The term "Rex'' comes from a Latin word denoting rulership.
Philipsburg-Osceola's Chelsea Rex certainly lived up to her name.
After being set back by an early-season injury, Rex came back to pitch and hit the Lady Mounties team to their second PIAA softball championship. For her performance, Rex is one of the players heading up the Altoona Mirror 2011 High School Softball All-Star Team.
It's her third year being selected to the first team.
Pittsburgh Pirates draftee Jordan DeLuca of Tussey Mountain and Division I middle infield recruits Christian Helsel (Mississippi) of Altoona and Drew Bryan (Virginia Military) of Philipsburg-Osceola highlight the baseball first team. The all-star teams appear on Pages C8 and C9 of today's Mirror, along with the boys tennis and boys volleyball all-stars.
Rex went 17-0 in the pitcher's circle this season, putting up a 1.20 ERA and striking out 155 in 105 innings while just allowing 66 hits and 35 walks. She also batted .438 with seven home runs.
She is one of eight returning softball first-team all-stars, joining Central Cambria's Taylor Swatsworth Chestnut Ridge's Alana Weyant and Claysburg-Kimmel's Ronette Claar as three-time selections. The other returnees are Central Cambria's Breanne James - who will form the battery at St. Francis University with Rex next year - Chestnut Ridge's Stefanie McCoy, Penn Cambria's Kate Reese and Huntingdon's Casey Baird. Claar and Baird are juniors, the rest seniors.
James, Swatsworth and Weyant each finished their careers with more than 20 home runs.
P-O, Central Cambria and Ridge had the most first-team softball picks with three apiece.
After making a second straight run to the PIAA Class A semifinals, Central placed two players on the Mirror all-area baseball first team, as did Bishop Carroll, P-O and Tussey. DeLuca, Helsel, Central's Tyler Ferguson, Carroll's Drew McCabe and Portage's A.D. Maul are all returnees to the first team; Helsel, only a junior, and Maul are on the first team for the third year in a row.
