Westmoreland County Senior Spotlight: Hempfield’s Mia Shipman

By: Anthony DiFilippo
Monday, November 11, 2024 | 10:18 AM

Two-sport athletes are not all that uncommon. Neither is playing a sport year-round.

What is uncommon is preparing to play a different sport in each season.

That’s the case for Hempfield athlete Mia Shipman, who just wrapped up volleyball before the quick turnaround to basketball, which precedes her softball season.

“Yeah, it definitely is as hard as it sounds, actually,” Shipman said of participating in a trio of sports. “I try to be really time oriented with my stuff. It’s difficult, because at the beginning of basketball season, I’m pretty not in shape basketball wise. But I just try and take it one sport at a time.”

The Spartans volleyball team made the WPIAL Class 4A playoffs, falling in the first round to Pine-Richland.

“I thought that there were, obviously, a lot of things that we could have done better,” Shipman said of that match. “We came back into it, though, and held our own, but there were definitely a lot of personal things on our side that we could have fixed.”

That playoff loss was preceded by a strong regular season, which saw Hempfield finish 8-2 in the section.

“I was actually very pleased with our performance in the regular season,” Shipman said. “Sometimes it came close, came into the fifth set, but we pulled through a lot and I’m proud of us.”

Hempfield finished second in the section only to Penn-Trafford, which only had one loss, which was to the Spartans.

Shipman, a middle hitter, finished third-team all-section, a list several of her teammates also were included on.

The girls basketball schedule opens Dec. 3, which gives Shipman about a month to prepare for game action.

Then it’s onto softball in the spring.

“For basketball, I’d really like to make the all-section team. My sister got hurt last year, so we didn’t really play together,” Shipman said of her goals. “And softball wise, we really have a good softball program at Hempfield. We always have. I really want to win the WPIAL and go far in states.”

Shipman has not yet decided on a college but plans on attending school for biology while keeping options open for a sport.

Before basketball season, Shipman took some time for a Senior Spotlight Q&A:

How did you get started with volleyball?

I used to play in the backyard a lot, just for fun. Then once I got around middle school, I started going to some camps. I really liked it, so I tried out for the middle school team and made it. I just kept going from there.

What did your leadership role look like this year?

I just kind of try to tell everyone that we gotta move through day by day. Especially when we were No. 1 in the section, you can’t look too far ahead. It’s always gotta be to get better at the next practice, get better at the next game. Kind of just for everyone to do their part. You don’t (have) to be the superhero of the team. As long as you perfect what you have to do, everyone will be OK.

What kind of an honor was it to get named to the third team all-section?

It was a big honor. I’ve made the section team for the last two years now. I’m just glad that my hard work is paying off. I go into practice with a positive mindset every day trying to lift people up, and that translates into games. I’m glad that I got some recognition for it along with I think five or six of my other teammates as well.

Is there anything from one of the sports that helps in the other?

I feel like it’s really like time management that goes from one sport to the other. And the way like the agility and balance that I practice for volleyball really translates into basketball and being in shape from basketball translating to softball is really good for me. So I feel like I kind of benefit from playing three sports, but it’s definitely hard at times.

What is one thing that people may not know about you?

I don’t really know. I guess I could say that I don’t have a favorite sport. I like them all for different reasons, and they’re all special to me in their own way, so I couldn’t really pick one if I had to.