Bill Beckner stories, Page 153
Westmoreland notebook: Heide ‘excited’ to be Latrobe athletic director
Latrobe sports will be under the direction of Zac Heide, the newly named athletic director who has served as an assistant in the school’s athletic department since 2017. Heide replaces Mark Mears, who is retiring from the position after 11 years but will remain as the Wildcats’ wrestling coach. A...
No. 1 Norwin hoping execution catches up to expectations
With the No. 1 ranking in the WPIAL — the No. 4 mark in the state in Class 6A — and enough college-level talent to beat the band, Norwin has earned the right to walk around with bravado. But its play on the field, coach Mike Liebdzinski said, needs to...
Ligonier Valley softball still unbeaten, defeats ‘scrappy’ Serra CatholicVideo
After craning her neck to watch the softball stay just fair and sail over the left-field fence, Ligonier Valley pitcher Maddie Griffin turned her attention to the baserunner. Serra Catholic’s Lexxie Fite connected for a two-run homer in the fourth inning Friday evening for the first runs allowed by Griffin...
Hempfield on track to hire Penn-Trafford grad Mike Brown as football coach
Hempfield will vote Monday to name Mike Brown as its next head football coach. Brown is the recommended candidate to replace Rich Bowen, who resigned after nine seasons. Brown, a Penn-Trafford graduate, has been a defensive assistant at Robert Morris and Greensburg Central Catholic. He played safety at Mercyhurst. Bowen...
Westmoreland high school baseball notebook: Jeannette players learning while taking their lumps
It has been one wild ride this season for Jeannette baseball, which is enduring a down year but taking it in stride. The young Jayhawks’ schedule has been some feast and a lot of famine since the opening pitch, with every game seeing at least one team score 15 or...
Southmoreland baseball taking remarkable resurgence in stride
When Southmoreland upset No. 5 Waynesburg to open the WPIAL baseball season, the Scotties did not have a ticker-tape parade through downtown Scottdale. When the Scotties beat the same Raiders team two days in row, the observance again was slight. A few fist- and chest-bumps sufficed — for now. “Nothing...
Sam Salih resigns as Greensburg Central Catholic girls basketball coach
As a behavioral specialist and former pro player, Sam Salih brought a unique combination of mental and physical training methods to Greensburg Central Catholic’s girls basketball program. But he will be taking his philosophies elsewhere after resigning as the Centurions’ coach after three seasons. Salih said he is leaving the...
Yough softball hitting all the right spots in early going
Yough softball coaches and players often talk about their pitchers “hitting spots.” By design, the concept is meant to produce groundouts, pop flies and strikeouts up and down the opponents’ batting order. It is a staple of coach Art “Dutch” Harvey. When a pitch sign is given, the players listen....
North Allegheny softball makes short work of Hempfield
Call it stunning. Call it uncharacteristic. Hempfield softball coach Bob Kalp is calling it what it was. “A bad, bad day at the office,” Kalp said after his team was flattened Wednesday by visiting North Allegheny, 15-3, in five innings at Robert Kalp Field. No. 3 Hempfield (4-3, 1-2) was...
Westmoreland softball notebook: Southmoreland returns to winning ways
Southmoreland is off to its best start in five years and could be a challenger to Mt. Pleasant — a section opponent, it just so happens — in Class 3A. The Scotties (5-0), ranked No. 2 behind Mt. Pleasant, had scored at least six runs in every game, including an...
Westmoreland campus clippings: Greensburg native Goetz cruises to Mountaineer Invitational title
Mark Goetz wasn’t playing Hannastown Golf Club, his home course in the summer months, but he sure looked at home at Pete Dye Golf Course in Bridgeport, W.Va. That is the home course of the West Virginia golf team, which hosted the 54-hole Mountaineer Invitational. Goetz, a Greensburg native, had...
WVU senior Mark Goetz runs away with home invitational for first college title
Mark Goetz wasn’t playing Hannastown Golf Club, his home course in the summer months, but he sure looked at home at Pete Dye Golf Course in Bridgeport, W.Va. That is the home course of the West Virginia golf team, which hosted the 54-hole Mountaineer Invitational. Goetz, a Greensburg native, had...
Controversial call, hot hitting help Franklin Regional baseball rout Latrobe
Franklin Regional was as delighted as Latrobe was dejected after a controversial call in the bottom of the fourth inning Tuesday seemed to flip momentum sharply in the Panthers’ favor and sent them on their way to a 13-3, five-inning victory in the second game of the teams’ Section 1-5A...
Westmoreland campus clippings: Local players lead Pitt-Johnstown softball
Pitt-Johnstown softball doesn’t just have a local flavor on its rosters. It has a local impact. Five of the Mountain Cats’ top six hitters are from Westmoreland County. Redshirt junior Olivia Porter (Southmoreland) is having a career season. She is hitting .349, with a team-best 29 hits, 18 runs, seven...
Westmoreland campus clippings: Franklin Regional grad Peticca wins golf event at Grove City
Senior Ben Peticca was a Presidents’ Athletic Conference second-team selection last season with the Washington & Jefferson golf team. The Franklin Regional grad might be heading for an upgrade as far as postseason honors go. Peticca carded a 1-over-par 73 for a two-shot victory at the McBride-Behringer-Allen Invitational at Grove...
Fundraiser for former Franklin Regional soccer coach Kurt Landsberg at $29,000 and counting
Local avid soccer enthusiast and former coach Kurt Landsberg is battling Glioblastoma, an aggressive type of cancer in his brain. The longtime Franklin Regional girls assistant, who also coached at Highlands and with the Allegheny Force FC, is now the focus of a community fundraiser aimed to help with medical...
Westmoreland high school notebook: Norwin’s Bilinsky gets 1 more game
Norwin senior Ty Bilinsky was selected for the Roundball Classic, the year-end all-star basketball event. But he doesn’t just plan to show up and sit on the bench as an honorary pick. He is going to play. Organizers initially invited Bilinsky thinking he simply would be recognized. Bilinsky, a 5-foot-10...
Norwin notebook: Soccer players Swankler, Sigut commit to D1 programs
Norwin will send two more girls soccer players to NCAA Division I programs. Junior forward Paloma Swankler announced she has committed to play at Robert Morris, while senior Morgan Sigut is headed to Long Island (N.Y.). One of several speedsters for the Knights, Swankler, an all-section player, was a scoring...
Norwin track and field to lean on senior depth
A global pandemic put a line through last season, ending playoff streaks for both of the Norwin track and field teams. The boys had made the WPIAL Class 3A semifinals in 2017 and ’18, while the girls reached the team finals four years in a row (2016-19) and have made...
Franklin Regional notebook: Panthers hockey reaches PIHL semifinals
The seventh-seeded Franklin Regional hockey team advanced to the PIHL Class AA semifinals with a thrilling upset in the quarterfinals. Dan Rafferty found the net halfway into overtime as the Panthers took down No. 4 Hempfield, 4-3, on April 5, at the Belmont Ice Complex in Kittanning. Zach Zeto, Jeff...
Penn-Trafford baseball unveils memorial to the late Maclean MaundVideo
With a simple gesture, the raising of their caps, players and coaches from rival teams who stood single file along the first- and third-base lines saluted in unison the life of Maclean Maund. And they joined everybody else in giving a special nod to the best seat in the house....
Norwin’s bats wake up in win over Penn-Trafford
Eric Chorba zeroed in on a 1-0 fastball that arrived a touch inside. When it met the business end of his bat and he sent it climbing toward a sun-canvased sky, the Norwin senior was out of his admitted slump and his team was well on its way to another...
WPIAL coaches agree: Back-to-back section games ‘more equitable’
Baseball teams that opened WPIAL section play earlier this week had a similar refrain for their opponents: “See you tomorrow.” The league went to a new format this season for section games with teams playing each other on back-to-back days, at each other’s home fields, to bring more uniformity to...
Westmoreland baseball notebook: Franklin Regional uses simple formula for success
Franklin Regional is winning with a simple formula. One that has produced pure, fundamentally sound baseball. And four wins in as many games. “Pitching and defense,” coach Bobby Saddler said. “We knew we had both, and our guys are proving it.” The Panthers (4-0, 2-0), ranked No. 3 in Class...
Rosters announced for annual Roundball Classic
The Roundball Classic is back after a year away and it will feature eight games over three days next month. More than 170 players are set to converge on Geneva College May 13, 14 and 15. “I thought we’d be forgotten after last year,” organizer Allen Deep said. “When you’re...
