Thomas Jefferson’s Alison Chalovich caps senior season with WPIAL Scholar-Athlete honor

By: Ray Fisher
Sunday, May 25, 2025 | 11:01 AM

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The WPIAL recently recognized the recipients of the 34th annual WPIAL James Collins Scholar-Athlete Award with 20 candidates selected from a group of 158 nominees.

The girls’ award winners consisted of Laurel’s Tori Atkins, Thomas Jefferson’s Alison Chalovich, Greensburg Central Catholic’s Alexandra Hoffman, Knoch’s Giona Lavorini, Montour’s Joelle Ludwick, Quaker Valley’s Joyce Olawaiye, Springdale’s Briana Ross, Serra Catholic’s Cassidy Trahan, Uniontown’s Grace Trimmer and Canon-McMillan’s Abby Tucker.

“Receiving the WPIAL Scholar-Athlete award is genuinely such an honor,” Chalovich said. “There were so many talented and deserving nominees, so being picked as one of the 10 female winners means a lot to me.”

Earning the 10 boys awards were Beaver’s Tyler Biss, Fox Chapel’s Milo Chiu, Fort Cherry’s Shane Cornali, Central Catholic’s Bradley Gompers, Pine-Richland’s Bradan Lenz, Peters Township’s Colton Lusk, South Fayette’s Luke Miller, Mt. Pleasant’s David Mutter, Bethel Park’s Ryan Petras and Bishop Canevin’s Braiden Sudor.

A WPIAL committee chose the winners from among 158 nominees. Each winner is awarded a college scholarship of $1,000. More than $759,000 has been awarded to recipients since 1992.

Chalovich’s credentials as a student-athlete with the Jaguars are awe-inspiring.

The TJ senior has earned six varsity letters in high school with four in softball and two in volleyball. She was captain of the softball team for two years and served as captain of the volleyball team last fall.

Chalovich helped lead the Jaguars to the PIAA softball title as a junior and was part of four section championship seasons with the volleyball team.

“Ali is the epitome of the WPIAL scholar-athlete,” said Heidi Karcher, TJ’s softball coach. “She is well rounded in all of her AP classes, taking courses in language arts, math and sciences. She studies extremely hard and prepares for all of her AP exams in May. We even have a nickname for her during the month of May — AP Ali.

“For TJ to have one of its finest young female athletes earn this scholarship is a tribute not only to Ali but to our school district.”

After starting in center field for two seasons, the versatile Chalovich stepped in at the catcher position in 2024 and 2025.

“Ali was the eyes and ears of our defense,” Karcher said. “She was crucial to the success of Aubrey (Shaffer) during her freshman season and continued to push her during her sophomore year when a lot of pressure was on the team after winning it all. Ali is very calm under pressure. She spent an enormous amount of time working on her swing, fine-tuning some mechanics and that paid dividends as her numbers speak for themselves.

“TJ has been very lucky to have such a strong tradition in catchers for many seasons (with Haleigh Karcher, Mackenzie Zang and Chalovich). The catcher is the player who touches the ball more than other any other position and controls the pace of play. She tells the defense where to go and knows when it’s the appropriate time to call timeout when our pitcher just needs a moment.”

The TJ softball team won the first PIAA title in school history in 2024, edging Pittston Area, 2-1, in the championship game; Chalovich was lauded as a Big 56 section all-star at catcher in Class 5A.

“My most obvious and favorite memory from my time with TJ softball is winning the state championship,” Chalovich said. “The experience was unbelievable and truly something I will never forget. After the passing of coach Hoppy (Mitruski) my sophomore year, it was incredibly heartwarming to know we were able to win that championship for him and make him proud. His influence on this team, and me personally, is something I will never take for granted and I know he was watching over us throughout every minute of every game.

“Some of my other favorite memories are the team dinners we’ve had. Our coach, Heidi Karcher, holds team dinners all the time throughout the season. It’s always such a fun time and I think it really brings our team together. Sometimes we watch softball, or even the Grammys, while our coaches make food for us and we all just hang out. It’s a small gesture but honestly makes the biggest difference for our team chemistry and represents some of my favorite memories with the team.

Chalovich plans to major in biomedical engineering while continuing her softball career at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

“Being a D3 school, it has the perfect balance of academics and athletics that allows me to continue the sport I love and explore all the academic possibilities WPI has to offer,” she said. “I’ve always prioritized my academics and couldn’t imagine my life without softball, and WPI gives me the opportunity to continue doing both.”

The TJ softball team finished 16-8 overall last season and 13-7 this year. The sixth-seeded Jaguars edged No. 11 Armstrong, 1-0, and lost to No. 3 West Allegheny, 2-1, in the first two rounds of this year’s WPIAL playoffs.

“Coming into this season we knew there was going to be a target on our back and the pressure was going to be intense,” said Karcher, TJ’s field boss. “The girls continued to work hard and obviously there have been some bumps in the road.”

Chalovich was among five upperclassmen in the starting lineup this spring, along with Morgan Alisesky (2B), Olivia Stock (3B), Hannah Alonso (LF) and Alayna Grese (DH).

“I’ve grown up playing softball with Morgan and Olivia since we were 6,” Chalovich said. “There’s a lot of talent on this team. We had a good mix of girls throughout our typical starting lineup.”

The team’s remaining starters consisted of junior Addi Bracco (SS), sophomores Aubrey Shaffer (P) and Sophia Janosko (CF), and freshmen Cam Noderer (1B) and Rylee Nemchek (RF).

Other top freshmen in 2025 included Madden Stanek, Zoie DeCostro and Maddie Sheehan.

“We’ve had a few freshmen really step up to fill some important spots and it’s really great to see our team come together with them,” Chalovich said. “We have two incredible sophomores in Sophia and Aubrey. Sophia commands our outfield and has really stepped up as an underclassman, and obviously Aubrey, the backbone of the team, controls the mound as our starting pitcher and has done such an impressive job at doing so.”

One of Chalovich’s best performances of her career came this spring in the Jaguars’ 14-5 section win against Baldwin as she belted two home runs and had four RBIs while going 2 for 4.

Chalovich led the team during the regular season in slugging percentage (.971), home runs (5) and doubles (5), and ranked among the team leaders in batting average (.400), on-base percentage (.500), RBIs (12) and hits (14). She also posted a .948 fielding percentage.

“The season after a championship year is always tough because everyone wants to beat you and the pressure is on to repeat,” coach Karcher said.

Tags: Thomas Jefferson