Kids on the Pitch (Scholastic and Youth Soccer in Western PA)

We are excited to bring Libby Mascaro back to the Kids on the Pitch Podcast!

If you recall, in her first appearance Mascaro shared her passion as a coach by 'leading with love' in crusade to promote Mental Health Awareness with young student athletes.

Now, Libby joins the Podcast to address some of the questions we recently posed to High School boys and girls coaches, especially what some of the biggest challenges and rewards of coaching young student athletes in their most formative years.

Mascaro has coached for Beadling SC and was a part of the Mt. Lebanon ‘Dream Team’ of the 1990s soccer dynasty and played collegiately at Penn State University.

Libby has two daughters who attend and play soccer at Upper St. Clair HS (Mary and Abby) each who are committed to attend Kent St and Delaware, respectively.

• Addressing ongoing challenges for youth coaches, parents, soccer organizations and schools in mentoring, guiding and supporting young athletes and students.
• Resources to provide help and assistance
  • NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness (website: https://www.nami.org/Home)
  • AFSP: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (website: https://afsp.org/) 

More about Libby Mascaro

For the last 10 years Libby has worked closely with two organizations, as she co-founded the Upper St. Clair Wellness Committee and the No Place for Hate initiative, a national program supporting schools in their commitment to celebrating diversity, promoting respect for differences, and challenging bias and bullying at all levels.  USC’s Wellness Committee’s mission is to make sure the students (and staff) in USC are healthy, both physically and mentally. I have held several fundraisers over these years raising almost $300,000 for local mental health resources. Plus she advocates strongly for mental health awareness through affiliations with organizations including the National Alliance on Mental Illness and American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Through Libby’s coaching experiences, currently with Beadling SC, she empowers young female athletes to be the best at their game and their mind.

LIbby was recently awarded the Citizen of the Year award by Judge Ron Arnoni for work in the USC Community – specifically for mental health. She has spoken many times at hearings, Congressional meetings, Notary meetings, NAMI conferences, USC community events, the PTA and PTOs in USC, school assemblies and many other places.

The high school soccer season is nearly at the halfway point of the regular season, so it's perfect time to get the Kids on the Pitch Podcast cranking up again.  

Pittsburgh Soccer Now’s John Krysinsky is joined by Plum High School boys soccer coach, Rafal Kolankowski, to ask the same five questions he presented to 15 WPIAL boys coaches for PSN's new feature, Coaches Corner.

That's right, a new High School soccer season is getting ready to kick off!  

That means the Kids on the Pitch Podcast returns for regular, ongoing episodes through the course of the Fall season.

To get started, Pittsburgh Soccer Now's John Krysinsky sits down with Pine-Richland Boys and Girls Head Coach Jordan Wiegand, who is excited to talk about a loaded field of boys' schools -- both in the WPIAL and from outside the area -- who will take part in the 12-team JRK Memorial Classic.

John and Jordan also talk about numerous topics including: 

• Pine-Richland boys and girls teams as they venture once again into another gauntlet of competition in WPIAL Class 4A
• Rigorous High School Schedule -- and what can be done to make it better 
• Importance of playing quality non-conference matches 

And, much more!  

On the newest episode of this podcast, Pittsburgh Soccer Now's John Krysinsky is joined by Blair Gerlach, who many in soccer circles in Western PA will know from his successful and ongoing tenure as Head Coach of Mars girls' soccer program.  

What you may not know, is that Gerlach is also Director of Coaching and coaches a number of teams for Northern Steel, which has become an excellent club-based North of Pittsburgh.  In addition, Northern Steel began a women's U23 squad under Gerlach’s leadership.  Since that time, in the Ohio Valley Premier League, Northern Steel has become a dynasty, winning back-to-back OVPL titles in 2024 and 2025. 

In this interview, Gerlach talks about the journey of building a club culture at Northern Steel, the challenges of the ever-changing landscape of youth soccer, the tremendous growth of girls/women's soccer, progression and path of US Club Soccer National Championship winning squad (2011 Blue) and he also takes a few moments at the end of the interview to talk about Mars girls program and challenges of playing in one of the most competitive Classifications in all of high school soccer in Western PA (Girls 3A).   

On Thursday, PSN's John Krysinsky sat down with one of the leaders of the High School Soccer Champions League movement, Jim Harte, who shared more on how it came to be and some of the early successes that they've had in various metro areas, including Tampa Bay, FL, and St. Louis, MO. 

The Brackets are out!!

After the brackets were released on Wednesday, Pittsburgh Soccer Now's John Krysinsky was joined on the Kids on the Pitch Podcast by some coaches to get their reaction to the seedings and talk about their chances and how the competition stacks up in the WPIAL Girls Playoffs.

Among the coaches who joined John and Matt include Pine-Richland's Jordan Wiegand, who will be coaching both the Boys and Girls programs in this year's playoffs, Beaver Area's Nick Crivelli and OLSH's Head Coach Paige Petroval.

The WPIAL Boys Soccer Playoff Bracket are out!

After the brackets were released on Wednesday, Pittsburgh Soccer Now's John Krysinsky was joined on the Kids on the Pitch Podcast by coaches to get their reaction to the seedings and talk about their chances and how the competition stacks up in the WPIAL Boys Playoffs.

Class 4A top seed Plum's Head Coach Raf Kolankowski and Class 3A top seed Moon's Head Coach Tyler Blake joined John to discuss their team's each earning tops seeds in their respective tournaments.  

The high school soccer season got off to a running start with a weekend of opening season tournaments and non-conference action, then kept going through this week as section play has begun in some classifications.   

Pittsburgh Soccer Now's John Krysinsky and Matt Popchock discuss some of what they saw this weekend at the JRK Memorial Classic, then were joined by Plum High School boys soccer coach, Rafal Kolankowski, to talk about the Mustangs' 1-0-2 start to the season against tough Class 4A competition.  

The Kids on the Pitch Podcast, returns for a special opening weekend of the High School soccer season edition, as PSN’s John Krysinsky is joined by Pine-Richland Boys Head Coach Jordan Wiegand.

This year, at the JRK Memorial Classic hosted by Pine-Richland boys soccer program, 10 high school boys soccer teams will get their 2024 seasons going against some tough competition.  

John and Jordan discuss the return of the Classic and many topics including Pine-Richland's squad, the importance of playing tough competition right at the start of the season, WPIAL Class 4A's outlook, PIAA/WPIAL changes in rules and lack of changes (overtime will remain in the regular season), and much, much more.