Carmichaels selects Mundell, Barnish
Nick Mundell is Carmichaels' winter sports male selection in the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete Spotlight program.
Jadyn Barnish is Carmichaels' winter sports female selection in the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete Spotlight program.
CARMICHAELS — Nick Mundell and Jadyn Barnish have both had monument sports moment during their senior school years and both have overcome obstacles as well in their high school career at Carmichaels.
The two are their school’s winter representatives for the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar-Athlete program.
Mundell is a three-sport star who participates in football, basketball and baseball. He led his team to a long-awaited WPIAL football playoff victory this past season.
Barnish plays volleyball and basketball for the Lady Mikes and helped them end Frazier’s marathon 86-match section winning streak in the fall.
That five-set classic battle, where Carmichaels let a 2-0 lead slip away but regrouped and won the fifth-and-deciding set, 15-13, propelled the Lady Mikes to a memorable season in which it won a playoff match and reached the quarterfinals.
Believing they could win was the key to defeating Frazier, according to Barnish.
“We had that mindset that we could beat them going into that match and that was important,” said Barnish, the daughter of Jim and Michelle Barnish. “But, still it was crazy and sort of surreal in the end when we won. We gave it our all and did it.
“This was definitely our best season yet in volleyball. I can’t wait to see what the girls do next year.”
In football, the Mikes have been a perennial playoff team, but hadn’t won a postseason game since 2002. That is until Mundell rushed for 232 yards to help lead his team to a 28-8 victory over Western Beaver on Nov. 3.
“We were aware of how long it was and that pushed us even harder to win that game,” said Mundell, the son of Bill and Tammy Mundell. “It was just overwhelming, the excitement from winning that game and snapping that streak.”
What has made Mundell’s senior year even more special was that he missed most of the 2016 football season and all of the basketball and baseball seasons last year after tearing his ACL.
“It was tough. I really missed playing all those sports,” Mundell said. “Especially football because football has been something special with my whole family. We watch football games every Saturday and Sunday during the season. It was just tough not finishing football after it started because you work all through the year, lifting and everything, working towards the season and then you don’t even get to finish the season. And then you can’t play basketball and baseball. That was such a long break from sports. It was very frustrating.”
Mundell worked hard to come back strong for the 2017-18 school year.
“I had physical therapy to go through three days a week and it was really painful and tiring,” Mundell said. “While you’re at rehab you’re just looking forward to the next season and that’s all you’re paying attention to. You’re just working hard so you can out-perform everybody else.”
Mundell did that in football and although the Mikes will miss the playoffs in basketball he has helped the team put together a 10-9 record that included coach Don Williams’ 500th career win.
“He’s a great coach,” Mundell, who is a team captain, said of Williams. He also chuckled when asked about Williams’ notoriously loud voice during games.
“You can’t really judge him from the nights we have games,” Mundell said with a smile. “Everybody thinks that he yells all the time, but at practice he never yells at us. And during the game, you can’t consider it yelling at us, you’ve just got to see it as him talking to you just in a louder voice.”
Barnish’s basketball team has struggled, but she still gives her all and doesn’t let the fact that she’s 5-foot tall bother her.
“I’ve never hit 5-1, I’m like 5-1 and a half,” Barnish said. “I get the jokes all the time, but the good thing is I use that to push myself. Even my basketball coach (Ian McCombs) will tell me he’s proud of me for never giving up in basketball, and volleyball. I kind of embrace it because even though my height might make it really hard sometimes, I’ve still ben successful, so I’m proud of that.”
A premier setter, Barnish has been successful enough in volleyball to be moving on from coach Ashley Shoemaker’s Lady Mikes to coach Sam Swetz’ Roaring Lions.
“I won’t have to end my volleyball career yet because I’ll be playing at Penn State Fayette,” Barnish said. “I’m really excited about that. I actually already talked to some of the players.”
Barnish is sad that her basketball career will be over shortly, however.
“I’ve always been more of a volleyball person since I started playing that,” Barnish said. “But I never gave up on basketball and I still have a passion for that, too. I started playing volleyball in seventh grade and I’ve been playing basketball since elementary school in fourth grade.
“We’ve had some rough patches this basketball season, but we’re just trying to do our best. Our section is really tough, with a lot of good teams. We get frustrated, but then we all just pick each other up when that happens. That helps us stay together as a team.”
Besides the win over Frazier, Barnish’s other top memory from volleyball season is three clashes against another section rival.
“I remember all the games we played against California,” Barnish said. “The first one we lost at home, then we beat them away, then we had a playoff game against them and we lost that one in five sets. They were just all great games.”
Both Mundell and Barnish work hard to balance school work with their athletics.
“It’s very time consuming considering the fact you have practice every day, sometimes even on Saturdays,” Mundell said. “You don’t have much time to do anything else. Fitting homework in with all those sports is kind of rough sometimes.”
“I’m always extremely busy going,” Barnish said, “always going from practice to one thing or another and then I have homework, so I’m always up late. I’m just crazy busy so it’s always hard to fit it in but you always have to make time for it.”
Mundell will turn to the baseball season in the spring where he has two main goals.
“I would like us to win the section and go further in the playoffs this year than we have the last couple years,” Mundell said.
Mundell couldn’t pick his favorite sport to play from football under coach Ryan Krull, basketball or baseball, under coach Dickie Krause.
“Depending on whatever sport I’m in at that moment is the sport I like the most,” he said.
Mundell, who loves fishing and hunting when time permits, plans to attend Westmoreland County Community College and would like to become electrical utility technician. Barnish will go into nursing at Penn State Fayette.
“I’ve always been interested in the medical field,” Barnish said. “I plan to go to graduate school.”
Both are in the National Honor Society, Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Senior Standing Committee.
Mundell is also part of the Ski Club and Art Club, while Barnish writes for the school newspaper.
Barnish reflected on life after high school.
“It’s kind of sad because after graduation you realize you might not see all these people again,” she said. “But then again I’m so excited to more forward. I can’t wait to go to college. I’m really excited for the next step but it’s kind of upsetting at the same time that you’re going to leave all this.”