Nov 7, 2016 4 min read

Hometown pride is something that can’t be measured in wins and losses.

Often, just having the honor of representing the area you identify with as your hometown or school is worth more than anything else.

That’s the way Canon-McMillan senior soccer star Aideen O’Donoghue found herself feeling as she thought about her choice of colleges.

The former U.S. National Team member had committed to Rutgers at the beginning of her sophomore year at Canon-McMillan. But spending time with the national team made her realize her heart was in Pittsburgh.

O’Donoghue started thinking perhaps she didn’t want to play at a school that was a six-hour drive from home.

On Monday, she made that official, changing her commitment from Rutgers to the University of Pittsburgh.

“I’m from Pittsburgh and proud of where I come from,” said O’Donoghue, who will travel with the Big Macs to Erie to face McDowell at Veteran Memorial Stadium at 3 p.m. today in the opening round of the PIAA playoffs.

“I’m not ready to stop representing the area.”

Canon-McMillan head coach Dave Derrico said O’Donoghue, who has 27 goals and 16 assists for the Big Macs (18-1-1) this season, had been leaning toward a change for some time.

“She started to rethink it a while ago,” said Derrico. “We talked about it. She wanted to be closer to home.”

Pitt, which struggled to a 2-15-1 season in the rugged ACC this year, offers O’Donoghue the chance to play in a major conference while still being close to home.

She hopes to start a movement of more local players to Pitt. The Panthers had just one player from the WPIAL on this year’s roster.

“I definitely think it would be good for Pittsburgh to have some local girls stay at home,” said O’Donoghue, who plans to major in broadcast journalism. “I reached out to them and we both saw that it was a good fit. We were both really excited.”

Derrico says the Panthers are getting not just a great player, but also a great leader.

“She’s just a really sweet kid and driven in terms of soccer,” Derrico said. “She is a born leader. I think the world of her. She’s just a wonderful kid and it’s an honor to have coached her.

“It will be nice to continue to be able to drive a half hour up the road and continue to be able to see her play.”

With a little luck, Derrico could continue to see the Big Macs play a couple more weeks. Canon-McMillan lost, 3-1, in the WPIAL championship to Norwin Saturday and would need to win three more matches to make a return trip to the PIAA championship. The Big Macs followed that same path two years ago.

O’Donoghue counts those moments among her favorite of her high school career.

“We’re not finished yet,” said O’Donoghue. “We’re very proud of what we’ve done so far, but there’s more left to accomplish.”

Ringgold’s football team is finding Mars to be a home away from home, and two other Washington County high school football teams won’t have to leave the area for their next matchups in the WPIAL playoffs Friday night.

The sixth-seeded Rams (8-2) will head back to Mars for the second consecutive week to take on New Castle (7-4) in their Class AAAA semifinal game. Ringgold upset the third-seeded Planets, 42-31, last week in Mars, while seventh-seeded New Castle is coming off a stunning, 51-43, win over No. 2 seed South Fayette.

The Rams won at New Castle, 41-27, Oct. 21 in a non-conference regular season game.

Washington and Fort Cherry, meanwhile, will both have short drives for their Class AA and Class A quarterfinal games.

The unbeaten Prexies (10-0), who are seeded second in Class AA, will take on Brentwood (8-2) at Canon-McMillan. Fort Cherry (9-1), meanwhile, will take on Class A’s top-seeded Clairton (10-0) at Peters Township High School.

All games are scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m.

The WPIAL selected five member schools for its 2015-2016 sportsmanship award, four of which are from the Washington-Greene area.

The WPIAL will honor Avella, Peters Township, Trinity, West Greene and New Brighton at the annual Sportsmanship Summit held at the Heinz History and Sports Museum Thursday.

The schools were chosen based on the way they promoted and demonstrated elements of good sportsmanship during the 2015-2016 school year sports seasons.