H-S Athlete of the Week: Morgan Gesinski, Mount Pleasant
Name: Morgan Gesinski
School: Mount Pleasant
Class: Junior
Sport: Girls soccer
Gesinski’s week: Gesinski was selected to the Pennsylvania Soccer Coaches Association’s all-state girls soccer team after scoring 36 goals this season and helping to lead Mount Pleasant to a 15-2 overall record, a third consecutive section championship and a WPIAL playoff win. It was an achievement Lady Vikings coach Rich Garland foresaw as a possibility, according to Gesinski. “My coach told me at the beginning of the season that he thought I might be able to make the all-state team,” Gesinski said. “I happened to have another pretty good season and here I am.” It wasn’t Gesinski’s first big year. She scored 33 goals as a freshman and 28 as a sophomore, giving her 97 for her career heading into her senior season.
Mount Pleasant hasn’t lost a section game with Gesinski on the team, going 30-0 the past three seasons, including 10-0 in 2024 in Section 4-AA, and have a combined 52-7-1 overall record in that span. The 16-year-old daughter of Jonathan and Jill Gesinski started as a freshman when the Lady Vikings went 21-3-1, reached the WPIAL championship game, falling in a close 2-1 battle with Avonworth, and made the PIAA semifinals where they fell to General McLane, 3-0. Gesinski remembers her first venture into the postseason well. “Our first playoff game my freshman year I scored seven goals against West Mifflin,” Gesinski said. “That’s the most I’ve ever had. I had six in a game this year the second time we played Yough.” That 2022 team defeated Freeport (4-1) and South Park (1-0) in the WPIAL playoffs, then knocked off Bedford (2-0) and Fort LeBouef (1-0) in the state tournament. “It was our first year going to states,” Gesinski recalled. “It was great to make history for the team. I just wish we could’ve won WPIALs and made it to the state championship game. My freshman year we had a great group of girls. We knew what worked for us and we used that to the best of our ability. Riley was with me that year and my sophomore year.”
Riley Gesinski, 18, is one of two sisters Morgan has along with 20-year-old Hannah Gesinski. Both are currently playing college soccer at the University of Pitt-Greensburg. “This year I made it out to see about six or seven of their games,” Morgan said.
Mount Pleasant’s past two seasons were similar, each resulting in a section crown, one playoff win and a quarterfinal loss to Burrell, 2-1 in overtime last year and 4-0 this year. Gesinski is determined to get to the playoffs again next year while continuing the long section winning streak. “We know going into each season I’ve been here that we’re a good group of girls and we put in the work so we expect to do well,” Gesinski said. “Next year we’re going to need the whole team to put in that same work we put in the last three years so that we can keep it going. I strongly feel that we can win another section title and go further in the playoffs.”
Beginnings: “I’ve been playing soccer probably about eight or nine years,” Gesinski said. She is a two-sport star and also was on the track and field team as a freshman. “I grew up playing basketball just because my parents played and that’s what my sisters were in at the time,” she said. “But then Riley started playing soccer and after she played for a year I started to really like it and that’s when I started playing. It began with rec and then it went to travel and then travel and Cup and now it’s just Cup and high school.” The 5-foot-5 Gesinski sees herself as a team leader on both teams. “I’ve been doing Cup for a while and I’m pretty much a leader there so it sort of carries over to where I’m a leader on our (high school) team as well,” she said. “I think of myself as kind of a natural leader. I like all my teammates. We’re like a family. We all get along well.”
Improving: Gesinski isn’t resting on her laurels. “Normally I’m a strong critic of myself,” she said. “I know there are games that afterwards I’ll think I could’ve done better at this or that. I always want to learn from my mistakes, try to look back and see what I need to do to become better. I’m a lefty so sometimes that catches people off guard but working on my right foot is one key thing. I think I’m good with my right foot but I don’t always choose to use it as much. I can get a lot better with it to where I can be more flexible in using both feet.”
Tidbits: Gesinski is a fan of Garland. “I like my coach. He’s a good coach, he really helps us out,” Gesinski said. “He’s normally calm and collected. There are times he can be a little loud but only when he needs to be.” … Gesinski is currently preparing for basketball season. “I like both sports,” she said. “I’m pretty good at basketball, too, and I like playing, but soccer is definitely my main sport now.” … She plans to play soccer in college. “I’ve been talking to small D-I schools like Mercyhurst, Saint Francis, RMU,” she said. … Gesinski was one of 62 players chosen to the all-state, which groups all classes together, and one of just 12 from the WPIAL.
Compiled by Rob Burchianti