Franklin Regional’s Student Athlete Leadership Team aims to enhance athletics experience

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Sunday, March 9, 2025 | 11:01 AM

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When Franklin Regional saw what Seneca Valley was doing, the district decided to sprinkle a little salt on its athletics programs — S.A.L.T. that is.

The acronym stands for Student Athlete Leadership Team, a program Franklin Regional formed to enhance and direct forward its sports teams and athletes.

Think of a student section with decision-making influence.

“The purpose of this group is to empower our student-athletes to be owners of their culture and experience,” Panthers athletic director Zach Kessler said. “We also want to build their capacities as leaders and as active participants in our school and community.”

Overall, the leadership team has several committees, including health and nutrition, community service, social media and communications, leadership development and school spirit.

There are student representatives from each sport.

“We started here at FR thanks to Mr. Kessler and (assistant principal) Mr. (Heath) Curran and the help of the coaches to pick a few student-athlete leaders across all our sport teams to be a part of the team,” said Franklin Regional team member Luca Bertucci, a baseball player. “The team strives to engage in outreach, acknowledgement of student-athletes of all sports and their achievements, to educate on athlete health and leadership development, and to also inspire school spirit and pride.”

The group was recognized at a basketball game earlier in the season.

Kessler said Seneca Valley and athletic director Heather Lewis are the business model for S.A.L.T.

“I found a few schools that had pretty good models, but the one that really stood out to me was the one put together at Seneca Valley,” Kessler said. “(Lewis) shared some materials with me and also invited me to one of their S.A.L.T. meetings. We were able to not only observe but interact with their student-athletes and we asked them quite a few questions. We were very impressed and decided, why recreate the wheel when we just witnessed a tremendous model?”

Officials asked coaches to identify leaders who could become vested in the program.

The student-athletes discuss ideas and ways to supplement the growth of programs.

“We were able to put together a very solid group of young leaders,” Kessler said. “We shared the model from Seneca Valley with them to get their feedback. The students really liked that particular model. They instituted a few changes to make it their own.”

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Franklin Regional