Jordan Giles wasn’t looking to move on from her position as coach of the Seton LaSalle girls basketball team.
After all, she and her teams put together six successful seasons, which included several trips to the WPIAL final four and second-place finishes in the section each year.
But when Montour came calling, Giles couldn’t say no.
“I always knew that if I was ever to leave Seton, the only place I’d go would be Montour,” said Giles, who made a name for herself as Jordan Burkes while playing at Montour. “I was going back home.”
A 2007 graduate, Giles was part of the Spartans’ inaugural class of Legacy Award winners in 2022. After graduating from Montour, Giles went to a standout collegiate career at Seton Hill, where she was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2018.
Since taking the job at Montour, Giles moved back to the district and her daughter is a kindergarten pupil there.
“We wanted to be back in the community,” said Giles, who teaches special ed math at Chartiers Valley High School.
Montour is coming off a 3-7 record in WPIAL Class 5A Section 4 and an overall record of 9-13. The Spartans finished fifth in the section, one spot out of a playoff berth.
Montour lost a mainstay in Jordyn Wolfe, a 5-foot-5 guard who recently scored 13 points in a game for Washington & Jefferson. Wolfe was one of three seniors who started and departed, but two starters from last year – 5-8 senior shooting guard Abby Cleary and 5-8 junior point guard Tiffany Miller – are returning and expected to retain their starting spots.
Both Zoe Woessner, a junior forward who will provide a presence in the post, and Macey Rathway, a junior shooting guard, should contribute.
“We expect big things from all of them,” Giles said. “All can contribute minutes. We’ve been working extremely hard on the defensive side of things, and we’ll let our defense transition into our offense.”
Giles said she’s had no trouble getting buy-in from her squad since taking the coaching job in April.
“The girls have been really committed since I took over,” she said. “We played in summer and fall leagues. Several of our players were involved in fall sports, but those who weren’t consistently were coming to all the workouts and putting in the work.”
Giles won’t have to wait long to see how her new squad looks, as Montour will host its Tipoff Tournament this weekend. Thomas Jefferson will play Quaker Valley at 6 p.m. Friday while Montour takes on Knoch at 7:30 p.m. In Saturday’s action, Thomas Jefferson and Knoch meet at 1 p.m., followed by Montour and Quaker Valley at 2:30 p.m.
“I’m very excited,” Giles said about getting the season started. “It means a lot to be back at my home. This is an extremely good group of girls – they’re really committed, they get along and they work hard together.
“There’s a lot of growing we need to do, but they’ve bought in already. I’m proud of what they’ve accomplished so far.”
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