Bulldogs select Moore, White
Paige Moore is Beth-Center's spring sports female selection in the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete Spotlight program.
Ron White is Beth-Center's spring sports male selection in the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete Spotlight program.
Paige Moore is Beth-Center's spring sports female selection in the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete Spotlight program.
Ron White is Beth-Center's spring sports male selection in the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete Spotlight program.
DEEMSTON — Paige Moore and Ronald White excel in school and in athletics at Beth-Center, but it’s the extra effort they both put in to help their teams that truly sets them apart.
The two are their school’s spring representatives for the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar-Athlete program.
Moore, the daughter of Chad and Lisa Moore, played volleyball and softball for the Lady Bulldogs and was a B-C cheerleader in the winter. It had been awhile since either team had reached the postseason, but, thanks in large part to Moore, both did her senior year.
The volleyball team earned a share of the section title in the fall.
“None of the girls on our team had ever won one,” Moore said. “We tried our hardest. We worked since the beginning of August. It was our first section title since I think 2009.”
The key point of the season was B-C’s second meeting with Waynesburg Central, which came in riding a 22-match section winning streak. The Lady Bulldogs were playing well and won the first set, but suddenly an injury occurred.
“Our setter (Mackenzie Crile) got a cramp in her leg,” Moore recalled. “I was sort of the back-up setter. I went in there nervous because, really, I hadn’t set all year.”
Moore’s team never missed a beat.
“I finished the second set and in the third (coach Steve Beyer) said, ‘Just leave her in there. Communication is good, we’re playing well.’ So I finished up as the setter and we won.”
The Lady Bulldogs swept away the Lady Raiders, 3-0, to end their section winning streak, then also swept Brownsville in their final section match to clinch a first-place tie with Waynesburg.
“We have a banner in the gym now,” Moore said with a big smile.
Moore’s favorite sport is softball, though.
“I’ve been playing softball for 12 years,” she said.
Again, her team needed her help and she obliged.
“I’ve played center field, left field and first base,” Moore said. “Our first baseman decided to not play this year so (coach Don Crile) put me on first. Then our center fielder got hurt so he put me in center. So I’ve just been everywhere. I prefer the outfield but I play wherever I can help the team.”
B-C did make the playoffs — which Moore chose as her most memorable sports moment — and Moore actually played both center field and first base in a loss to Seton LaSalle.
“We hadn’t made the playoffs since I’ve been in high school,” Moore said.
White, the son of Teresa White, was a three-sport star his senior year, taking part in football, wrestling and track & field.
He considers track & field, specifically, throwing the discus, his best sport.
“I started my sophomore year,” White said. “My friends convinced me to come out for track. Then as soon as I started throwing the discus, I fell in love with it.”
White qualified for the WPIAL Track & Field Championships as a sophomore and each year after that.
“My sophomore year I threw hundreds of discs a day at practice,” said White, who quickly picked up the sport. “Kerry Whitman, he’s from Brownsville and grew up with my grandfather — he was supposed to go to the Olympics the year it got cancelled — worked with me for my whole sophomore year, every day for hours.”
White threw a P.R. of 140 at last year’s WPIALs. This year he wrote himself into the Beth-Center record books.
“I broke the school record with a 152 at Peters Township at the Washington-Greene County Coaches Association Invitational,” White said. “When you get a good one it feels just completely effortless and smooth. It flies and doesn’t stick to your hand. It’s an amazing feeling. That’s how that one felt.”
While White considers setting the school record he best sports memory, he couldn’t help but recall another moment that he said will always stay with him.
“I’ll also never forget having to throw after Jordan Geist at Baldwin last year. He broke the state record, and then I had to throw right after him,” White said with a laugh. “He threw like a 207 (208-7), and I threw maybe a 107. And I was like, yeah, that’s nice,” White added, continuing to chuckle.
White was on the basketball team as a sophomore and junior but went a different direction as a senior.
“I took up wrestling,” he said.
White had a huge impact in that sport as well.
“I made it to regionals and was one win away from going to states,” said White, who credited his coaches for that magical one-year run. “I had a great coach. Gary Welsh helped me every day, him and Chris Stay.”
White, an imposingly big figure, would seem to be a natural at football, but injuries swayed him to step away.
“My freshman year I broke my ankle and tore some tendons during football camp the first day of practice,” White said. “In seventh grade and eighth grade I broke my ankle in a game both years. When it happened a third time I just said I’m done.”
So White decided not to play as a sophomore or junior.
“But then (B-C football coach) Joe Kuhns got me to come back out this year,” White sad. “Best choice I ever made.”
Ironically, he again suffered an injury, but didn’t let that bring a halt to his senior year.
“I broke my hand,” White said. “I had a special brace made to hold my fingers in place and then I had to put a foam pad over it, so I sort of had like a big club. It was fun,” he added with a chuckle.
The Bulldogs bounced back from a rare losing record in 2016 to a 7-3 regular season this past fall and another playoff berth with White on the team.
Moore and White both would like to attend Waynesburg University.
“I’ve been talking to Waynesburg University’s softball coach and she wanted to get to one of my games and watch me,” said Moore, who has a 3.4 GPA and would like to major in physical therapy. “I’m hoping to play softball there.”
White would like to try multiple sports with the Yellow Jackets.
“I’m going to go to Waynesburg University for football and track, and I’m going to try to wrestle also,” said White, who would like to major in communications.
White credits his mom, his brother Dalton and B-C track & field coach Ed Woods as those who have influenced him the most in his athletic career.
Moore commended her mother as well.
“My mom has been a big influence on me, and my sister (sophomore Hannah Moore) because she does play (softball) with me,” Moore said. “My mom and my dad encouraged me to stick with it. A few years back they told me I had to pick between cheer and softball and I picked softball because that’s what I’m more passionate about.”
Both White and Moore have other interests outside of sports.
“I love to lift and ride quads,” White said. “I got a job at a gym so I could get a free membership,” he added with a smile.
“I like to hunt,” Moore said. “That’s one of the things people probably don’t know about me. I like to go deer hunting. I actually got one four or five years ago but that’s the only one I’ve ever gotten.”
Both Moore and White have been right on target when it comes to helping out their respective teams at B-C, however, stepping up whenever they were needed.