Rachel Bellhy had visions of going away for college somewhere down south with a beach and warmer weather, something she didn’t usually have in McDonald, Pennsylvania.

The fourth of five children, Bellhy didn’t see herself following in her older siblings’ footsteps. She was hell-bent on choosing her own, different path. Or so she thought.

“I just kind of thought, I wanted to do my own thing,” Bellhy said. “But then I decided I wanted to focus on basketball … and playing with my sister is what I decided to do.”

While Rachel was finishing up her senior year of high school, Beka Bellhy, her older sister, was just wrapping up her sophomore year at Washington and Jefferson. But Rachel wasn’t just following in her sister’s footsteps. Her two older brothers, Zach and Nate, also played basketball at the small suburban Pennsylvania school with a population of just over 1,300.

For most families, having even one child play college basketball, at any level, is a rarity. The Bellhy’s had four, two boys and two girls, all play the same sport for the same college. And even though Rachel will be the only one left next year, they’ve all certainly left an impression on the school, scoring 4,251 points as a family.

“Every sibling after me, starting with Nate, they all said they weren’t going to go there,” Zach Bellhy, the oldest child said. “It’s just kind of funny how it worked out.”

 

Courtesy of Jan Bellhy

 

The children’s parents, Tom and Jan, both went to Pittsburgh and didn’t really have a connection to W&J. Tom was a football player and Jan was a swimmer. Zach was the one who started the trend of future Presidents’ basketball players and finished fourth on the schools’ all-time scoring list.

Nate originally went to Seton Hill, but after one year transferred to W&J. The two brothers played the 2012-2013 season together and they were the only two players to average double-digit points per game that year. The Presidents’ season, and Zach’s college career, ended with a loss to Saint Vincent. Nate was the first person to embrace his brother, and he told him how happy he was that he ended up getting the chance to play with him for his final year. Nate played one more season but sat out his senior year due to injury.

As the two brothers found success on the college level, Beka and Rachel were dominating in high school. And when they weren’t playing their own games, they were going over to W&J to watch the older brothers who inspired them to play.

“It’s just a special thing to watch them be out there together, working together and supporting each other,” Jan Bellhy said.

Then the roles switched. Zach and Nate’s careers had ended and their sisters started playing on the same court they once called home. Zach’s favorite memory watching them is a game from this year when W&J played Waynesburg. After a back-and-forth first half, his sisters combined for 30 of the team’s 53 second-half points that led to a Presidents victory.

With Beka leaving, Rachel will be the last remaining Bellhy at W&J. There aren’t any reinforcements coming either. The family’s youngest daughter, Christina, is now a freshman at California University of Pennsylvania playing volleyball, having bucked the trend of both the school and the sport.

On the court, it’ll be a transition. Beka averaged 19.3 points this year, almost nine more than anybody else and for the most part carried the team. Now, it’ll be on Rachel to step up and fill in for her sister, something she successfully did in high school and, along with the rest of her family, is confident she can do again.

In two years, none of the Bellhy’s will be playing basketball at W&J any longer. But their legacy on the school will never be removed.

“It used to be ‘Oh my gosh, there’s so many of you here playing basketball,’” Beka said of people reacting to family’s story. “Now it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s just a Bellhy.’”

Published on March 8, 2016 at 10:48 pm

Contact Tomer: tdlanger@syr.edu | @tomer_langer