Vikings select Billey, Dombrosky
Anna Billey is Mount Pleasant's fall sports female selection in the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete Spotlight program.
Cole Dombrosky is Mount Pleasant's fall sports male selection in the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete Spotlight program.
Anna Billey and Cole Dombrosky are different, yet similar.
The two seniors at Mount Pleasant are both excellent students and both have plans to continue playing their favorite sports in college.
For those qualities, the duo has been selected as Mount Pleasant’s fall sports representatives in the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete Spotlight program.
Both played soccer in the fall, but that’s about it for the similarities Billey and Dombrosky share.
Billey is the daughter of Brian and Andrea Billey of Mount Pleasant. She has a younger brother, eighth-grader Peter, and maintains a 4.33 GPA.
Dombrosky is a son of Ronald and Polly Dombrosky of Mount Pleasant. He has three older siblings, Dane, 26; Brianna, 24, and Melissa, 22. He maintains a 3.85 GPA.
She played soccer all four years and was selected All-Section and All-WPIAL three years running. She is a midfielder for the high school team and is a center back on defense for a club team. She scored 19 goals as a senior for the Lady Vikings.
“I plan on playing soccer in college,” she said. “I have several offers to choose from, including from Penn State-Behrend, Cal U and Robert Morris. I’ve also gotten other offers, but I think it will be one of those three.”
It’s no coincidence that Billey is being recruited by schools in all divisions, and it’s equally not a coincidence that all of the schools in which she has shown interest offer excellent engineering programs. So, soccer will have a say, but not the only say, in which school Billey chooses. She has had excellent tutelage along the way.
“Both of my parents have been there throughout my soccer career and through anything else I have done,” she said. “My mom has always taken me places and always pushed me to be the best I can be. My dad, he has always trained me. He didn’t play soccer, but he played football and he always does off-season conditioning with me. He helped me with my mental game, too, always helping me believe that I can be as good as I want to be.”
Dombrosky played soccer at Mount Pleasant, but has always been more of a swimmer than anything else. He broke the school’s 200 freestyle record and finished fourth in the WPIAL swim meet in that event as a junior and finished 18th in the state last year as well.
“I played JVs in soccer my first two years, then moved up to the varsity as a junior last year and I started middle back both last year and this year,” he said when asked about his soccer accomplishments. “My first two years, I had been a midfielder, but we lost a couple of really good defenders to graduation and my coach didn’t know who was going to replace them. So he tried me back there and liked me in that position.”
He’ll be the first to tell you, though, that soccer was a pastime, while swimming is his passion.
He swims distances for the Vikings and plans to swim in college, perhaps at the Division I level.
“I have it narrowed down to four schools, Virginia Tech, Penn State-Main Campus, Penn State Behrend or Grove City,” Dombrosky said. “I would like to continue swimming in college, so anyone who offers me a scholarship would definitely affect my decision.”
His parents, too, have greatly impacted him as a person and as an athlete, but he also looks up to a few other professionals in his life: his favorite teacher, Mrs. Moon and his swim coach, Sandy Felice.
“Mrs. Moon is my favorite teacher. I just really enjoy her class. She makes physics fun,” Dombrosky said.
He said Felice earns the lion’s share of credit for his record-breaking 200 times from last year, but he isn’t done with that event or that record just yet.
“I’m hoping to take that down by several seconds this year,” Dombrosky said of his current mark of 1:47.65 in the 200 freestyle event.
Felice, he said, cares about all of her athletes, both in the pool and in the classroom.
“She has always pushed me and given me harder workouts,” he said. “She has always worked with me and tried to make me the best athlete and person I can be. She encourages hard work in the classroom as well as hard work in the pool. She certainly cares about her athletes and wants the best out of us all.”