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By John Hartsock
jhartsock@altoonamirror.com
Two Altoona Area High School senior athletes, wrestler Luke Sipes and girls soccer player Alli Little, have both shown a dedicated and unwavering commitment to their sport.
That commitment has paid off quite handsomely, as both have earned NCAA Division I athletic scholarships. Sipes, who will wrestle for the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and Little, who will play soccer at Iona University in New Rochelle, N.Y.. signed their national college letters of intent Thursday morning at the Altoona High School Fieldhouse.
They were joined by NCAA Division II college signees Melana Eyer (girls basketball, Shippensburg), Lanie Wilt (girls basketball, D'Youville University), and Aaron Smearman (baseball, UPJ).
Sipes, who has competed at 152 pounds for the past three seasons, enters his senior season with 113 career victories, three District 6 Class 3A championships, three Northwest Class 3A titles, and three PIAA state tournament placewinner's medals to his credit.
Little was a three-year standout midfielder in soccer who led the Lady Lions in goals (23) during the 2024 season, and also racked up eight assists.
Sipes originally had verbally committed to wrestle collegiately at Princeton University, but decommitted this past spring and verbally committed to North Carolina. The Tar Heels, who compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference, are coached by Rob Koll, a former PIAA state champion at State College High School who went on to compete collegiately at North Carolina before embarking on a long and distinguished collegiate coaching career that included stops at Stanford and Cornell before he took over the reins of the UNC program last season.
"Coach Koll is an awesome coach who definitely knows how good a lot of Pennsylvania wrestlers are,'' said Sipes, who won a career-high 41 matches as a sophomore two years ago and notched 36 victories in both his freshman and junior seasons. "Coach Koll wants to win, and ultimately, that's what I want to do as well.
"There are great people down at North Carolina, great coaches, and it's a great place to go to school,'' added Sipes, who placed fifth, seventh and fourth in his freshman, sophomore and junior years, respectively, at the state tournament and has a great opportunity to become Altoona's first-ever four-time state placewinner and all-time wins leader this season. "I'm very grateful and I'm really excited for the opportunity to get to compete at a high level and get a great education at North Carolina. I really believe in the North Carolina coaching staff, and I can't wait to see how I get developed in the next four to five years.''
Sipes is a tireless worker who wrestles competitively year-round and has competed in prestigious national offseason events like the Super 32 Challenge in North Carolina and the USA Wrestling Junior National Championships in Fargo, N.D., and won the 165-pound title at the USAW Portuese Northeast Regional in Atlantic City, N.J. this past spring.
He expressed his particular thanks to his parents, Luke and Andrea, his club coach at the State College M2 Training Center, Mark McKnight, and his high school coach, Joel Gilbert, for all of their help. Sipes, who carries a 4.0 grade point average, plans to major in business administration in college.
"Luke has been an outstanding athlete and student since he has been at Altoona,'' Gilbert said. "North Carolina is one of the best collegiate wrestling programs in the country, and I think that the sky is the limit for Luke there.''
Gilbert spoke most highly of Sipes' personal character.
"Luke is not only a great wrestler who is outstanding in all positions on the mat and will finish his high school career as one of the most successful wrestlers in the history of the Altoona program, but his best attribute is that he's such a good all-around person,'' Gilbert said. "Our coaching staff is real proud of what Luke has accomplished in his wrestling career at Altoona, and we're all excited for him to go on and further his education and his wrestling career at a great school like North Carolina.''
Little is happily anticipating playing NCAA Division I women's soccer at Iona, which competes as a member of the Northeast Atlantic Athletic Conference (NAAC).
"I'm just so excited,'' said Little, who carries a 98.6 grade point average at Altoona and plans to major in finance in college. "I feel like Iona is the perfect school for me. I love the city. The culture there is perfect, and the school offers so much for me academically.''
Little paid her dues during her outstanding girls soccer career at Altoona, battling through injuries that wiped out her freshman season and abbreviated her junior season.
"I broke my collarbone in my junior year and I actually missed the second half of that season and a lot of the recruiting process,'' Little said. "It broke my heart to watch the second half of that season finish without being on the field, but it also kind of made me appreciate the game more, because you never realize how much you love something until it is taken away from you.
"So it definitely added to the dedication and love that I have for my sport,'' Little added. "I worked very hard to get to where I am at, and my parents (Kevin and Devyn) worked just as hard in my behalf.''
Little's dedication and drive made her an exceptional role model for her Altoona teammates, said Lady Lions girls soccer coach Marc Frye.
"Alli has worked extremely hard at her craft,'' Frye said. "She really cares about the sport, cares about the quality of her play, and has been such a good example for all of the girls on the team. I call Alli the ultimate teammate.
"She always arrived at practice 15 minutes early, had her cleats on 10 minutes before practice began, and started going to work,'' Frye added. "I wish Alli nothing but the best in her collegiate career. Iona has themselves one heck of a great soccer player and a great teammate as well.''