On the high school soccer scene there may not be a more desirable attribute a coach wants from his or her team than having year-round players.

Seton-LaSalle only has two such players, but for Rebels coach Brooke Mangis, the tradeoff is worth it.

A majority of her players compete in basketball in the winter or lacrosse in the spring. What the Rebels lack in cup soccer experience, they more than make up for with winning experience from the basketball court and lacrosse field and with the athleticism necessary to take on more than one sport.

"I don't have a lot of soccer players, I just have a lot of good athletes," Mangis said.

Those athletes have helped Seton-LaSalle to its third section title in three years under Mangis. After defeating Allderdice, 5-0, on Monday, Seton-Salle is 13-4 overall and finished its Section 4-AA season at 10-0, stretching its section winning streak to 25 games.

The Rebels are ranked No. 9 in Class AA by the Post-Gazette.

Carrying that regular-season dominance into the postseason will be the goal now.

"We never have that many year-round players," Mangis said. "It is a challenge as we get further into the playoffs and play teams like South Park and Springdale where the whole team plays cup soccer."

If the Rebels are fortunate enough to advance deep enough to play top teams like the Eagles and Dynamos, they will at least have experience of playing against top-notch competition.

Seton-LaSalle's non-section schedule has been packed with talented teams including Canon-McMillan, Sewickley Academy and Thomas Jefferson. In the preseason the Rebels also played Moon Area, the top-ranked girls' team in Class AAA. Through one half Seton-LaSalle stayed within a goal of Moon before losing, 4-0.

Even though many of the Rebels players do not play soccer in the winter, spring and summer, it has nothing to do with a lack of talent. Junior forward Alexa Del Greco leads the team with 25 goals. She plays basketball in the winter.

Senior midfielder Emma Simmers is second on the team with 14 goals and leads the team with 14 assists. Simmers plays lacrosse in the spring.

Junior goalie Heather Betancourt is a returning all-section player from a year ago. She also plays basketball.

"They all have so much team speed from all the different sports," Mangis said. "They are very fast, very physical, but it is a little bit of a challenge. You have to go back and teach some fundamentals sometimes."

Mangis not only takes advantage of her multi-sport players' athleticism, but she also uses their experience in other sports on the soccer pitch.

Mangis knew that Molly Tuite was the top defender on the basketball team so when Tuite decided to come out for soccer for the first time in her career, Mangis put her back on defense to bolster an inexperienced group.

"She is the main defender on the basketball team, so I figured let her be a defender on our team," Mangis said.

Maria Rotundo is another basketball-playing defender who is relatively new to the sport. She came out for the team last season and earned a starting spot and now this year Mangis has her playing sweeper.

One of the few year-round players on the team is newcomer Courtney Krempasky. A freshman forward, she has nine goals this season. Mangis knew Krempasky would be a contributor this season after watching her play in the summer.

Playoff pairings were to be announced last night. Last season the Rebels advanced to the WPIAL semifinals and the PIAA playoffs.

This season Mangis will have one less thing on her mind. She was more than eight months pregnant when the postseason began last season and was forced to miss Seton-LaSalle's state playoff game.

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.