Bill Beckner stories, Page 19
Westmoreland high school notebook: Norwin’s Bown commits to YSU women’s soccer team
Back from an injury, midfielder Nicole Bown is ready for a new chapter in her soccer career. Bown, who played only about half a season last fall at Norwin because of a torn MCL and the accompanying surgery, made a verbal commitment to play at Youngstown State. Norwin coach Ashley...
Franklin Regional boys volleyball hits ground running in program’s inaugural season
Getting any first-year program off the ground can be a challenge, but Franklin Regional is handling the move rather seamlessly. The district’s new boys volleyball team is a full-fledged WPIAL program and is competing this spring in Section 2-3A with Armstrong, Latrobe, Hempfield, Norwin and Penn-Trafford. The Panthers are led...
Norwin boys volleyball looks to build on playoff season
After winning a section title and earning a first-round bye in the WPIAL Class 3A playoffs last year, the Norwin boys volleyball team is looking to carry over the momentum. “While we have a strong foundation, it is crucial that we focus on strengthening our backcourt and enhancing our passing...
Norwin notebook: Baseball team gets into win column in dramatic fashion
Norwin trailed 5-0 heading into the home half of the third inning, fell behind 7-5 after four innings and took an 8-5 deficit to the bottom of the seventh. Then, all the momentum shifted to the baseball Knights as they posted their first win of the season. The Knights erupted...
Latrobe alum Robin Reilly joins Pittsburgh Riveters women’s soccer team
Former Latrobe soccer standout Robin Reilly is joining the new Pittsburgh Riveters women’s pre-professional soccer team. Reilly, a high school All-American who graduated early and is now a freshman at West Virginia, came up in the Riverhounds Development Academy. The Riveters will play in the USL W League with its...
Pitcher Alle Scarpa, Greensburg Salem pass test against Mt. Pleasant
Alle Scarpa was called for an illegal pitch in the fifth inning Thursday, but that wasn’t the only bout of adversity the pitcher from Greensburg Salem faced at Mt. Pleasant. “I had some trouble adjusting to the mound because there was a hole (in front of the rubber),” the southpaw...
Saint Vincent College women’s bowling team to make 1st NCAA Tournament appearance
Basketball season is over, but there is a different kind of March Madness brewing at Saint Vincent College. The excitement level is just as grand for the women’s bowling team, which is NCAA Tournament-bound for the first time. “We have nothing to lose and everything to gain,” senior bowler Sabine...
Westmoreland County softball notebook: Latrobe offense tries different approach
Latrobe softball coach Bob Kovalcin expected his team to hit the ball early in the season, but with technique, not just haphazard power. Sure, the big swings are there, but look at how the Wildcats opened the season and there is proof they could be more disciplined at the plate....
Penn-Trafford rallies from 5-0 deficit to sweep baseball series with Latrobe
Penn-Trafford was limited offensively for the first five innings Tuesday and stared down a five-run deficit for most of the game. But the defending WPIAL champion Warriors saved their best for last, rallying for nine runs over the last two innings to pull past Latrobe, 9-6, to earn a Section...
Westmoreland County baseball notebook: Belle Vernon’s Parker Lind shines in opener
An opening day starting pitcher wants quality and control, but he will gladly accept excellence. Take Belle Vernon senior Parker Lind. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound left-hander was dominant in his first start of the season as the Leopards (2-0) blanked McGuffey, 14-0, on opening day. Lind struck out 11 and walked...
Penn-Trafford uses familiar formula to defeat Latrobe in baseball home opener
With its new WPIAL championship banner hanging on the fence near the visitors’ dugout, Penn-Trafford used some of the fundamentals that helped it win a title last season to earn victory in its home opener. The interplay of pitching and defense — and just enough offense — allowed the Warriors...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Pitt-Greensburg’s Chuck Myers earns milestone win
Pitt-Greensburg softball coach Chuck Myers reached a milestone when the Bobcats defeated Chatham in the first game of a doubleheader. UPG won both games 6-2, with the first going into the books as Myers’ 100th career win. The sweep was the first of the season for the Bobcats (5-9). In...
Greensburg Central Catholic shaking off another disappointing exit from PIAA tournament
Sewickley Academy used lessons learned from a loss to one Westmoreland County team to beat another. The Panthers rallied from 14 down Saturday to topple Greensburg Central Catholic, 52-48, and end the Centurions’ run in the PIAA Class 2A boys basketball playoffs. Panthers first-year coach Mike Iuzzolino, a former Penn...
Sewickley Academy boys storm back to edge Greensburg CC in state semifinals
Everything was going well for Greensburg Central Catholic in the western final — until it went south. A 14-point lead in the first half felt more like 30 as the Centurions pulled ahead of Sewickley Academy with relative ease. Crisp passing led to uncontested layups, and defensive pressure was locked...
Westmoreland County high school notebook: Southmoreland freshman adds another Division I offer
Jackson Mickens is only a freshman, but he already has more Division I offers than a lot of seniors. The fast-rising Southmoreland standout added a second scholarship offer last week as Miami (Ohio) reached out. Mickens, a 6-foot-1, 215-pound receiver and defensive end, received an offer from Akron in January....
Hard times can’t sink Mt. Pleasant swimming star David Mutter
David Mutter is a free agent, and a resilient one at that. The Mt. Pleasant senior and WPIAL and PIAA champion swimmer had plans to continue his career at Alabama. He signed with the Crimson Tide in November. But sweeping changes forced Alabama to make roster cuts. For 2025-26, the...
Norwin softball hungry for another taste of WPIAL success
Norwin softball coach Brian Mesich also is an athletic trainer in the district. His team may have lost an abundance of talent from a WPIAL runner-up finish, but Mesich came back to tape things up and make another go at it. “Expectations are always the same,” said Mesich, who has...
Norwin notebook: Junior sets school record in indoor mile
Annie Czajkowski enjoyed a trip to Boston for the New Balance Nationals track and field meet. She brought home a few souvenirs, including a school record. Czajkowski set the Norwin girls indoor record with a time of 5 minutes, 3.54 seconds in the mile to finish eighth in her heat....
Norwin baseball ready to make another playoff push
Norwin made the WPIAL Class 6A baseball playoffs last season and has stewed over another first-round loss to North Allegheny for nearly a year. But the Knights return nearly enough starters to fill out a lineup and start a new playoff push. Six of the eight returning starters are seniors,...
3 former WPIAL standouts sign with Pittsburgh Riveters
Less than two months out from the start of their inaugural season, the Pittsburgh Riveters added three more players, including two with Westmoreland County roots, to bring the pre-professional team’s roster to 21. Pittsburgh will play in the USL W League with its opener set for May 16 against the...
PIAA Class 2A boys basketball semifinal preview: Greensburg Central Catholic vs. Sewickley Academy
PIAA basketball playoffs Class 2A Semifinals Greensburg Central Catholic (26-3) vs. Sewickley Academy (23-5) Noon Saturday at AHN Arena, Peters Township Winner plays: Winner of 3-2 Linville Hill (22-5)/4-1 Northwest Area (26-3) in championship game at 2 p.m. March 28 at Giant Center, Hershey District seeds: Greensburg Central Catholic 7-5;...
Jeannette grad Ciara Gregory heads to NCAA Tournament with Kentucky
Ciara Gregory didn’t make the NCAA Tournament when she played at Charlotte. She will make her second appearance in the Big Dance as a coach. The all-time leading girls scorer at Jeannette is a first-year assistant at Kentucky, which opens the tournament noon Friday against Liberty in the Spokane Region....
Greensburg Central Catholic, Sewickley Academy finally square off in state semis
Take this crop of boys basketball teams — Greensburg Central Catholic, Jeannette, Northgate, Sewickley Academy and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart — and line them up. The five WPIAL teams all made the PIAA Class 2A quarterfinals. And most of them have played each other at some point this...
A star on the rise, Greensburg CC grad Bailey Kuhns follows her heart to Robert Morris
When Mercyhurst announced a “leadership change” in cutting ties with women’s basketball coach Brooklyn Kohlheim four days after the season ended, junior forward Bailey Kuhns scrambled to reset her future. She didn’t have to go anywhere, but with Kohlheim gone, things would surely be different in the looming offseason and...
Hard-hitting seniors have Franklin Regional softball in good spot
Standouts Toryn Fulton and Ciara Camacho are finally seniors — it seems like they have been in the Panthers lineup for much longer than four years — so that means one more season of bashing softballs to the gaps and over fences. The pair of Division I recruits will look...
