{"id":15699,"date":"2025-04-13T05:37:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T05:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/15699\/"},"modified":"2025-04-13T05:37:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T05:37:08","slug":"westmoreland-high-school-notebook-greensburg-central-catholics-vacanti-to-play-in-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/15699\/","title":{"rendered":"Westmoreland high school notebook: Greensburg Central Catholic\u2019s Vacanti to play in England"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Bill Beckner Jr.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/strong>
Saturday, April 12, 2025 | 5:58 PM<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \"8394339_web1_gtr-Vacanti01-101624\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChristopher Horner | TribLive \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Greensburg Central\u2019s Jackson Vacanti is going to play for a soccer academy about 200 miles north of London.<\/p>\n

While it might seem generally unconventional, Jackson Vacanti sees his approach to post-prep soccer as the way to go.<\/p>\n

The senior at Greensburg Central Catholic is taking his talents to west England, where he will play for the University Developmental Academy at the University of Chester.<\/p>\n

He will still attend classes as usual, but soccer will take up most of his time.<\/p>\n

Located about 200 miles north of London, UDA Chester gives players year-round training and high-level competition while they pursue a degree.<\/p>\n

Developmental academies exist in the United States, but Vacanti was drawn to playing overseas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two main things that sold me were, one, the fact that I will be playing a nine-month season, and two, the coaching staff is incredible and have coached and directed at top academies in England,\u201d Vacanti said. \u201cThey also have a lot of connections with other clubs in England. Another thing that made my decision easy was the chemistry that I had with the other boys in the recruiting class. Ten of the 17 boys that visited when I did in November are now committed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vacanti, a midfielder who had 22 goals and 12 assists last fall and finished with 64 career goals, said the level of competition is similar to Division I in the United States.<\/p>\n

Vacanti plans to stay for three years and earn a degree.<\/p>\n

During his first year, he will join players from his recruiting class in the U21 North West Counties Football League.<\/p>\n

A performance-based promotion could follow to the Christleton FC Chester & Wirral League. Established in 1894, the league features top players who eye a post-college playing career.<\/p>\n

Vacanti did his homework on the process, travel and boarding commitment and other details.<\/p>\n

The lure of international play and a unique college-like experience intrigued him from the jump.<\/p>\n

He spent eight days in Chester in the fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the new recruits that I will be playing with from Cleveland has a brother that is in his third year of the program,\u201d Vacanti said. \u201cOther than that, I am just going in with the recruits that I played with in November.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vacanti\u2019s twin sister, Addison, also is set to play at the next level. Also a midfielder, she won\u2019t have to travel quite as far. She committed to Division II West Liberty (W.Va.).<\/p>\n

Crossey to SVC<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Franklin Regional basketball standout Connor Crossey announced a verbal commitment to NCAA Division III Saint Vincent.<\/p>\n

The senior guard had a career season, his final as a Panther, averaging 19.5 points and 4.0 rebounds.<\/p>\n

DeRiggi MVP<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Franklin Regional senior basketball player Madison DeRiggi earned Most Valuable Player honors for the East team at the 28th Alle-Kiski Valley Cager Classic all-star game last weekend at Highlands.<\/p>\n

DeRiggi, a TribLive Westmoreland first-team all-star, scored 10 points as the East fell to the West, 66-60.<\/p>\n

DeRiggi averaged 13.8 points, 4.7 rebounds, 4.1 assists, and 3.0 steals this season as the Panthers won their first section title in 46 years.<\/p>\n

Volleyball ranks<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Latrobe\u2019s boys moved up one spot to No. 2 in the Western Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association WPIAL Top 10 poll in Class 3A.<\/p>\n

Also in the classification, Penn-Trafford remained at No. 5 and Hempfield dropped one spot to No. 8.<\/p>\n

Kerr staying<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Soccer standout Riley Kerr of Greensburg Central Catholic plans to honor her commitment to Saint Francis, at least for one year before the Red Flash drop from Division I to III.<\/p>\n

Kerr, who scored 122 career goals, said she will reassess her situation from there.<\/p>\n

Saint Francis will join the PAC in 2025-26.<\/p>\n

County schedule<\/strong> <\/p>\n

The next event on the Westmoreland County Coaches Association schedule is the track and field championships set for April 24 at Latrobe\u2019s Memorial Stadium.<\/p>\n

Myers to the Hill<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Latrobe football player Tim Myers announced he will continue his career at Division II Seton Hill.<\/p>\n

Myers, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound defensive end, also considered offers from Edinboro and Clarion, also in the PSAC.<\/p>\n

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\nTags: Franklin Regional<\/a>, Greensburg C.C.<\/a>, Hempfield<\/a>, Latrobe<\/a>, Penn-Trafford<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By: Bill Beckner Jr. Saturday, April 12, 2025 | 5:58 PM Christopher Horner | TribLive Greensburg Central\u2019s Jackson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,393,10698,4884,10699,10700,10703,10704,10701,10702,10705,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-15699","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-franklin-regional","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-greensburg-c-c","13":"tag-hempfield","14":"tag-high-school-recruiting","15":"tag-high-school-sports","16":"tag-latrobe","17":"tag-penn-trafford","18":"tag-recruiting","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114329042661807060","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}