Here’s how Philipsburg-Osceola’s Hannah Minarchick and Parker Moore earned Snyder Award recognition
Hannah Minarchick and Parker Moore, Philipsburg-Osceola’s 2021 Snyder Award winners, are hoping to leave a legacy that athletes are more than what people see on the field or wrestling mat.
“I just want to prove to people that you can excel in the classroom and on the field,” Minarchick said after the school’s senior awards ceremony Tuesday evening. “You don’t have to choose one. Academics are obviously the most important because that will take the furthest in life, and I just want to be a leader to younger kids and show them that sports are a very big part of your life to create so many different skills, (like) leadership, friendships that will last forever.
“I just want to show people that you can do both.”
Excelling in athletics, academics and in their community service work throughout their high school careers, the pair have been the embodiment of the James H. Snyder Awards, given each year in memory of Snyder, a former Centre Daily Times sports editor who was killed in an automobile crash in December of 1957. The awards have become an annual county staple celebrating the community’s young leaders — a pair of seniors from each of the county’s five public high schools plus Saint Joseph’s.
Minarchick was a three-time varsity letterwinner on the Mountie softball team and a captain, winning the state championship her freshman year in 2018. Moore was a two-time state medalist for wrestling, and a captain and six-time letterwinner on both the Mountie wrestling and football teams. The pair say they’ve been friends since they were about 10 years old, and are happy to have won the honor together.
“He’s a very good leader and he’s very determined, as well as I, and it’s awesome to see one of my close friends get a very deserved award,” Minarchick said.
Added Moore: “We both have a love for sports and know how much work it takes to be good at sports, so it was pretty fun to win that with her.”
Winning that state title was the athletic achievement that sticks out the most to Minarchick over her high school career. But it wasn’t just the memory of having that medal around her neck that Minarchick cherishes, it was the experience of getting to learn from the older girls on the team.
Having the opportunity to learn from that group of players, Minarchick said, helped shape her into the leader that she eventually became.
“They showed me what a leader should be,” she said. “They showed me how to be a good teammate, a good person how to take people under your wing. Because going in as a freshman, you’re scared, you don’t want to mess up. But these girls had your back every step of the way. They just made sure you were in good hands.”
Moore won his first state wrestling medal in 2020, finishing sixth at 195 pounds in Hershey after winning a regional championship crown the week prior. He placed eighth at PIAAs this season at 215 pounds.
The significance of winning that second state medal is the achievement that sticks out the most to Moore.
“I grew up admiring Philipsburg wrestling and all the older wrestlers,” he said. “I would make my parents stay to watch varsity wrestle, and I looked up to all those guys and all the people who are on the wall in the school for how great they were. To be one of the only people in Philipsburg to have gotten two state medals was really special.”
Outside of sports, Minarchick was involved in Key Club, student council, Powderpuff Ambassadors, Homecoming Court and the National Honor society, while logging 155 hours of community service. Moore is also a member of the National Honor Society and Key Club, as well as the Fly-fishing Club. He’s also logged more than 100 hours of community service.
Both Minarchick and Moore were heavily involved in volunteer-coaching and helping out with youth sports leagues.
“When I was a kid, I remember seeing the really good football players and wrestlers come to my practice,” Moore said. “And I think that’s really special to be able to do for the kids, to be able to give back in that way.”
After graduation, Minarchick will be attending Mount Aloysius, where she plans to continue her softball career and study biology. Moore will continue his wrestling career at Notre Dame College in Ohio, where he plans to follow in the footsteps of his mom and sister and study elementary education.
Both student-athletes credited their teachers at Philipsburg-Osceola for inspiring them to choose their fields of study. For Minarchick, it was her high school anatomy teacher who boosted her confidence in science and made her decide that’s what she wanted to do. Moore wants to become a teacher himself to impact younger students the way his teachers impacted him.
“One of the big things you remember from school is the effect that a teacher had on you, whether it be positive or negative,” Moore said. “And the teachers that have had positive effects on my life, I just want to be able to do that for other kids.”
As they prepare to graduate, Moore and Minarchick took a moment to reflect on the support they’ve received from the Philipsburg-Osceola community throughout their time in the district.
Both say they are grateful to everyone, including their friends and family, who have helped them get this far.
“The P-O community is honestly like a second family,” Minarchick said. “Everybody knows who everybody is, and they are so supportive and honestly would do anything you’d ask them to do, because our community is so tight-knight.”
Added Moore: “It’s everything. I love being a part of the Philipsburg community.”
