HS Football: Sister Act II, Quin Smeltz kicks way into Williams Valley record books

Williams Valley's Quin Smeltz lines up an extra point during a game earlier this season against Nativity as Brady Shomper holds (Photo by Leroy Boyer).

WILLIAMSTOWN — The ponytails look the same.

The stance is the same.

The last name is the same.

Fortunately for the Williams Valley football team, the success rate has been the same.

Senior Quin Smeltz has thrived as the Vikings’ placekicker this season, one year after her older sister Sage etched her name in the Williams Valley record books in the exact same role.

The 5-foot-10, 205-pounder has booted a single-season school-record 72 conversion kicks and a 27-yard field goal this season for the District 11 champion Vikings, who will face District 12 champion Lansdale Catholic in Friday’s PIAA Class AA quarterfinals at 7 p.m. at Lehighton.

“Quin has been awesome for us this year,” Williams Valley head coach Ben Ancheff said. “Ninety-some percent on extra points, 1-for-3 on field goals. She’s so reliable on that end of things … it’s almost an automatic extra point.

“She’s diligent in everything she does, hard-worker, great kid. Great student. Does everything the right way.”

To say that Quin followed in Sage’s footsteps would be accurate for this season. It’s been a seamless transition from Sage to Quin as the Vikes’ placekicker.

For the past three years, however, the two sisters’ steps were nearly identical.

The daughters of Greg and Sally Smeltz of Tower City, their kicking careers began at the same time — the summer of 2022 when Ancheff approached Sage and Quin during a summer weightlifting session and asked if the sisters would be interested in kicking for the football team.

Sage excelled immediately and was the Vikings’ placekicker the past three seasons. For her career, Sage was 134-for-160 on extra-point tries and 1-for-2 in field goals, setting the single-season school record for conversion kicks last season with 68.

For detailed look at Sage Smeltz’s career, revisit this feature story from last football season: https://www.t102sportsnow.com/2024/11/21/splitting-the-uprights-vikings-smeltz-leaves-her-mark-on-football-field-in-classroom/

Quin missed her only extra-point attempt as a freshman and was 4-for-4 as a sophomore in 2023. She sat out football last year but came back out for the team this fall to take her sister’s place.

“Sage was great all three years. I was just kind of backing her up,” Quin said. “I decided to not go out last year. This year, I just filled in her spot.

“She was so consistent. She was just an amazing kicker and I just tried to embody her as I was out on the field with her composure. She had great composure.”

Football isn’t the only sport the Smeltz sisters have excelled at.

Like her sister, Quin Smeltz is a four-year starter in soccer, basketball and softball. An all-star center back defender in soccer, Quin was a shooting guard/forward on Williams Valley’s District 11 Class AA champion girls’ basketball team that went 24-4 last season and reached the PIAA quarterfinals.

Quin has served as the starting catcher in softball the past three seasons, helping Williams Valley win back-to-back District 11 Class AA championships. Last spring, the Vikings went 23-3 and lost to South Williamsport in the state semifinals. In 2024, Williams Valley was 19-6 and reached the state quarterfinals.

While her plus-plus arm shuts down opposing running games, Quin Smeltz batted .455 last season with 10 doubles, three home runs and 37 RBIs. Quin and Sage were both named first-team All-State in Class AA by the Pennsylvania High School Softball Coaches Association.

Quin said playing in those high-pressure situations has helped her stay calm when trotting out onto the football field for extra points and field goals in front of loud, raucous crowds.

“In basketball, we’ve had many high-pressure moments,” Quin said. “The district championship, then made our way through states. In softball, me and Sage are pitching and catching out there, you have big moments when you’re up at bat.

“You have to have a lot of composure when you do that.”

That composure and work ethic also exists in the classroom, where the 18-year-old Quin is ranked No. 2 in her class and takes two dual-credit college courses (psychology, American sign language) through Lehigh County Community College.

Last year, Sage became the first female player to be named their school’s football scholar-athlete in Schuylkill Chapter No. 25 history.

This year, Quin will do the same, representing Williams Valley at the annual scholar-athlete banquet Sunday, Feb. 15, at the Schuylkill IU 29.

“I just try my hardest to get all my work done in school,” said Quin, who plans to major in Biomedical Engineering and play softball at Messiah College. “Then I go to practice, I go home, I do my college courses. I try to get as much of it done as a I can.”

Quin wore No. 44 the first two years of her football career but switched to No. 9 this season after the school retired No. 44 in honor of former NFL great Gary Collins.

She wears No. 22 in her other sports, she said, after it was given to her by Hannah Savage while Smeltz served as a team manager in soccer and basketball as an eighth-grader.

On the football field, Quin is one of 14 seniors that have compiled a 42-9 mark in their careers with three straight District 11 Class AA championships. She said the bond she’s developed with them over the years helps when she’s called upon to kick.

Fellow seniors Robbie Hoffman (long snapper) and Brady Shomper (holder) set everything up for Quin on extra points and field goals.

“It’s great. I’m with them all the time, every day,” Quin said. “It’s just great to be a part of it. They’re a great team. They’re great friends outside of football. They just do an amazing job.

“Luckily my team, the line blocking, Robbie snapping, Brady holding, they make it really easy for me. I just have to go out there and kick it.”

Quin practices twice a week with the football team, depending on her soccer schedule. She doesn’t mold her kicking style after any particular college or NFL kicker, just saying, “I just follow my soccer kicking. I take the corner kicks and direct kicks for soccer. I just need to get a little more air on (the football).”

Smeltz stressed she’s proud of the way she’s followed her sister’s success and been a major contributor to the Vikings’ championship run. Throughout the season, Sage has been one of her biggest supporters, despite being away from home attending Lycoming College to play softball for the Warriors.

“We’re both so supportive of each other, no matter where we are at or at what point of our lives,” Quin said. “It’s just amazing. I’m so supportive of her and she’s very supportive of me.”