The T-shirts in Jill Glover's dresser drawers tell the story of the incoming senior's high school athletic career.

There are the West Shamokin volleyball and basketball shirts she received as a freshman three years ago.

Those shirts share space with the Elderton gear she's accumulated during the past two school years and also her time in elementary school.

A few more West Shamokin items will soon enter the mix.

Glover is headed back to West Shamokin in the fall because Elderton has been closed by the Armstrong School District's school board for the second time in four years — this time, the closing likely is permanent. She's still in the same school district, but her athletic identity is further muddled by the move.

As school mergers, consolidations and closings — driven by economic and political pressure — become considerations throughout Western Pennsylvania, more athletes might find themselves in situations similar to Glover's.

“I think I'll always be a Bobcat at heart,” Glover said, referencing Elderton. “But that's a hard question. … I guess I'm both. My heart was with West Shamokin at first.”

A Class A all-state outside hitter in volleyball and an all-section forward in basketball, Glover found the re-closing of Elderton frustrating. She hadn't anticipated it as recently as last fall. But by the spring, all signs pointed to an Elderton-less future, so she started to focus on how she could help West Shamokin (again).

Elderton High School's closing, approved by the school board June 27, added another chapter to the Armstrong School District's complicated history. In 1966, seven high schools existed in the newly created district. There now are three — West Shamokin, Ford City and Kittanning. And with plans to build a new high school and merge Ford City and Kittanning sometime this decade, an even more consolidated form of the district is ahead.

Mergers and consolidation cause tension for a variety of reasons, including a community's perceived loss of identity. But, as several WPIAL programs in the past few years proved, sports can help patch things up — once the athletes figure out how to work together.

Lukas Turley, a senior running back on Central Valley's 2010 WPIAL championship football team, had doubts when he first learned of the Center-Monaca merger in 2009.

“My first thought was, ‘This isn't going to go good. Why couldn't they wait until after my senior year?' ” Turley said.

His attitude changed when he began to train with Monaca teammates during the winter of his final year at Center, and it shifted for good when Turley attended a powerlifting meet at Blackhawk High School shortly after the end of the 2009-10 basketball season.

Because of basketball, Turley hadn't been in the weight room regularly enough to fully prepare for the meet, but he attended anyway, and what he witnessed convinced him that the Warriors were united.

“All the other teams were just sitting together, but we were there cheering each other on,” Turley said. “At some point, you'd maybe have to say, ‘What's this guy's name?' But then you went back to cheering.”

Because Central Valley was a new district with distinct colors and a new mascot, it gave Monaca and Center athletes a neutral identity to embrace.

When Duquesne High School closed in 2007, its athletes had no such luck as they headed to either East Allegheny or West Mifflin.

Erick Barron, a senior who chose East Allegheny as his destination, said football coach Dennis Edwards and his assistants supplied the new arrivals with Wildcats apparel before camp as a way to welcome them.

“We said, ‘Man, we aren't wearing that. We're wearing our Dukes shirts,' ” Barron said. “It wasn't a selfish thing. We were kind of just holding our ground.”

The 20-plus Duquesne transplants ultimately accepted the new home as their own and helped East Allegheny, a one-win team in 2006, to a 6-4 record and a playoff berth. But Barron said he and the others made sure the Duquesne presence never disappeared entirely. One example: He wrote “R.I.P. Duquesne” on his cleats for every game.

“Just so you'd know who you were representing,” said Barron, who now serves as an assistant varsity boys basketball and girls track coach at East Allegheny.

Whether Elderton athletes are eager to embrace new sports identities remains unknown. But, as Chris Weibel can attest, accepting change is nothing new for the Armstrong School District.

As a freshman and sophomore, Weibel, a standout quarterback, attended East Brady, which competed in Class A in District 9.

For the 1991-92 school year, East Brady students were added to Armstrong Central, a merger of Kittanning and Ford City. Then in the summer of 1992, East Brady broke away from the Armstrong School District and joined the Karns City Area School District.

Weibel chose to stay at Kittanning for the 1992-93 school year. Kittanning and Ford City had deconsolidated into separate schools by then, but they still combined for Armstrong Central teams — Ford City and Kittanning teams reappeared in the fall of 1993.

Those experiences left Weibel with strong opinions about how to handle Armstrong School District's upcoming changes.

“It makes no sense to keep going back and forth,” Weibel said. “You can't do that to kids. You've got to give them somewhere to call home and take pride in.”

Bill West is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at wwest@tribweb.com or 724-543-1321.

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