For every Ty Balzer, a year-round dedicated soccer player, there was a Ty Trainor, a multi-sport athlete who only touched the soccer ball during the spring.

For every James Del Greco, a prolific goal scorer following in the paths of his cousins before him, there was a Jeff Cancelmi, a scorer by nature but a defender out of necessity.

The diversity was one of the main reasons why Seton-LaSalle advanced to the state title game for the second consecutive year and finished 18-8 overall with a PIAA Class A silver medal.

The coaching staff for the Seton-LaSalle boys' soccer team was just as diverse. Head coach Mike Thomas was joined by a slew of assistants, including Aaron Panczyk who had split the coaching duties with Thomas the previous seven seasons, and former players David Del Greco, Mark Del Greco and Alex Fischetti, all still in college and former state champions back to help lead another Rebels' run to the state title game.

There was also Richie Sunseri, a former player for Thomas at Mt. Lebanon and Bob Del Greco, a head assistant and father to Dave and Mark Del Greco.

The coaches were along for every step of the ride, a ride that went through a bumpy six-loss regular season after a perfect 25-0 season a year ago, a WPIAL playoff run to the semifinals and a state playoff run to Hershey where Seton-LaSalle fell to Christopher Dock, 2-1, on Saturday.

Christopher Dock had outscored teams, 27-1, in the playoffs. Seton-LaSalle was able to score a goal late in the second half to cut the deficit to 2-1. It also scored what would have been the opening goal of the game but it was called back on an offside call.

Trailing 2-0, Dave Del Greco, a freshman at American University and home on his winter break, thought moving Cancelmi up from sweeper to the attack would generate some offense. Del Greco was dead on and once Cancelmi got in the mix, scoring opportunities were numerous. Cancelmi cashed in on a perfectly placed ball from James Del Greco.

"It felt good to go up top and be able to do whatever the team needed and get a goal," Cancelmi said.

"I think what we accomplished this year was a surprise to most people who didn't think we were good enough to make it to the state final. They see the eight losses and say this team can't be that good but the competition we played was very good."

Cancelmi could have easily been a 20- to 30-goal scorer for the Rebels. But to shore up the defense, Thomas moved him back to create a trio of seniors who made up one of the best defensive units in Class A. Cancelmi at 6 feet 1, Sean Clarke at 6-0 and Justin Kovic at 6-2 were as tall as they were talented.

"These guys all played different positions and you don't want to be moving them to defense in high school but they were all awesome about it," Thomas said. "None of those guys ever complained."

All have numerous offers to play collegiate soccer next season and all three were part of a senior class that played in an unprecedented three WPIAL title games and three state title games. The senior class graduated with two WPIAL and PIAA gold medals and one WPIAL and one PIAA silver medal.

James Del Greco also has numerous offers to play soccer collegiately. He was second on the team in goals with 23 this season just behind Trainor.

The emergence of Trainor is an amazing story. Reaching as far in the state playoffs as Seton-LaSalle did, it was nothing but a steady slate of team's featuring year-round soccer players who compete on club teams.

Trainor led the Rebels with 24 goals despite being anything but a year-round soccer player. His best sport is actually baseball, his father, Sean, is the baseball coach at the school and he was around the team enough that Thomas asked him to be the fifth assistant and work with the junior varsity team.

"[Ty] is the school's best baseball player but he has also become of the school's best soccer players," Thomas said.

"In last year's WPIAL final Ty played all 80 minutes on the flank. That is how important he is to our team. If you look at a picture of him and said here is a soccer player, you wouldn't believe me. He has no formal soccer training, he does not play club soccer but he just knows the game, he knows the score. He is one of those players you can't replace."

One player who Thomas will not have to replace is sophomore Ty Balzer. Soccer is Balzer's main sport. He scored 8 goals this season and led the team with 17 assists.

"Soccer is his life," Thomas said of Balzer. "The good thing is, he is a sophomore, and he [will return next season]."

Mike White's "High School Sports Edition" videos are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.