Quaker Valley’s Grant getting kicks out of shots at two titles
Two championship games, in two different sports, in two different cities — all within 24 hours.
You might get a kick out of this story. Landon Grant certainly is.
Grant is a senior at Quaker Valley High School who will have a most unusual championship odyssey this weekend. It’s a good Friday followed by super Saturday. Grant is the leading scorer for the Quaker Valley soccer team that will play for a PIAA Class 2A championship at 1:30 p.m. Friday in Hershey against Lancaster Mennonite.
Saturday morning, Grant will change into a football uniform and be on the lawn at Heinz Field. He is the kicker for the Quaker Valley football team that will play Aliquippa in the WPIAL Class 3A championship. This is Grant’s first season kicking for the football team — and the Quakers have made it to a WPIAL final for the first time.
“I’m sure it’s going to hard to fall asleep the next few nights, just thinking about all the things that can happen this weekend,” said Grant. It’s OK to dream. “First and foremost, my priority is to the soccer team,” said Grant, who has 36 goals in soccer this season.
“Winning a state championship is the No. 1 priority. If I’m able to help in any way possible to get a WPIAL championship Saturday and come away from the weekend with two championships, that would be unbelievable.”
Grant will take the soccer team bus home Friday night and be back at Quaker Valley at 7:30 a.m. Saturday for a team breakfast.
Then, it’s another bus trip, this one down Ohio River Boulevard to the North Shore.
While Grant’s story is unusual, it’s not unheard of. In 2002, Thomas Jefferson’s Jon Browne played in a PIAA soccer championship victory on a Friday afternoon in Hershey.
He then went to the Harrisburg Airport, took a plane ride to the Allegheny County Airport in West Mifflin, wherehe quickly was driven to a WPIAL football semifinal at West Mifflin High School. Browne kicked an extra point in a Thomas Jefferson win.
“It’s crazy,” Grant said of his own plight, “especially with both games happening so close to one another.”
Mike White: mwhite@postgazette.com and Twitter @mwhiteburgh.