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

The WPIAL Boys and Girls Soccer Playoff brackets are out!  

John Krysinsky and Brandon Rossi shared their reaction and spoke with a pair of boys coaches for Part I of a two-part special podcast. Joining John and Brandon were Pine-Richland's Jordan Wiegand and Greensburg Central Catholic's Rob Fabean, to get their thoughts on the seedings and their teams' prospects in the upcoming playoffs.

Among the topics John and Libby tackled on this Podcast include:

• Her thoughts on Mt. Lebanon's Mia Bhuta, who is playing with US Youth National Women's Soccer team at the U17 Women's World Cup
• Stigma associated with mental illness and disorders
• Female athlete mental health (four young female athlete suicides this year)
• Her personal story and other personal stories
• 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 and AFSP

National Alliance on Mental Illness (website: https://www.nami.org/Home) 

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (website: https://afsp.org/) 

North Catholic's Devin Paschell, Oliver Joseph and Marcus Kurtz join PSN's John Krysinsky to talk about Muscular Dystrophy Awareness game when they take on neighboring Mars in a key WPIAL Boys Soccer Class 3A Section 1 showdown.   

Kolankowski's Plum squad is off to a strong, 3-0-1 start after two weeks, including a big 2-0 win last Thursday against section rival Franklin Regional. 

Among the topics discussed on the Kids on the Pitch podcast included: 

• Plum's positive start to the 2022 against tough competition
• Measuring up a very deep group of strong teams contending in Class 3A this season
• A look back at how WPIAL Soccer has evolved over the years, since Kolankowski was a player in the late 1980s and early 1990s, seeing multiple generations of players circling through, many at the same high schools
• Experience staying home, and playing at Point Park, when the soccer program was still in its early years when both John and Raf played and later coached in the early-to-mid 1990s
• Approach to coaching young players and keeping their priorities in check
• And much more

In our first episode of KOTP, we preview the 2022 WPIAL High School Soccer season.

PSN's Jordan Smith (who is also an assistant boys varsity and head JV boys coach at South Fayette) joins John Krysinsky to discuss the upcoming high school soccer season, the impact of this year's realignment, as they run through all classifications and sections ahead of the official start date of the season on Friday, August 26, 2022.

Jordan Weigand, who is entering his fourth season as the Head Coach of Pine-Richland boys, discusses Boys 4A realignment to just two 'mega-sections' and having just 16 teams,and also provides a preview of the six-team preseason tournament hosted by Pine-Richland this coming weekend (August 27 & 28).

Finally, we reconnect with Ed Rosentsteel, longtime PSN contributor who is back coaching as an assistant varsity coach for Ringgold girls soccer. Ed provides his outlook on WPIAL girls soccer season, Ringgold's chances in loaded 3A classification, plus Ed shares more about the Moe Rosensteel preseason tournament to be played on Saturday, September 3.