Darryl Daniels, Seton-LaSalle soccer

Re­cently: Daniels scored four goals Sept. 29 at Cal­i­for­nia, three Oct. 4 vs. Mo­nessen and an­other Satur­day vs. Win­chester Thurston.

Check this out: One of the lead­ing goal-scor­ers in the WPIAL this sea­son with 29 entering the week for the unbeaten Rebels, Daniels has twice scored four in a game. He’s a 5-foot-7 ju­nior for­ward who trans­ferred from Brashear in the off­sea­son and plays his club ball for Arsenal.

How did you end up at Seton-LaSalle? Brashear just re­ally wasn’t a good fit for me. I re­ally wanted to be more pre­pared for col­lege ed­u­ca­tion­ally.

What has it been like to join such a win­ning pro­gram? It’s been great for me. I felt re­ally wel­comed as soon as I got there and I feel like it’s a broth­er­hood.

Did you ever think you would be one of the WPIAL lead­ers in goals? I have a lot of high ex­pec­ta­tions for my­self, but no, I never re­ally ex­pected it.

How have you been able to score so much? I’d like to give a lot of credit to my coach, Ryan Kelly, he pre­pares us a lot.

Ever play other sports, or just soc­cer? I used to play foot­ball when I was 11 and we won a cham­pi­on­ship for the Brookline Knights, but I saw a brighter fu­ture for me in soc­cer.

Have you thought of be­ing one of those soc­cer play­ers who goes out for foot­ball as a kicker? I was think­ing about do­ing it next year maybe.

Do you have any nick­names? Bar-diz­zle.

OK, you’ll have to ex­plain that one … You know how in soc­cer when you hit a shot and it goes off the bar and then down? I hit a lot of those in sum­mer train­ing.

Do you have any kind of goal cel­e­bra­tion? No, not re­ally. I’m usu­ally kind of calm af­ter my goals. Not try­ing to be cocky.

You have a pretty good afro go­ing, what can you say about that? I’m kind of look­ing for a new hair­style. I just ha­ven’t de­cided on one yet. It’s ac­tu­ally kind of hard to deal with some­times. I’ve had it since I was maybe 12, just trim­ming it.

Isn’t that kind of your thing, though? Yeah, I mean, that’s kind of how some peo­ple know me.

Well, who has the best afro of all time? Def­i­nitely [Marouane] Fel­laini, who plays for Manchester United.

People would be sur­prised to know … I might try to pick up fenc­ing for my high school team this year.

— By Brian Batko

Allison Koester, West Allegheny

Last week: Koester helped the West Allegheny girls volleyball team win the Baldwin tournament. 

Check this out: Koester is a 5-foot-9 senior outside hitter and one of the main reasons West Allegheny is the Post-Gazette’s No. 1-ranked Class AAA team. Koester comes from an athletic family. Her father, Bob, played basketball at Franklin Regional and Xavier University, while her mother, Michelle, was a cross country runner at Franklin Regional. Allison’s brother, Andrew, is a former West Allegheny quarterback and now at Saint Francis, Pa. Allison’s freshman sister, Annie, is on the volleyball team. Allison has better than a 4.0 grade-point average.

Your dad was a basketball player and your brother a football and basketball player. So how did you get into volleyball? I started off in soccer and I tried basketball and even swimming. Once I tried volleyball in fifth grade, I just knew it was the sport for me.

Were you any good at the other sports? Basketball? No [laugh]. I was a good swimmer but I ended up just not liking it that much.

Your team is ranked No. 1. Tell us why? I’d say because of the bond that we have this year. Plus, we started working out in the summer with the football team and that helped. We have a strength and conditioning coach here now [Ryan Rizor], and he and [football coach] Bob Palko and the other football coaches helped, too. I think because of that we’re physically and mentally stronger.

Did you do any drills with the football team? Yeah, we did hill sprints together, were in the weight room and even swam together.

So will there be a ‘powder puff’ football game for you this year? There is one, but we’ll probably still be playing volleyball. I played last year, though. I was a receiver.

Do you think there is a consensus among girls at your school about the presidential race? I think everyone just thinks we’re in trouble if either candidate wins.

People might be surprised to know ... I’ve been a GIrl Scout since kindergarten.

— By Mike White 

First Published: October 14, 2016, 4:00 a.m.