Just as the scholastic soccer playoffs were winding down for area teams, indoor soccer play had already begun.

Mike Alianiello, soccer director at the Summit Athletic Club, had his fall season well underway. Alianiello is in his 19th year as soccer director, after taking over the helm from his father, Tony.

From the beginning of November until the end of March, he single-handedly organizes hundreds of teams in league and tournament play, including handling all registrar duties, officials and overseeing all games. During the entire course of the season, Alianiello is at every single game throughout the course of every weekend, making certain every game is played with no issues.

“I have 19 years of weekends spent at the Summit,” he said.

His plate is full again this fall with 88 teams in the fall league, which runs from Nov. 2 until Jan. 4. This includes age groups: U-8, U-9, U-10, U-11, U-12, U-13, U-14, U-15 and U-19 boys teams along with a men’s open and over-30 division. The fall league also includes U-11 girls, U-14 girls and U-19 girls.

Alianiello also organizes and oversees the FC 814 Classic Tournament on Jan. 10-11 and 17-18. The senior high girls will go on Jan. 10 along with the over-40s. Jan. 11 will be junior high girls and men’s open. Jan. 17 is senior high boys and women’s open with Jan. 18 being junior high boys and over-30 play.

The Northern Blair County Recreation Center also has busy youth winter indoor soccer play underway. It has pre-K-sixth grade winter indoor soccer play and a Winter Junior Classic Tournament for U-8/10/12 boys and girls divisions. Registration for the Junior Classic Tournament is Nov. 13-Dec. 28. The tournament date for the boys is Jan. 11, and the girls will take place Jan. 18. Tournament fee is $125 per team.

All games are scheduled to run 22 minutes. Stefanie Daratany is the director and contact person. More information on the NBCRC handbook, player and parental code of conduct can be found at NBCRC.COM.

The indoor playing season will begin Jan. 25 and end in mid-to-late March. The cost is $45 for NBCRC members and $55 for non-members, $40 for each additional sibling. All practices are on Wednesday evening and games on Sunday.

The next step

Local FC814 Team Energy’s Ava Frye and Meghan Andersen have advanced through the Olympic Development Program state, regional and Northeastern regional ID tournaments and ID camps, earning recognition as two of the top 16 ODP field players in the Northeast for the 2008 birth year.

Both have spent the last four years competing at the national level in the Premier 1 Division in the Great Lakes Conference. Both had outstanding scholastic seasons for their respective high school teams at Altoona and Penn Cambria.

The two are now gearing up for their final step in the process of becoming part of the national ODP team roster. This is the first time any area players have advanced to this level. Their big opportunity will take place Jan. 22-26 in Orlando, Fla., where they will battle with 64 of the top players in the country in their age group for a spot on the national ODP squad.

“I couldn’t be more proud of Ava and Meghan,” Energy coach Marc Frye said. “Both are extremely hardworking, and this honor is well deserved, and has been earned through many hours of training throughout the years. ”

PSU Altoona honors

Five Penn State Altoona women’s players and one men’s soccer student-athlete were recognized for their academics by the College Sports Communicators when the CSC released its 2025 NCAA Division III Academic All-District teams.

All players must be at least sophomores and starters or key reserves and hold a 3.5 grade-point average or better. The women recognized were Madeline Boser, Taylor Frederick, Bridget Martin, Kylei Martin and Grace Turner, and the men’s representative was Matias Harte.

Tom Schmitt writes a monthly soccer column for the Mirror.