor. The scholarship money will come from the sale of commemmorative T-shirts listing all the names of the league&#8217;s players this season on the back with a 40th anniversary logo on the front.</p><p>The shirts are selling for $20 each, and are being offered around the league this season. They&#8217;re quickly becoming popular with this years players, as Dennis said she&#8217;s already heard from six coaches ordering of 20 shirts for eacb of their teams.</p><p>&#8220;I think the scholarship is a great idea,&#8221; said Crestwood&#8217;s second-year coach Patsy Moratori, who played on the school&#8217;s 1988 state championship squad and guided the Comets to a state title game appearance in her rookie season as head coach last year.</p><p>The endeavor can only add more prestige to a league piled with it.</p><p>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&#8217;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&#8217;s 2-1 loss to Villa Maria Academy a year ago.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;m surprised about the (league&#8217;s) success,&#8221; said Moratori, who took over for the legendary Elvetta Gemski - now a volunteer assistant with the team - last season. &#8220;I am surprised at how we made it so far (into state tournaments) every year. That does surprise me.&#8221;</p><p>No shock here.</p><p>Dennis estimates there were about 150 girls from the Wyoming Valley Conference playing field hockey for Division I, II and III college programs.</p><p>And there&#8217;s plenty more to come.</p><p>Among those joining the fray at the top collegiate levels are grads Casey Cole from Crestwood, who&#8217;s now at Ohio State; Wyoming Seminary&#8217;s Rebecca Weinstock, who will play for Drexel this fall; Hazleton Area&#8217;s Selena Garzio, who went to Penn; Holy Redeemer&#8217;s Greta Ell went to Virginia; and Berwick&#8217;s Liz Dyer and GAR&#8217;s Brea Seabrook, who will team up at Division I St. Francis.</p><p>&#8220;We have one of the best leagues not only in the state of Pennsylvania, but on the whole East Coast,&#8221; Dennis said. &#8220;A lot of (college) coaches refer to us as the hotbed of field hockey. When they come to look at the top players, they&#8217;re always looking around at others. You&#8217;ve seen kids from small schools go on to play Division II, Division III.&#8221;</p><p>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.</p><p>&#8220;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,&#8221; said Crestwood principle and WVC field hockey president Chris Gegaris, a Hanover Area grad. &#8220;Field hockey&#8217;s obviously been a great opportunity for female athletes. It&#8217;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.&#8221;&#8217;</p><p>The well continues to run deep with talent around the WVC.</p><p>This season&#8217;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&#8217;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&#8217;s Brigid Wood is heading to Boston College.</p><p>And that cache of Division I college commitments is a list even <em>before </em>the 2015 season begins.</p><p>&#8220;I think in the past with field hockey, it was a sport you played in the fall,&#8221; said Tunkhannock&#8217;s fourth-year coach Ashlie Lewis, a WVC player from 1999 though 2002. &#8220;Now it&#8217;s evolved into a sport where, if you love it, you play all year around. I definitely think its changed. I think it&#8217;s for the better, too. It&#8217;s one of the better areas for college scholarships.&#8221;</p><p>Now the sport will award at least one more in a special anniversary season. And that&#8217;s really something to celebrate.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m really proud of our girls in the area and in District 2,&#8221; Gegaris said. &#8220;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&#8217;s becoming a premier sport - having great athletes and enjoying scholarships all over the place.</p><p>&#8220;Pretty gripping.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_TTL110914CrestwoodSelinsFH_11.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Crestwood's Ashleigh Thomas, right, reacts after scoring the first goal of the game against Selinsgrove in a PIAA Class 2A state quarterfinal at Crispin Field in Berwick on Saturday afternoon.   Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_TTL110914CrestwoodSelinsFH_11.jpg</photo0><caption0>Crestwood's Ashleigh Thomas, right, reacts after scoring the first goal of the game against Selinsgrove in a PIAA Class 2A state quarterfinal at Crispin Field in Berwick on Saturday afternoon.   Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_TTL102214LehmanTrailFH_11.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Lake-Lehman's Kate Supey, right, and Lackawanna Trail's Lauren Baldwin battle for the ball in District 2 Class 2A field hockey action Tuesday afternoon in Lehman Township.   Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_TTL102214LehmanTrailFH_11.jpg</photo1><caption1>Lake-Lehman's Kate Supey, right, and Lackawanna Trail's Lauren Baldwin battle for the ball in District 2 Class 2A field hockey action Tuesday afternoon in Lehman Township.   Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader</caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Scholarship fund kicks off in anniversary season</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Paul Sokoloski</p><p>psokoloski@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Paul Sokoloski at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @TLPaulSokoloski</p></shirttailMeta></div>

WVC field hockey celebrates 40th season with scholarship funding