Dirling returns to sideline as coach at Ellis School

Abbe Dirling spent three seasons manning the sideline as the Allderdice field hockey coach when she decided to take some time off after the 2019 season.

“I took a breather,” Dirling said. “I coached throughout Pittsburgh Public Schools and I coached all three seasons [fall, winter and spring]. With the COVID protocols and everything being up in the air, I took all of last year off and I resigned all of my coaching positions.”

All that changed when Ellis School athletic director Shayla Scott called with an offer she couldn’t refuse.

“It was real weird and then Shayla reached out and said, ‘Do you want to interview for our field hockey position?’ and I said I missed it,” Dirling said. “The rest is history at this point.”

Dirling takes over one of the most successful programs in the WPIAL after former head coach Amanda Rose stepped down to spend more time with her family. Ellis School has played in the past seven consecutive WPIAL championship games in the lowest classification — including all five since Class 1A was established in 2016 — with four titles in that time.

“That’s going to be an interesting change because this will be my fourth year as a head coach, but it will be a new section.

“I don’t know these teams, but our scrimmages are against the teams that I’m used to playing,” Dirling said. “At this point, even though I’m moving from a public school to a private, you still have the same kind of gritty players and they all want to learn the sport.”

They’re also some pretty talented players.

Despite losing the school’s all-time leading scorer, Tegan Poerio , to graduation, the Tigers return a pair of all-WPIAL players in junior defenders Ilona Bender and Zoe Woon and junior forward Grayson Honing.

Still, taking over a program with the amount of recent success that Ellis School has had comes with its own pressures for a new coach.

“For me, the expectations are what they are and I am happy with the support I have here at Ellis,” Dirling said. “Coaches always set their goals really high … what I can do here is to teach the game because they already know the game and I can expand.”

Peters Township

Peters Township has played in the WPIAL Class 3A championship match each of the past three years and took home the title in 2019.

All that aside, this season will be a true test of the depth of the program.

“I had a huge senior class last year and we lost a lot of seniors,” Peters Township coach Melanie Cocco said. “But we have a good group coming back.”

It’s no exaggeration — Peters Township graduated four all-WPIAL selections from 2020, including three first-team picks, who made major contributions to the team’s recent success.

With them gone, the Indians now have to dig deep to find players to fill those slots.

“We have five seniors returning ... we have players returning throughout our underclassmen that

I’m super psyched about,” Cocco said. “I think they have seen what we’ve done the past three years now and I think it’s really helped us build a winning culture.”

Peters Township brings back quite a few players who saw action last season, including its five seniors — Annabelle Powell, Sofia Forlini, Elena Traficante, Annabelle Rose and Karson Martin. Having players who have been through the rigors of the season and seen firsthand what it takes to get to Robert Morris University for the WPIAL championship match will only help bring along a relatively young roster that much more quickly.

“Yes, we lose some star players every year, but we’re still able to play at a high level and make it to the WPIAL championship,” Cocco said.

“I think the underclassmen see that, they see how much fun those girls have playing the game and the competition and it makes it that much easier to strive to get to that point in the season as well.”