Episode 83: Athletics & Activities - What's New for the 2023-24 school year with Ms. Heather Lewis

SHOW TOPIC
Athletics & Activities - What's New for the 2023-24 school year with Ms. Heather Lewis

SPECIAL GUESTS
Ms. Heather Lewis, Athletics & Activities Director

Ms. Lewis, entering her 12th year as the District’s Athletic & Activities Director, has previous experience as the chief operating officer for USA Field Hockey, a U.S. Olympic & Paralympic National Governing Body. As part of this role, she hosted major events for the International Federation of Hockey, supported the women’s and men’s national teams in international competition, and assisted in the reorganization of the Association’s executive leadership structure. She also has previous experience as the head field hockey coach, head women’s lacrosse coach, associate athletic director and assistant athletic director for Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa. Additional experiences include time spent as an official for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and president of the National Field Hockey Coaches Association.

A former athlete herself, Ms. Lewis was a regional All-American and All-ACC and captain of the field hockey team, and regional All-American and NCAA champion for women’s lacrosse, all while at the University of Maryland, College Park. Ms. Lewis has a bachelor’s of science in zoology and a master’s in kinesiology from the University of Maryland.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE WILL REVIEW
• Major accomplishments by SV's sports teams from the 2022-23 school year
• Welcome, Mr. Eddie Kurtz, Assistant Director of Athletics & Activities 
• A look back at the first year of the girls’ wrestling season 
• Introducing a brand-new fieldhouse and press box

Transcript

FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)

00:00:02:26 - 00:00:10:12

Welcome to Voices, a national award-winning podcast brought to you by the Seneca Valley School District. 

00:00:11:09 - 00:00:25:25

Jeff Krakoff: Hello, this is Jeff Krakoff. Today we're talking with Heather Lewis, director of athletics and activities. And we're also joined by a new member of the team, Eddie Kurtz, who's assistant director of athletic and activities. Thanks for joining us, both of you. 

00:00:26:07 - 00:00:27:11

Heather Lewis: Thanks for having us, Jeff. 

00:00:27:28 - 00:00:42:23

Jeff Krakoff: So, Heather, let's start with you. It was a good year last year for Seneca Valley sports and athletics. There's been a lot of highlights both from a team and an individual standpoint. Give us a quick review of the year that was. 

00:00:44:00 - 00:01:41:23

Heather Lewis: Well, think if you think back on 2022-23, you're going to look at the state championship won by our boys soccer team. They in three years, you know, 2020, 2021 and 2022 were in three state finals. One two came home with a silver on the other one. I think what probably stands out the most to me was how decisive the win was at the state championship game. It was a six nothing victory. And when you know, when you're playing quality soccer at the highest level in the state of Pennsylvania and you win a state championship game six, nothing. It speaks to the talent of that particular team that year. They picked a great day to play their best game of soccer the entire season. So undoubtedly that is probably the memory for me is just how dominant that team was. And in the fall.  

00:01:42:06 - 00:01:47:29

Jeff Krakoff: That has to be one of the most lopsided results probably in the history of a state final, right? 

00:01:48:02 - 00:01:56:14

Heather Lewis: Ithink there was they were telling us that there was one that was seven, I think seven, nothing. Okay. Early in the history of the state finals.  

00:01:56:18 - 00:02:00:04

Jeff Krakoff: Okay. Are there any other highlights you want to talk about?  

00:02:00:12 - 00:02:52:13

Heather Lewis: Well, you know, the beauty of Seneca Valley is all of our teams are competitive. You know, we had two young men go to the state finals, state championships and wrestling. We had, I think, seven young men and six young women in our state championships in swimming at Bucknell. We had a diver we had in the WPIAL championships. We see we took first, second, third and the top four divers in the WPIAL go on to the state. So we had three of the four spots from District seven in boys diving that went on to Bucknell University for the state championships. And we had two medalists and Isaiah Clerkley and Jeremiah Laslavic. So, you know, from an individual standpoint, our diving program, particularly on the boys side, was exceptional last season.  

00:02:53:19 - 00:03:10:03

Jeff Krakoff: All right. And I know that last year there's a new sport. Last year was the first year for girls' wrestling. Yeah. And I know that just recently, this summer, it's being recognized by the PIAA is a as a varsity sport. How'd the first season go? 

00:03:11:06 - 00:04:18:07

Heather Lewis: Uh, exceeded any expectations I had, that's for certain. You know, we started last summer doing a couple meet the coaches, learn the sport night where Kevin Wildrick, our varsity boys wrestling coach, and Jess Leighty, our girls varsity wrestling coach, got together and we just said, come and learn about the sport. We've got a lot of fathers in this community that wrestled and we're so excited to expose their daughter to this opportunity. We ended up, I think, with 22 girls on our varsity program. We had a place winner at the state championships for girls. We had two participants in the state championships, had the opportunity to, I think have four dual meets, and then they got to some tournaments. And what impressed me the most was that roster size sustained itself all season. It wasn't a question of we had 22 girls start and we finished with six. They were as committed. They have recruited some friends for this year. So I think girls wrestling at Seneca Valley is going to be here for the long haul. And we're going to have some really talented individuals come through this program.  

00:04:18:14 - 00:04:34:06

Jeff Krakoff: Well, that's an astounding first year. Very successful there. Yeah. So, Eddie, I know again, you've you've joined the team as assistant director of athletics and activities. Tell us a little bit about your background and what you're going to be doing in this position.  

00:04:34:25 - 00:05:16:24

Eddie Kurtz: Yeah, so I come from working at Avonworth School District for the past eight years where I've been mainly with fields and grounds and facilities where also coached football, wrestling and trained girls soccer. But now I'll be transitioning into a little more of an administrative role where I'll be dealing with student services, where I'll be dealing with drug testing and making sure students are all set when it comes to being eligible and just making sure that they have everything that they need when it comes to being able to perform in our athletics because they're doing the right things academically.  

00:05:17:10 - 00:05:22:05

Jeff Krakoff: Okay. So are you originally from the north part of the area? 

00:05:22:12 - 00:05:38:09

Eddie Kurtz: I am. I actually went to Avonworth in high school, graduated, went to Clarion University, where I played football, um, graduated with a sports management degree, came back and got a job with Avonworth and had been working there for the past eight years. 

00:05:38:21 - 00:05:52:05

Jeff Krakoff: That's awesome. Glad to have you aboard. So for, either of you want to talk a little bit about we understand there's a new fieldhouse and press box facility. Can you tell us a little bit more about the details there?  

00:05:53:08 - 00:07:20:00

Heather Lewis: It's a fieldhouse that will be home to our girls programs, our current fieldhouse houses, our football team and boys' wrestling training area and is really primarily a fieldhouse for our boys teams. So we've added a second fieldhouse on the opposite end of the stadium that will be home to our girls' wrestling program. So now we each wrestling program has their own training spot. We will have locker rooms in there available for the girls to use all season, and it's situated on what we call our lower level. So it will service our baseball, softball fields, our tennis courts, our soccer lacrosse stadium. And and the best thing about it and what was really needed the there will be accessible restrooms instead of you know right now we have Porta-Johns lining our fields. We will have actual restroom facilities for spectators and teams, officials changing rooms that will be able to do that and go out to our baseball field, softball field, soccer, lacrosse stadium, tennis courts, cross country courses is down there. So the addition of that structure really is multifaceted in being able to service and give a quality experience for our spectators with the restroom facilities and then also an additional training room and locker room space to service our teams that are housed down in what we call that lower level. 

00:07:20:06 - 00:07:24:00

Jeff Krakoff: Okay. So with this facility, be ready to roll for this school year. 

00:07:24:10 - 00:07:50:06

Heather Lewis: At some point it is. Our target goal is for wrestling season. So we're going to be really close to middle of November of having it fully functional. It might be in the fall season. Part of it might be functional as they complete the other half of it. So outdoors, the outdoor, they're finishing the paving and the landscaping and fencing and all that. It's just the internal parts that have to be completed.  

00:07:50:24 - 00:07:55:06

Jeff Krakoff: Okay. So do you have any particular goals for the year ahead of us?  

00:07:56:22 - 00:08:59:19

Heather Lewis: I don't think our goals ever change. You know, I put it in my email dignature is just aspire to excellence and excellence is defined on so many. There's not one standard as you know, I give a message to all of our teams at the start of each of their seasons, and the motto this year is just going to be the best and that's going to be the best representative of this district and their team. Be the best version of themselves, you know, be the best teammate. That's going to be kind of our motto. And I think that's what it's about. Be the best version of themselves, whether it's, you know, playing football, running cross country on the cheer and dance team, you know, being in the drumline of our marching band, being in the school musical. We want our kids to aspire for that excellence because in really in life, that's what it's about. And along the way, we want them to learn the lessons. When you meet with excellence and when you don't meet with excellence, because we think that's really the valuable learning part of being involved in sports and activities.  

00:09:00:01 - 00:09:07:27

Jeff Krakoff: Well said. So is there anything else you'd like to share with us about athletics and activities taking place?  

00:09:08:15 - 00:09:47:12

Heather Lewis: I want to point out that we did have and I neglected to say this we had the Pennsylvania State Player of the Year in girls softball last year, sophomore pitcher Lexie Hames and that team, while they fell short in the WPIAL championship game. I think you can expect to see that team be dominant again. If somebody had to ask me, what team do you think is going to be cream of the crop? I think our softball program in 2024, we've got a great number of seniors, Anna Kalkowski, Kara Pasquale - these seniors and combined with, you know, Lexi's pitching ability, I think I think that team is going to give us a good run next spring.  

00:09:47:19 - 00:09:52:22

Jeff Krakoff: Well, it's a good sign when it's a sophomores player of the year with a couple more years to go. Right? Couple more.  

00:09:52:24 - 00:09:53:27

Heather Lewis: Years. Absolutely.  

00:09:53:29 - 00:10:04:09

Jeff Krakoff: All right. Well, thanks so much for all the information. This was Heather Lewis, director of athletics and activities, and Eddie Kurtz, assistant director of athletics and activities. Have a great day.  

00:10:05:08 - 00:10:05:29

Heather Lewis: Thanks, Jeff.  

00:10:06:01 - 00:10:06:16

Eddie Kurtz: Thank you.  

00:10:06:21 - 00:10:07:09

Jeff Krakoff: Take care.