Sarah Holweg wanted to have her college plans settled before her final high school basketball season at Wyoming Area.
West Chester University made that easy.
Following her first official recruiting visit, Holweg received a partial athletic scholarship offer to play at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II and Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference school.
The record-setting guard made a verbal commitment to West Chester last weekend.
“I said to my parents at the beginning of the summer, once I started getting e-mails from different colleges, that I wanted to have a decision kind of at the beginning of the school year and definitely before basketball season,” said Holweg, who led the entire Wyoming Valley Conference in 3-point baskets made as a sophomore before finishing second last season. “Then, I wouldn’t have to worry about anything during my senior year so I could relax and enjoy the season.”
Holweg, who has been a big part of a major improvement of the Wyoming Area girls basketball program as a starter since her freshman year, surpassed the 1,000-point mark for her career as a junior.
“When I made my official visit in August, I just fell in love with the school,” Holweg said. “I basically stopped contacting the other schools that were interested in me.”
As a result, Holweg, who had visited Harvard and multiple Division III campuses on her own, did not accept another official recruiting visit.
Holweg said she was impressed by the coaching staff at West Chester, the friendliness of people on campus when she was just a “stranger” visiting in the summer, and the downtown area near campus.
Keystone Karma AAU basketball teammate Destiny Jefferson, a West Scranton graduate who is at West Chester as a freshman now, also had an influence on Holweg’s decision process.
“It’s nice going into this knowing someone on the team already,” she said.
Although she has shown the ball-handing, defensive abilities and quickness to play in college, Holweg said it was her 3-point shooting ability that got the most attention from college recruiters.
On the night she set Wyoming Area’s school single game scoring record with 44 points in a District 2 playoff win over Dallas as a sophomore, Holweg scored 32 first-half points and made seven 3-point shots.
Holweg averaged 17.3 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2.9 steals as a junior. In her career, she has made 188 3-point baskets and scored 1,158 points while averaging 16.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 2.4 steals.
West Chester slipped to 10-17 last season after combining for a 45-14 record while making NCAA Tournament trips in the previous two seasons.
Holweg plans to study history with the hopes of attending law school after graduation.
