Trojans select Staley, Luketich
Rebecca Staley is California's spring sports female selection in the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete Spotlight program.
Nathaniel Luketich is California's spring sports male selection in the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete Spotlight program.
Rebecca Staley and Nathaniel Luketich are multiple-sport stars at California High School and both might end up on college teams before all is said and done.
And now they share the distinction of being California’s spring sports selections in the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete Spotlight program.
Staley, daughter of Caroline and Russell Staley of West Brownsville, maintains a 3.6 GPA and has an older sister, 25-year-old Angela Holp. Luketich, son of Kevin and Pamela Luketich of Scenery Hill, maintains a 4.0 GPA and had two older brothers, Samuel (23) is a grad student at Pitt and Michael (20) is an undergrad at Pitt.
Staley plans to study physical therapy at either California (Pa.) University or Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus.
“I’m not sure I want to commit to all of the years involved to become a doctor, but I figured the assistant program would give me a head start,” she said. “I am also thinking about athletic training as a major and I am looking into playing volleyball in college. I’m already on the roster for Fayette, but I want to look into Cal U because it is closer to home.”
Staley plays softball in the spring at Cal and has been a part of a huge turnaround in both programs at the school. The volleyball team advanced to the second round of playoff competition in the fall and the softball team is on the way up after a few years in a down cycle.
“I had never experienced making the volleyball playoffs before, so it was nice,” she said. “I got to experience something new with a lot of my friends. I am an outside hitter and I was a team captain in volleyball.
“Our softball team is advancing,” she said, noting that she plays left field. “We are pretty small this year, we have a young team. Last year, we won a lot more games than we had in the previous years, so we are progressing. We have four seniors this year. Hopefully, we’ll make even more strides this year.”
She is quite proud to have hit a home run for the Lady Trojans last season.
Luketich plans to study engineering or chemistry at Pitt and isn’t sure whether he will pursue a sport beyond high school. He admits, though, that it is in his thought process.
“I am thinking of possibly walking on and trying to make the baseball team at Pitt. If not, I’ll just stick to my academics. Both of my brothers studied engineering at Pitt, so I would be following them a little bit,” Luketich said. “I am really good at math and sciences. I’m really strong at those kinds of courses. I am also interested in chemistry and I may decide to get into pharmaceuticals or medicine, so it just depends on which route I take.”
He also admits that an offer to play baseball at another school might sway him away from Pitt.
“If an offer was made to me, I would give strong consideration to it,” Luketich said. “My brother keeps telling me I should pursue a sport.”
He played basketball for the Trojans for the first time this winter and liked the experience a lot.
“I knew I always wanted to pay baseball here and I knew it was tough to play here,” he said. “I wanted to start so I knew I had to put the work in in the offseason and it paid off. But my friends begged me to play basketball this year. I had played all through middle school with them, so I decided to give it a shot this year and it worked out pretty well.”
Luketich has played catcher, third base and first base for the Trojans, but he doesn’t shy away from pitching when he can.
His most memorable sports moment came in 2014, when he was a freshman and won the WPIAL championship over Carmichaels with his baseball teammates.
“First, it was a three-day event because it got rained out the first day and the second day got canceled and we played it on the third day. Plus, my brother (Michael) was the second baseman and I was playing right alongside of him at first base.”
In fact, he and his brothers were inseparable growing up and he listed them, along with his dad, as having the greatest influence on him as an athlete.
“What helped me most was they took me to their practices,” Luketich said. “My father was the coach of both of them, so I’d always go to practices with them and practiced with boys that were three to six years older than me. I think that really helped me to get used to playing against better competition.”
Luketich also was the No. 1 golfer on Cal’s boys golf team in the fall and ranks at the top of Cal’s senior class academically.