Plum School Board honors JROTC cadets, cheerleading coach

Plum Borough School Board recognized several individuals at its Aug. 16 meeting, including five members of the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program and a cheerleading coach.

JROTC participant Emma Killmeyer was able to join the corps’ Summer Flight Academy and obtained her private pilot’s license. She is waiting to graduate high school before pursuing anything with it.

“I’m flying high, I guess,” she joked. “It was a lot of work. It was a difficult, rigorous program that I was in, a lot more than I was expecting. I was challenged in a lot of different ways, but I’m a pilot now. That’s insane to say as someone who is still in high school.”

Four cadets attended the JROTC Mountaineer Cadet Officer Leadership School, described online as “an Air Force-approved school designed to provide leadership training for those cadets who have been identified as potential leaders in the unit.”

Attending were Kayla McKenna, Collin Pupilli, Micheal Scarpino and Kaylee Sweeney.

Sweeney was honored individually too, as she finished as the top cadet in the class of 200 made up of JROTC members nationwide.

“It’s not just that you show up and participate,” said Plum JROTC’s Master Sgt. Kevin Butler. “For roughly a month and a half, for two to three times a week, they showed up after school, even during the summer, to learn as much as they could. Even studying a 100-plus-page manual, they had to commit it to memory, to actually be able to participate in this summerlong course.”

Assistant cheerleading coach Nicole Verrengia won an award for being the Most Positive Girls Coach in Western Pennsylvania this year by Positive Athlete, a “recognition program that celebrates high character, high school student-athletes and coaches who have overcome difficult circumstances, given back to their schools and communities in a significant way, or just have an infectious positive attitude that makes everyone around them a better person.”

Verrengia is a volunteer assistant coach with Plum’s cheerleading team and helps run a yearly charity event for cancer patients in the community. She also is a fifth-grade teacher in the district.

“I just want to thank Plum Borough School District,” she said. “This is actually my 11th year in Plum coaching. I’ve been coaching for 18 years. So I appreciate Mandy Anderson as our head varsity coach allowing me to continue to coach after our former coach had resigned. I just truly enjoy it.

“I decided to take this volunteer position, just to be able to spend more time with my kids. My daughter is actually here, she’s on the varsity squad this year, so it’s amazing to have this opportunity with her.”