Jerin Steele stories, Page 35

During offseason training, first-year Fox Chapel softball coach Chris Olbrich kept seeing more and more girls show up to work out. It was a pleasant surprise for Olbrich, who was an assistant coach with the Foxes the past four seasons. The 2019 team had only 11 girls to start the...

Kiski Area sophomore defenseman Aiden Sites said if he was told before the season the Cavaliers would be in the PIHL Class A semifinals he wouldn’t have believed it. After all, the Cavaliers were coming off a one-win season, but after a 5-4 loss to Bishop McCort in the opener,...

After his team lost in overtime, battling without standout senior Michael Carmody, who was serving a one-game suspension, Mars boys basketball coach Rob Carmody told his players he was obviously disappointed, but he was glad they lost on a play made by a “winning player.” For most of the night,...

Next week, Blaze Foster competes in one of the biggest events of his life when he represents Team USA at the Para Powerlifting World Cup in Bogota, Colombia. How Foster, a 2007 Gateway grad, got to the point to competing on an international stage is a case of hard work...

Norwin hockey’s season ended Tuesday night when the Knights fell 3-2 to Kiski Area in the first round of the PIHL Class A Penguins Cup playoffs. But it didn’t diminish the progress the program made. For years, the Knights floundered at the bottom of the standings before taking a step...

In one season, Kiski Area hockey has gone from a one-win team to being a victory away from playing for a Penguins Cup championship. The Cavaliers’ remarkable turnaround continued Tuesday night with what it is believed to be their first postseason win since 2005 in a hard-fought 3-2 victory over...

Johnny Crise Class: Senior School: Highlands Sport: Basketball Report card: Crise had 23 points and 14 rebounds to help Highlands earn its first WPIAL championship since 1995 in a 72-54 win over Belle Vernon in the Class 4A final Saturday at Petersen Events Center. Crise, who signed as a preferred...

A couple of weeks ago, Kiski Area and Plum completed two of the more remarkable rebounds in the PIHL. The Cavaliers won only one game a season ago, and Plum had only three victories. But in one year, both programs have transformed themselves into division champions. Now the hope for...

Chartiers Valley girls basketball coach Tim McConnell said he told his younger sister, Trinity coach Kathy McConnell-Miller, that the only good thing about facing each other in a WPIAL final was that a McConnell was guaranteed to win. While he loves his sister dearly, he was glad that it was...

Plum bowling coach Darryl Pilyih said coaching senior standout Shannon Small has become a pretty easy task because she rarely makes a mistake. Her precision was on display when Small blitzed through the step-ladder bracket on her way to her first WPIBL singles championship last week at Wildlife Lanes in...

When Matthew Fischetti was 16, he had visions of following in his older brother Tyler’s footsteps by being a member of the USA junior ball hockey team. After trying out, he didn’t make the cut. The news was tough, but it lit a fire under him to train for the...

When Bethel Park and North Allegheny take the floor at Petersen Events Center on Saturday for the Class 6A girls basketball championship, expect a defensive chess match to unfold. The Black Hawks (36.9 points allowed per game) are the top-ranked defense in the classification and the Tigers are close behind...

Moments after Chartiers Valley finished off a 65-43 win over Thomas Jefferson in the WPIAL Class 5A semifinals Wednesday night at Mt. Lebanon, Colts coach Tim McConnell offered an open dinner invitation to who ever made shirts for the Jaguars that read, “3.1 doesn’t equal 4.4.” The saying was in...

On the bus ride to North Hills, members of the North Allegheny girls basketball team chatted back and forth about what their keys were going to be defensively. At the front of the bus, Tigers coach Spencer Stefko sat back and listened in like a proud parent. Stefko is appreciative...

Shannon Small Class: Senior School: Plum Sport: Bowling Report card: Small won her first WPIBL singles championship, defeating Norwin’s Taylor Gozur in the finals Thursday at Wildlife Lanes in Lower Burrell. She had the top average in the WPIBL at 223.23 and bowled a 299 game during league play. How...

Listed at 5-foot-9, Devin Whitlock was the shortest player on the floor in Saturday’s game between Quaker Valley and Belle Vernon, but what he lacks in size he makes up for in many other areas. He has a good vertical leap, a keen eye and a feel for the big...

Chartiers Valley coach Brandon Sensor thought Shaler did a pretty good job on his standout guard Brayden Reynolds through the first three quarters of Friday’s WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinal game. Sensor also knew that the all-section senior would come through for his team when they needed him to, because he’d...

A couple of years ago, Lacey Adamik gave up the everyday grind of training for competitive USA gymnastics, but as time went on, she started to miss the sport. With the convincing of some friends, Adamik got back into gymnastics at the high school level this year representing Penn-Trafford. She’s...

Dom Elliott was honest about what was going through his mind in as he toed the line for two foul shots with five seconds remaining and Bishop Canevin trailing by one. “It was thinking about a lot,” he said. “I was thinking about my team, because my team is my...

Samantha Coleman Class: Freshman School: Kiski Area Sport: Gymnastics Report card: Coleman placed second overall in all-around in the Intermediate II division at the WPIAL gymnastics individual championship Saturday at Moon. She placed 15th on vault, eighth on bars, fifth on beam and fourth on floor for a total score...

Greg Guzzo was checking his email randomly last year when he saw a message titled “Positive Athlete.” He didn’t know what it meant at the time, but the email turned out to be a gateway to a scholarship and an opportunity to tell the story of how he handled a...

Pine-Richland’s Samantha Alexander went into WPIAL individual gymnastics championships wanting to stay on her feet. She successfully completed her goal in her four events and landed on the top step of the podium. Alexander, a sophomore, won the all-around championship Saturday at Moon with a score of 37.65. “I wasn’t...

Plum’s Connor Moss eclipsed 1,000 career points Feb. 5 after scoring 25 in a 52-51 nonconference win over Baldwin. Moss joins another junior, the girls team’s Kennedie Montue, in hitting the milestone. Moss scored more than 20 points 13 times this season and had more than 30 points four times....

At every practice in the Franklin Regional wrestling room, Finn Solomon and Carter Dibert are paired. When they wrestle, it typically becomes a spectacle. “When we go, everyone is watching us, because they want to see what happens,” Solomon said. “It’s so intense. It almost feels like the state finals...

For a long time, Burrell has been represented at the WPIAL individual gymnastics championship. But when Renee Ruggeri took over last season, her goal was to build a program that could compete with the best teams in the district. In two years, the Bucs have found their way into that...