Splitting the uprights: Vikings’ Smeltz leaves her mark on football field, in classroom

With Brady Shomper (7) holding, Williams Valley's Sage Smeltz successfullly boots an extra point during the Vikings' District 11 Class AA championship game win over Schuylkill Haven at Blue Mountain's Eagles' Nest. Smeltz is 65-for-73 on the season in PATs (Photo by Charlie Roth).

TOWER CITY — It took only a few seconds to realize that I was about to interview someone special, not just any ordinary high school student-athlete for a football feature story.

Williams Valley athletic director Ben Ancheff was in the middle of telling a story Tuesday afternoon on the practice field behind the high school about Don Matter’s college football playing days at Southern Mississippi.

The former Vikings’ baseball coach was a standout athlete in his playing days in the late 1960s and early 1970s at Williams Valley, earning a Division I football scholarship.

During Matter’s freshman year at Southern Miss, he got into a practice scuffle with Ray Guy …

“Ray Guy,” Sage Smeltz quickly exclaimed. “Legendary punter for the black and silver.”

It impressed me that the 18-year-old Smeltz would know about Ray Guy, an eight-time NFL All-Pro punter for the Oakland Raiders from 1973-86 who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2014 and passed away in 2022.

Smeltz is no ordinary high school student-athlete.

Her list of accomplishments impressed me even more.

In the classroom, the daughter of Greg and Sally Smeltz of Tower City is ranked No. 1 out of 67 students in Williams Valley’s senior class. She’s the president of the Senior Class, National Honor Society, Student Council, Future Business Leaders of America and International Travel Club, a member of the Travel Club and plays in the bell choir at her church, Trinity United Church of Christ in Tower City. Wednesdays during the afternoon she participates in a teacher internship program at the Williams Valley Elementary School.

Smeltz is a four-sport athlete, sustaining major roles on the football, girls’ soccer, girls’ basketball and softball teams. Williams Valley’s placekicker on the football team, Smeltz will make history in the spring when she becomes the first female to represent her school at the annual Schuylkill Chapter No. 25 of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame Scholar-Athlete Banquet.

Clad in a black Metallica shirt with one shoulder cut out and red shorts, Smeltz had just finished successfully booting several kicks from roughly 25-30 yards out when we began our interview.

Entering Williams Valley’s PIAA Class AA quarterfinal Friday night against District 2 champion Riverside at Berwick High School, Smeltz has connected on a single-season school-record 65-of-73 PAT conversion kicks.

“You’re always lucky in high school football to have a consistent kicker and she’s been consistent for us,” Williams Valley coach Stephen Sedesse said. “She’s made a lot of big kicks for us. She seems to have made every extra point we’ve had this year for sure.”

This is not a story about a female kicker on a high school football team.

Female kickers aren’t new to Schuylkill County football teams. In fact, Smeltz isn’t the first female to be a successful kicker at Williams Valley.

Kaila Deitrich booted 44 extra points in 2010 for the Vikes and held the single-season and career records for extra points before Smeltz broke both marks.

“When I was little I knew that she was a kicker and I wanted to kick because she was a kicker,” Smeltz said of Deitrich. “I broke her record … I broke a girls’ record. A girl breaking another girls’ record in a male-dominated sport, that’s so cool.”

Smeltz isn’t just a girl kicker. She may be one of the most successful female athletes in Williams Valley school history.

In the 2024 calendar year so far, the 5-foot-10, 190-pound Smeltz was a starter on a Williams Valley girls’ basketball team that went 12-8 in the regular season (including a win over Division III champion Marian) and reached the District 11 Class AA playoffs before losing to Northern Lehigh.

In the spring, Smeltz hit .429 (33-for-77) with 32 RBIs, nine doubles and three homers as the Vikings’ softball team went 19-6, won the District 11 Class AA title and reached the second round of the PIAA playoffs before falling to Bald Eagle Area. Smeltz, a right-hander, was Williams Valley’s top pitcher, going 11-6 in 20 appearances with a 3.37 ERA and 116 strikeouts over 114.1 innings pitched.

This fall, in addition to football, Smeltz was the starting goalkeeper for the Williams Valley girls’ soccer team, earning All-Schuylkill League Division II first-team honors with 137 saves, four shutouts and an .856 save percentage in the regular season.

The Vikes finished 8-12-1 overall, qualifying for the Schuylkill League playoffs and reaching the District 11 Class A semifinals before losing 2-0 to eventual district champion and state semifinalist Moravian Academy. In the first round of districts, Smeltz pitched a shutout for 110 minutes and was then stellar stopping penalty kicks as the Vikings beat Minersville.

Her senior seasons for girls’ basketball and softball still lie ahead.

How does she manage all of that, plus her excellence in the classroom?

“I have a checklist on my notes app,” Smeltz explained. “I get really happy when I check things off. It kind of motivates me. If I want to go to Dunkin’ or something, I have to do something on my checklist first.”

Being the placekicker on the football team started with a conversation between Smeltz, her younger sister Quin and Ancheff in the Williams Valley weight room located alongside the baseball field in front of the high school.

“Summer going into 10th grade, I was down lifting in the weight room getting ready for soccer,” Smeltz said. “Ben said to me and my sister, ‘We need a kicker for the football team, do you want to try?’ At first, I was like, ‘No.’ But they were like, ‘Come up and try.’

“Alex (Achenbach), Kian (Krzyzanowski) and Evan (Achenbach) came up and shagged while Alex held. Me and Quin took turns kicking and it progressed from there.

“My dad was really, really into it,” she continued. “He was really behind the fact that we should kick. So we would come up in the summer in 10th grade, 11th grade and 12th grade and we would kick twice a week. That’s how I got better. And as I got bigger I got stronger.”

Both Quin and Sage were members of the Williams Valley football team in 2022 and 2023. Quin, who is a year younger than Sage and also plays multiple sports, did not come out for football this season.

Sedesse, an assistant coach under then-head coach Tim Savage in 2022, said it didn’t take long for the Williams Valley coaching staff to trust Smeltz’s kicking efforts.

Sage Smeltz was 34-for-41 as a sophomore and 32-of-43 as a junior. For her career, she’s 131-for-157, 83 percent. Quin Smeltz was 4-for-5 in her two years with the Vikes.

“Within the first couple of weeks, we’d seen how much time she put into it,” Sedesse said of Sage. “She’s up here kicking a lot. She kicks a lot throughout the summer on her own time. The belief that she’s committed to it helped the coaches decide that she’s perfect for it.”

Smeltz gave a lot of credit to her holders, Evan Achenbach and Brady Shomper, and her long snappers, Alex Achenbach and Robbie Hoffman. Her uncle, assistant coach Paul Herb, serves as the holder and guides her through her routine at practice.

Tuesdays, she said, it’s usually just her and Coach Herb. Thursdays is everybody, “where they rush like 13 or so people against 11 on the line, snapping, holding and kicking.”

“They’re wonderful. They’ve been very encouraging,” Smeltz said of her teammates. “They’re very good at what they do. I couldn’t do this without them.

“It definitely means a lot for our team too because to kick extra points you have to score touchdowns. We’re a high-scoring team … I couldn’t have done this without Brady and Robbie and obviously my line. I’d be in the ground if it wasn’t for my line.”

Smeltz has attempted just two field goals in her career. The miss came earlier this season at Schuylkill Haven.

The successful boot, however, was a big one — a 21-yarder to give the Vikings a 31-28 overtime victory at Minersville on Sept. 15, 2023, that jump-started Williams Valley’s run to the 2023 District 11 Class AA title.

“It was an enormous kick,” Sedesse said of the field goal vs. Minersville. “Just for her to have the guts to hang in there to have that belief (that she could do it). She kicked it like nothing. And they actually stalled the clock on her, too. She came out after that and was able to finish it off for us.”

Smeltz appears to be a perfectionist, which became evident with the following response. Asked what sticks out about her high school football career, she replied:

“The games I do worse in stick out more to me because that’s what I think about. Last year I went 1-for-3 against Nativity and I was really bummed about that because it was a big game. Then I also made the field goal against Minersville and I made nine extra points against Shenandoah.”

Smeltz’s physical stature and her athletic ability would make you believe that she could play another position on the football field and be successful. Sedesse said they asked her. Not so fast, Smeltz responded.

“They actually wanted me to kick off because I can actually kick off well,” Smeltz said. “In Powder Puff games I can kick it down to the 10. But I don’t know how to tackle. I don’t want to break my neck or something. What if I tackle wrong? They wanted to teach me how to tackle, but I said that’s OK. I’ll just kick the extra points or field goals.”

There were other things about Smeltz that I found really interesting.

** First, despite playing four sports, she said, “I don’t really watch sports. It’s kind of boring.”

** When asked about being the first female to be named a football scholar-athlete, she replied with this great quote: “It’s awesome. As my mom put it … it’s like you’re shattering a glass ceiling. You have a seat at the table now. It doesn’t matter if you win, you’re there already. That’s the important thing.”

** Finally, Smeltz would like to attend college to get a PhD in History and Religious Studies. Her goal is to be a religious studies professor to college students. Lycoming is her first college choice.

“I love learning about all the religions,” she said. “I read the Bible at church for fun because the plot is interesting. All religions are interesting. They’re so different, but they’re the same, too.”

Sedesse said he’d feel comfortable sending Smeltz out to kick a field goal if the Vikings reached the opponent’s 25-yard line — essentially a 37-yard field goal.

How would it feel for Smeltz to kick a game-winning field goal in a PIAA playoff game?

“That would be awesome,” she responded. “Twice … let alone kicking a game-winning field goal in high school once, but twice, that would be so cool.”

Don’t bet against her if the opportunity presents itself.