Chris Harlan stories, Page 88

The PIAA board referred a proposal to reduce wrestling weight classes to the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee for discussion. The proposal would cut the number of weights from 14 to 13. The PIAA would maintain weight classes 106, 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 145, 152 and 160 pounds. However, it...

The Lincoln Park boys basketball team must move to Class 4A next season after the PIAA denied its final appeal Wednesday. Athletic director Mike Bariski argued in an online hearing that the PIAA competitive-balance rule shouldn’t force the Leopards or any other team into a higher classification because of the...

North Allegheny has never won a WPIAL boys basketball title. If Dan DeRose doesn’t fix that in his time there, the Tigers’ new coach admits he’d be disappointed. The NA school board officially hired the former Penn Hills coach Wednesday night, giving the team a leader who won a WPIAL...

The PIAA isn’t ready to endorse the return-to-sports guidelines issued Tuesday by the National Federation of State High School Associations. The lengthy NFHS guidelines cover everything from pre-workout screening, limitations on gathering sizes, requirements for cleaning facilities, the safe use of athletic equipment and athlete hydration. The guide was written...

The PIAA board of directors unanimously supports a county-by-county approach to restarting high school sports, once the governor gives his approval. If that approval comes soon, some schools might resume workouts before July 1. The board discussed Wednesday whether the PIAA should set one restart date for the entire state...

Players shouldn’t pass a basketball, hand off a football or share a baseball bat when high school sports workouts first resume, according to guidelines revealed Tuesday by the National Federation of State High School Associations. Also, workouts should include no more than 10 people, whether indoors or outside. The NFHS...

The WPIAL adopted a revamped baseball schedule Monday meant to keep teams from pitching their ace twice against the same section opponent. Now, rather than play every team once and then rematch later in the season, WPIAL baseball teams will play a two-game series on consecutive days against every section...

Another high-profile WPIAL basketball coach is expected to switch schools this week. Dan DeRose is expected to be hired as North Allegheny’s boys basketball coach Wednesday, pending school board approval, according to a source. DeRose coached at Penn Hills for the past five seasons and won a WPIAL Class 6A...

Could the PIAA take a county-by-county approach to restarting sports, or should the entire state resume summer workouts at the same time? “We want to have that discussion,” said PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi, who expects that question and others related to the coronavirus shutdown will be addressed Wednesday when...

If this were any other spring, Corinne Washington would be traveling to Detroit this weekend with her Western Pa. Bruins teammates for an AAU basketball tournament in the Motor City. Instead, the Quaker Valley junior is limited to one-on-one games with her brother and father on an outdoor neighborhood court....

Central Catholic coach Brian Urso will use this stay-at-home time to binge watch some game film. He spent his first season at Central learning all about the boys basketball teams to the north and now will study Westmoreland County. “I‘ll have the time,” Urso said. The WPIAL revealed updated boys...

High school teams can still hold the basketball for as long as they’d like. A proposal that would’ve mandated use of a shot clock in high school games wasn’t approved by the National Federation of State High School Associations basketball rules committee, the organization announced Monday. Another proposal that would’ve...

Lincoln Park athletic director Mike Bariski is curious about the PIAA’s definition of the word “participation.” Under the PIAA competitive-balance rule, Bariski’s boys basketball team was awarded two success points for participation in this year’s state quarterfinals, exactly enough to force the Leopards into a higher classification next season. Bariski...

The Chartiers Valley and North Catholic girls basketball teams won’t be forced into a higher classification next season, the PIAA told the schools Monday. The WPIAL teams were initially targeted for promotion under the PIAA competitive-balance rule but both won their appeals, said Chartiers Valley athletic director Mike Gavlik and...

Seven schools statewide, including three from the WPIAL, filed appeals this week with the PIAA, all hoping their basketball teams can avoid being promoted by the competitive-balance rule. The deadline to file was noon Friday. The Lincoln Park boys, Chartiers Valley girls and North Catholic girls were among 15 schools...

Exactly two months after Baldwin’s girls basketball team upset the No. 1-ranked team in the state, coach Kyle DeGregorio lost his job. When the Baldwin school board voted Wednesday night to hire Jeff Ackermann as the boys basketball coach, it also opened DeGregorio’s girls coaching job to applicants. The Highlanders...

If you’re a big-school athletic director, Justin Walther would like to talk. The former Central Catholic star and all-time leading scorer at Pitt-Johnstown wants a job coaching WPIAL boys basketball in the largest classifications, so he resigned at Serra Catholic after four seasons with the Class 2A school. Serra announced...

Bill Sacco had already retired from teaching and coaching when he noticed Cornell was hiring a boys basketball coach and decided to apply. On interview day, the candidates lined up. “I sat there that whole time waiting for guys to go in and explain what they were going to do...

Enrico “Rego” Antonini, a member of the WPIAL board of directors and a retired Beaver County school administrator, died Tuesday. He was 81. A former principal at New Brighton and superintendent at Western Beaver, Antonini served on the WPIAL board for nearly two decades. He joined the board from 1990-2004...