PIAA sports: Natalie Page and Sam Yangula win Snyder Awards

Two Saint Joseph’s Catholic Academy seniors will finish their high college occupations with an award in hand.

Natalie Website page and Samuel Yangula were named their school’s Snyder Awards winners Wednesday night following excelling in teachers, athletics and in their local community.

Successful the award intended a lot more to Webpage and Yangula because of who they received it with.

“It’s really essential to me,” Page said. “We’ve been developing up alongside one another for the earlier four many years. I bought to engage in soccer with him this calendar year and so that was a definitely exclusive opportunity. I’ve seen how tricky he’s labored.”

“It feels seriously good,” Yangula said. “I didn’t truly hope to acquire this award. It’s pretty humbling.”

The James H. Snyder Awards are supplied in memory of Snyder, a former Centre Day-to-day Moments sports editor who was killed in an auto crash in December of 1957. The awards have grow to be an annual county staple celebrating the community’s young leaders — a pair of seniors from every single of the county’s five public substantial faculties as well as Saint Joseph’s who embrace academics, athletics and local community services.

Site and Yangula both of those performed soccer in their 4 decades at SJCA, with the previous also playing a year of basketball as very well.

Yangula’s most distinctive athletic memory from his time with the WolfPack arrived when he and his teammates won the district title this year in soccer.

“We commenced the group when I was a freshman and we didn’t gain a one activity,” he mentioned. “We built the playoffs sophomore year and we had the objective to earn a district championship. … Going into that video game I knew it was our final shot for the seniors to acquire it. Just the experience at the conclude when they blew the remaining whistle was astounding.”

Site shared that memory with Yangula, actively playing with him on the school’s co-ed soccer crew, and mentioned it was her preferred as well.

“I saw how tough the team worked for that intention,” Web page reported. “Having that moment come comprehensive circle, of course soccer is one of my preferred sporting activities, and that was really special to me — staying able to earn with the staff.”

The two seniors produced those people recollections on the soccer industry, but ended up also useful to their communities in their times at the Boalsburg large university.

Web page volunteered her time as a counselor at Camp Self-assurance — a nonprofit, weeklong summer months camp for individuals, ages 3-21, with disabilities — whilst also volunteering at Housing Transitions. She went very well over and above her demanded 100 volunteer several hours, in accordance to SJCA athletic director Justin Rodkey, and done the most hrs of any scholar even though keeping a grade place regular over 4..

The superior college senior explained her time at Camp Confidence stood out most.

“I choose a good deal of my close friends out there,” Page reported. “It’s a entertaining 7 days for all of us. The impact on the children is really special.”

Like Webpage, Yangula also retained a GPA over 4. and used time encouraging out in the group. He was an altar server at his church whilst also helping with fish fries throughout Lent at church, but it was his most recent service working day with the college that established by itself aside.

“We unfold mulch at the Boal Mansion,” he mentioned. “What was amazing about that was — as neat as it is to do points that are support related by your self — executing it with your pals and just coming jointly and carrying out one thing for someone else, there’s a increased perception of services there.”

The higher faculty seniors hope to carry their successes absent from athletics into their futures in college.

Site will be attending Bloomsburg College, in which she will important in nursing. She needs to be a nurse to assistance folks, and to exclusively support youngsters.

“I usually cherished working with young ones,” she explained. “For a extensive time I needed to be a teacher since of that. But then I recognized I was interested in the sciences and that facet of people today. So I made the decision to combine people and go into pediatric nursing.”

Yangula will be heading to Penn State to significant in personal computer science and wants to check out the discipline following discovering it as an elective in substantial university.

“It grew on me and I received greater at it as (the elective) went on,” he reported. “I like math and math has constantly been a powerful match. It incorporates math and it’s kind of like a puzzle. It’s a industry that’s in demand from customers and you can do a large amount with it and help folks. I appreciated the versatility of the discipline and the elective just made an influence on me.”

Their ideas in the future were being — in aspect — formed by their academic and athletic at the superior school amount. They grew in their four a long time at the college and that is some thing they equally give credit score to Saint Joseph’s Catholic Academy for supporting them do.

“The senior course, we normally got along effectively and ended up excellent close friends,” Yangula said. “This 12 months we acquired extremely restricted. It just manufactured everything so substantially much easier. It’s fairly insane to have twenty-furthermore folks that treatment deeply about you and you are mainly just as great of buddies with all 20.”

Web page added: “The tiny course dimensions and local community has aided me to stage up into leadership roles. I come to feel like I wouldn’t be in a position to get individuals odds at a greater college. At St. Joe’s, I’ve gotten to know my lecturers better, I know my whole class. That is seriously impacted me and served me to expand as a particular person in that scaled-down surroundings.”