Pioneers select Rode, Weaver
Marissa Rode is West Greene's female winter sports selection in the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete Spotlight program.
Craig Weaver is West Greene's male winter sports selection in the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete Spotlight program.
Sharing an honor is nothing new to Marissa Rode and Craig Weaver.
The West Greene seniors are the school’s winter sports selections in the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete Spotlight program.
They also hail from the same small town, New Freeport, and both plan to study sports management after their academic and athletic careers are over at West Greene. Both also are basketball players at West Greene. Rode also plays softball and Weaver plays football and throws the discus and shot put for the Pioneers’ track team.
Long story short, Rode and Weaver have been integral parts of a sports renaissance at West Greene. Rode and her softball teammates won the WPIAL Class A championship and reached the PIAA title game and last year’s basketball team made the playoffs after a lengthy absence. The football team, with Weaver playing two-way lineman, won three games and the basketball team is off to a 4-2 start.
Rode, daughter of Jeff and Shiela Rode of New Freeport, maintains a 3.85 GPA at West Greene and has two older brothers, Jared (27) and Jordan (22).
Weaver, son of Dave and Penny Weaver of New Freeport, maintains a 3.8 GPA and has an older sister, Lauren Weaver (21).
“It’s been pretty exciting to be a part of this turnaround in West Greene sports,” Rode said. “My sophomore year of basketball was pretty rough. We didn’t win a game. Last year was a little bit better and now this year, we’re getting even better so far. And the softball thing was as thrilling as it could be.”
Rode will study sports management and hopes to earn both a masters and doctorate in that field. She will attend either James Madison University or the University of North Carolina. She will not play a sport in college.
“I had a really hard time choosing what I wanted to do throughout high school,” Rode said. “I’ve been everywhere from sports management to graphic design to political science going into law and I kept changing my mind, but I would always fall back to sports management. I might as well do something that I’ve learned to love and grow. My goal is to work my way up as an Athletic Director and eventually work as the leader of a Division I athletic program.”
The girls basketball team is off to a great start and Rode noted that the girls have plans for making it a solid season.
“I am the only senior and there are no juniors, we have six sophomores and two freshmen,” Rode said. “So we are pretty much build on sophomores and we’re just taking it game by game right now. Our ultimate goal is that once we make the playoffs to win a playoff game because we’ve never done that in history.”
It seems the further Weaver goes his senior year, the more doors open for him athletically at the next level.
Weaver plans to study sports management at California (Pa.) University.
“I’m hoping to play basketball in college, but it is up in the air right now,” Weaver said. “I have been in contact with their coach. I’ve also got offers from Westminster, Bethany and Allegheny College for football and another offer from Penn State Behrend for basketball. I’m not really sure where I will go, but I do know I plan to study sports management and athletic training. I am a sports fanatic. No matter what sport it is, I like it. The Olympics are probably one of the biggest times for me because there is always something on.”
And right now, what’s going on is boys basketball for Weaver and the Pioneers.
“We plan to do great this season in basketball,” Weaver said. “All five of our starters are returning, so we definitely have experience on the court.”
And he doesn’t have to look further than the end of the bench, where anyone will find coach Jim Romanus, for the reason why optimism is so high at West Greene.
“He’s been coaching for 30 years and he coached my dad along the way, too,” Weaver said of Romanus. “He’s probably one of the best. He’s had great teams and bad teams and he can get the most out of us.”