Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League

 
A champion at every level of athletics, Seneca Valley athletic director Heather Lewis has faced many battles over her career, but her biggest came in February of 2021 when she was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma, which is a form of breast cancer. Despite the news, Lewis continued to work while going through chemotherapy, and after 10 months she was able to “ring the bell” to celebrate being cancer-free. Lewis was hired at Seneca Valley in 2012 and is the first female athletic director in school history. She has garnered several accolades during her time at Seneca Valley, including Pennsylvania State Athletic Directors Association (PSADA) Region IV Athletic Director of the Year in 2022 and Eastern Association of Intercollegiate Football Officials (EAIFO) Administrator of the Year in 2017. Lewis was previously at Bucknell University, serving as an associate athletic director and head coach of the field hockey and women’s lacrosse teams. She shares the field hockey school record for career coaching wins with 128 and was once the Patriot League Coach of the Year. Lewis’s collegiate playing career was at the University of Maryland, where she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in zoology and pre-veterinary medicine and a Master’s in kinesiology and sports psychology. She was an All-Region pick in both field hockey and lacrosse, and won a national championship with the Terrapins lacrosse team in 1986. Lewis’s field hockey resume also includes a seven-year run as president of the National Coaches Field Hockey Association (NCFHA), seven years as an NCAA umpire of the sport between the three divisions, and a period on the USA Field Hockey Board of Directors. She won a WPIAL field hockey title with Swissvale as a senior, and coached Norwin to its only WPIAL championship in the sport in 2008. Lewis was elected to the WPIAL Board of Directors prior to the 2019-20 school year and was recently reelected for her sixth term in 2024-25.