Laurel Highlands selects Dukman, Tarr
Jacob Dukman is Laurel Highlands’ fall sports male selection in the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete Spotlight program.
Erica Tarr is Laurel Highlands’ fall sports female selection in the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete Spotlight program.
Jacob Dukman and Erica Tarr have followed in the footsteps of past stars in their respective sports.
Both were taught by their parents that there is a reason why the word “student” comes first in student-athlete.
The result is Dukman and Tarr being selected as Laurel Highlands’ fall representatives in the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete program.
Dukman, 17, is the son of Tiffany and John Dukman. He has a 4.01 GPA and is ranked 37th out of 203 in his class.
Tarr, 17, is the daughter of Tracy and David Tarr. She has a 3.9 GPA.
Tarr, who played soccer for four years at forward, followed in the footsteps of her older brothers, Colby and Lucas.
“They are three and six-years older than me,” Tarr said. “Playing with my brothers helped me a lot to be a better player. They were goalies and midfield, and I took lots of shots on them. I have pretty much always been a striker.”
Dukman, who played wide receiver, was convinced by his position coach, George Mikluscak, to give football another shot after taking some time off following his time in the youth league.
“I first lived in Brownsville when I was in youth league and I moved to Laurel Highlands in sixth grade,” Dukman said. “Once I made that transition, I didn’t play football in sixth and seventh grade. The reason I came back was because every time I saw Coach Mikluscak, he would say, ‘Hey, come play. Just get one more year. If you don’t like it, then you don’t have to.’ He actually brought me back to football. He would always work with me, freshman year till now.
“I’m pretty sure he played at Slippery Rock in college and played for Geibel Catholic in high school. He taught us so well in practice with the footwork, the blocking and using your hands. Other teams were just lost. We really focus on catching every ball. If we didn’t catch a ball, we had to do pushups. We were always prepped in routes.”
Dukman played for four seasons under head coach Zack Just, who resigned after Laurel Highlands’ final game this season to become head principal at an elementary school in the South Allegheny district.
“His (Just’s) impact was more than just football,” Dukman said. “He preached life lessons, like being responsible in everything you do and not just football. He told us to take accountability, and that is what I am going to miss and what I love about him. He is a great coach but he taught us more than just football.”
Tarr had a huge setback in her career last season when she tore her ACL in a match against Uniontown. The forward used that motivation to come back, and was able to play this year.
Tarr discovered that she had an interest in physical therapy while rehabbing.
“I got around a girl, and I guess when I went past her, she kind of shoved me in the back, I landed weird on my leg, and I heard it snap,” Tarr said. “I didn’t realized how hard you had to work to come back. It took eight or nine months of rehabbing to come back on the field. I don’t think it really affected my play. It really helped me to push harder to get back.
“I had no idea what I wanted to do before the injury, but I discovered while rehabbing that I wanted to get involved in physical therapy. I have a health class, and that is what we talk about.”
Both would like to continue to play sports in college.
Dukman would like to play wide receiver in college, but is willing to go wherever the team needs him.
Tarr was part of a Fillies team that made the playoffs the last two seasons following a dry spell of non post-season action.
“I could kind of tell we were going to do something after watching how hard everybody worked,” Tarr said. “I was with Coach (Dave) Sohyda and he really changed the culture of the program.”
The Mustangs finished their football season on Friday with a 63-26 win over Albert Gallatin. Dukman had a receiving and defensive touchdown. His most memorable sports moment was beating West Mifflin, 25-21, on Oct. 6.
“We go into each week with the same mindset that we are going to win,” Dukman said. “With the West Mifflin game, we were all excited and saying we were going to win, then we got that punt block early that went back for a touchdown. The momentum from there skyrocketed, and we just played harder and were more excited to play.
“We came to the weight room this offseason and said we were going to get better. We weren’t afraid to get on each other at practice. It is not just the seniors. We had great juniors and sophomores that would tell someone when they weren’t doing something right.”
Dukman is interested in studying criminal justice or engineering in college. He has aspirations of being a state trooper or engineer.
Both Dukman and Tarr agreed that time management is important, which leads to cramming many duties together at one time.
“It was hard to get my studies in at times when there were games,” Tarr said. “I tried to cram everything in before or after the games.”
Dukman works on his few off days at Wal-Mart as a cashier.
“I work Saturdays and Sundays,” Dukman said.