Vanessa Abel is one of the most elite five athletes in the history of Southmoreland High School. So elite, in fact, that they are the only athletes to play a sport professionally. And Vanessa, who graduated in 2007, is the only female.

Abel’s path to becoming a professional led her from Southmoreland to Duquesne and eventually over to Europe.

As a young girl, Abel was always active. Her first love was soccer, because basketball wasn’t as popular in Scottdale. She didn’t start playing basketball until elementary school when Southmoreland held its first youth league at SES. After that, she says she “fell in love” with basketball. Her mother was surprised that her daughter wanted to play basketball, mainly because Vanessa was soccer “all the way” since she was 4.

Able said her parents were “stars” on their respective basketball teams.

“I loved it,” Vanessa said about playing for Olympic Gold Medalist Susie McConnell-Serio, who was head coach at Duquesne. McConnell-Serio now coaches at Pitt.

Abel describes her experience with her coach as “a love-hate relationship.” But, the Southmoreland graduate admitted, “At the end of the day, that is someone I look up to even off the court.”

Abel credits McConnell-Serio with teaching her “so much.”

“I know here, everyone thought I took every shot,” said Abel. “There was never a bad shot in my book, but playing under Susie I learned the game from a whole different view.”

Abel said McConnell-Serio “taught me how to be a point guard, how to be a leader and how to make it to the next level.”

During her career as a Southmoreland Scottie, Abel scored 2,327 points. She was the 36th girl to ever score over 2,000 points in the WPIAL/Pittsburgh City League history.

Abel led the WPIAL in scoring her junior and senior seasons, averaging 27.7 and 28.8 points per game, respectively. She was also a part of the 2007 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Fabulous Five, WPIAL All-Section and played in the Roundball Classic, where she scored 45 points in the game to set Southmoreland’s single-game school record.

She also lettered in soccer.

“It was an accomplishment. Not too many people had done that, so I was fortunate enough that my teammates and coaches put me in a situation to reach 2,000 points cause there was no way I would’ve been able to do it by myself,” Abel said. “All that credit goes to my teammates and coaches. It was unbelievable. It’s something I can look back on. It is an honor to be part of the WPIAL’s 2,000 points scored.”

Abel led the Scotties to the section championship her senior year, and she also described her experience playing for coach Brian Pritts “as a love-hate relationship.”

Abel said Pritts “got me to where I need to be. He was one of the reasons why I got a Division 1 Scholarship.”

Abel said Pritts encouraged Vanessa to play basketball when he saw her playing at SES, and she has been with him ever since.

Vanessa said she still calls him after a bad shooting night or a bad game in general. “He always knows what to say. Without him being there, he already knew what I was doing wrong because he knows me so well,” she said.

She wouldn’t have chosen anywhere else to play because coming out of junior high school, some high school coaches wanted her to transfer because they claimed she “wouldn’t get a Division 1 scholarship” if she played at Southmoreland. But Coach Pritts challenged her, she said.

“We took this program to a whole other level, Abel said. “ We put Southmoreland on the map. Again, all my achievements and awards go to him.”

“Coaching Vanessa was truly a great experience,” Pritts said. “Everyone saw what she could do on the court, but I was really impressed with what she did overall for the program. Vanessa was that person you heard about all the time when it came to getting into the gym.”

Pritts said Abel “was the first to get to practice, the last to leave, and while she was there she was working on perfection of every aspect of the game. But what really impressed me was Vanessa’s ability to lead.

“She would get on the girls who missed open gyms and summer workouts,” Pritts continued. “She would help players with drills and show them little things that she would do to get better. And Vanessa never missed an opportunity to work with and help with the elementary students.”

Abel originally went to West Virginia University but transferred to Duquesne. At the time, McConnell-Serio didn’t recruit Vanessa and in fact, did not even know her. McConnell-Serio told Vanessa that she could come to Duquesne and join the team as a non-scholarship walk-on. She sat out the 2008-09 season after transferring from WVU and received a gift that Christmas from McConnell-Serio: a certification giving Abel a scholarship.

In her junior year, Abel started all 33 games and scored a game high of 20 points vs. St. Bonaventure. She was named 2011 Atlantic 10 Third-Team All Conference and led the Dukes to a 56-24 record as a starter.

Abel is currently going to Stockholm, Sweden, where she is playing in the first division top league and is playing in different leagues. Last year, she played her first season in Germany for the GiroLive Panthers in the Damen-Basketball-Bundesliga League.

Abel, who averaged 10.3 points per game, is second on the Panthers with 2.4 assists per game and 2.6 steals per game.

But despite all her success, Vanessa Abel has never forgotten where her basketball career began.

“Coach Pritts is like my dad,” said Abel, “Even off the court, he always looks after me. Outside of basketball, he pushes me to be the best person I can. On the court, he challenged me day in and day out.”