Uniontown selects Marinucci, Saliba
Uniontown seniors Abigail Marinucci and Jeremy Saliba have a great deal in common.
Both average over 4.0 GPAs, succeed in sports and credit their fathers for being the greatest influence on them as athletes.
Marinucci and Saliba have one more thing in common: They have been selected to represent their school as the spring sports representatives in the Herald-Standard Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete Spotlight program.
Marinucci, 17, is the daughter of Nicholas and Wendy Marinucci, and has been a star on the Lady Raiders’ soccer and track & field teams, as well as maintaining a 4.3 GPA. She has signed a letter of intent to play soccer at Division II Carlow University where she will study nursing.
“I started soccer in fifth grade, and in middle school, I did track, so I just did it throughout high school,” Marinucci said. “I wasn’t even planning on playing soccer in college because I really wanted to go to Penn State Main, and I wasn’t going to play for Penn State.
“It wasn’t until last year when Carlow reached out and said they could give me a scholarship. That is when that opened up. I love playing soccer, but I didn’t even think I wanted to do it in college.”
Marinucci’s favorite sport to play is soccer, but she has had plenty of success in her track & field career, including breaking the school record in the 1,600 relay with current classmates Mylaysia Ellis, Maeve Carei, and 2017 graduate Rhian Ray.
Marinucci competes individually in the triple and long jump, and also runs in the 400 relay. She has made it to the WPIAL Championships the last two years.
“We broke the school record two times in the 4×400 relay,” Marinucci said. “I think our time was anywhere from 4:10 to 4:12. The triple jump is my best event. I just do the long jump for points. We have done well in the 4×100 as well, but I tend to focus on the triple jump when it gets to the WPIAL Individual Championships.”
Saliba, 18, the son of Gerry and Shelley Saliba, is a right-handed pitcher on the Red Raiders’ baseball team. He sports a 4.4 GPA that is third in his class.
“I love playing baseball,” Saliba said. “I will not play in college, but I don’t see myself getting too far away from the game.”
Saliba’s father taught him about the game of baseball, and despite being a former player at Uniontown, he never forced the younger Saliba into playing.
“My dad was a pitcher here at Uniontown, and he also taught me how to pitch,” Saliba said. “He didn’t force me to play baseball or do anything that I was uncomfortable with.”
Marinucci’s father also encourages her in both sports, but never made her do anything she didn’t want to do in her career.
“Both my parents were very encouraging, but they never forced me to do anything,” Marinucci said. “They never told me to take AP classes or play sports.”
Marinucci, who plays forward/midfield, relished the opportunity to work under head coach Lara Dowling in soccer after the Lady Raiders went through a coaching carousel during her first three seasons.
“It was very tough having new coaches every year because some were serious and others weren’t, and I don’t feel like we grew as a team until this year,” Marinucci said. “I had four coaches in four years, but I give Lara (Dowling) credit. She was a great coach. She just had such an authority that made us work harder, and was definitely the best coach I had.
“We are losing a lot of seniors this year, but if she stays with the girls, I think she will make a great impact on the soccer program as a whole.”
Marinucci has a great relationship with the Lady Raiders’ head track & field coach Matt Girod and her jumping coach, Dario Piccolomini.
“Senor (Girod) is so encouraging, and I don’t think I could even jump if Picc (Piccolomini) wasn’t there,” Marinucci said. “He doesn’t even need to coach me. I just need him there to talk to me. They both are very good coaches.”
Saliba has enjoyed playing under Red Raiders’ head coach Ken Musko, who always maintains a positive attitude in looking to get Uniontown back in the playoffs.
“He (Musko) has been here for all four of my high school years, which is nice to play under the same coach my entire high school career,” Saliba said. “He makes it fun to play for him. He is really positive, but he definitely knows what he is doing. He always brings a good mood. We have big expectations this year. Everyone is underestimating us this year, so we want to prove them wrong.”
Saliba plans on studying biological sciences in college at the University of Pittsburgh. He wants to get into pre-med and become a doctor.
“I want to go in that direction, but I’m not sure what I will specialize in,” Saliba said. “Science is something that has always caught my interest. I have always done pretty well in science and math.
“What really got me interested in medicine is when we went to see an open-heart surgery in Pittsburgh. We were in an observation deck over the actual surgery. It was offered through the science program here if anyone was interested. I think I was in tenth grade, and I started to take a bunch of science classes after I saw that.”
Marinucci is not going to Carlow to just play soccer. She will study nursing, and has future plans of becoming a nurse practitioner.
“I decided to go that route because a nurse practitioner is the highest you can go in the nursing field,” Marinucci said. “You can write scripts as a nurse practitioner, and nursing is so in demand now.”