Michael Love stories, Page 112
Valley News Dispatch girls athlete of the year: Shemanski leaves lasting legacy at Freeport
From the time she stepped on the soccer field at Freeport in fall of 2016 to when she put on her Yellowjackets girls basketball uniform for the final time this season, Sidney Shemanski was a difference maker. As a freshman, she became a starter in basketball and soccer, helping lead...
Leechburg’s Andre Carter takes over athletic director post at challenging time
When Andre Carter came to Leechburg in August 2018 to coach the girls basketball team, he noted player development as one of his strengths. Now, as he gets ready to take over as the athletic director after Mark Jones announced he is retiring after 15 years in the position, the...
Western Pa. Baseball League gives Summer Rams seniors last chance to take field together
Highlands baseball coach Jeff Campbell was heartbroken knowing his players were not going to have their high school season when schools were shut down in late March in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The disappointment continued when the American Legion season was scrapped. But when the Western Pennsylvania Baseball League...
Tanner Nulph, Summer Rams prevail in WPBL opener
Tanner Nulph first helped the Summer Rams at the plate in Wednesday evening’s Western Pennsylvania Baseball League game at Valley High School. The rising Highlands junior then brought it home from the mound in his team’s 4-3 victory over the Independent Players. Nulph drove in three runs with a single...
Lernerville set for Firecracker 100 festivities
After a long coronavirus hiatus and a successful 2020 season debut last Friday, Lernerville Speedway turns to an annual tradition as it hosts the 14th annual World of Outlaws Late Model Series Firecracker 100 Weekend. The three days of racing begins Thursday and runs through to Saturday’s main event that...
Plum comes out swinging, rolls past Jeannette in Western Pa. Baseball League opener
Plum and Jeannette didn’t let the threat of rain spoil their Western Pennsylvania Summer Baseball League opener Tuesday evening at Buster Clarkson Field in Jeannette. The showers that fell on the region in the late afternoon dissipated as the game began, and Plum’s experienced squad showed its strength with an...
Burrell grad Alaina York makes most of abbreviated 1st season
Alaina York began a summer job Monday as a nursing assistant at UPMC Presbyterian. The next couple of months will build on her experiences studying nursing at Robert Morris. While she makes strides towards her career field, the Burrell graduate also is focused on her opportunities for the Robert Morris...
Summer Rams earn top-5 finish at ACB Open baseball tournament
The Summer Rams, a team consisting of players from the Highlands High School baseball team, earned a top-five finish at the seventh annual Atlantic Coast Baseball Open this past weekend at Wild Things Park in Washington. “We hadn’t practiced much,” coach Jeff Campbell said. “We had gotten on the field...
Return of Little Leagues provides some sense of normalcy
John Russo has been involved with the Latrobe Little League for two decades and is in his second year as the organization’s president. Like many of his counterparts, he has been through it all the past couple of months as the covid-19 pandemic and government-imposed safety restrictions threw a wrench...
Pittsburgh’s National Adult Baseball Association league in full swing
As winter turned to spring, Joe Graff was excited about how the 2020 Pittsburgh National Adult Baseball League was coming together. Then the coronavirus pandemic threw the league, as well as so many other entities, into doubt. But with Gov. Wolf putting southwestern Pennsylvania into the green phase of recovery...
Kiski Area’s Miller finds swim home after being victim of budget cuts
On May 21, East Carolina’s athletic department announced it would reduce the number of athletic programs because of budget restructuring efforts in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic. The women’s swimming program was one of the sports affected, and it left recent Kiski Area graduate Naomee Miller scrambling. Miller signed...
West Hempfield team makes return to summer baseball
The West Hempfield baseball players gathered for their first practice Wednesday. The team doesn’t have to wait long for its season debut in the Westmoreland County American League. “We’re just ready to put our cleats on and swing the bats,” said Mitch Miletics, one of more than a dozen players...
Saint Vincent College Bowling to host ‘plastic ball’ tournament
Saint Vincent College Bowling has scheduled a plastic ball tournament July 12 at Lincoln Lanes in Latrobe. The tournament is open to anyone. The format will feature individual competitors, and each will bowl four games in the qualifying rounds. The lowest score will be dropped, so everyone will have a...
Registration open for First Tee Pittsburgh summer golf program
First Tee Pittsburgh’s summer youth golf program will begin July 6, and families are able to register now. The sessions for ages 5 to 18 feature various classes and programs at 10 locations throughout Western Pennsylvania. The First Tee of Pittsburgh, according to president and CEO Eric Amato, is the...
WPIAL alums earn PSAC spring honors
A trio of WPIAL alums were among 10 student-athletes from schools in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference selected as spring 2020 Top 10 Award recipients. Slippery Rock’s Lacey Cohen (tennis, Fox Chapel), Seton Hill’s Tommy Pellis (baseball, Greensburg Central Catholic) and Cal (Pa.)’s Nick Riggle (baseball, Keystone Oaks) were among...
Freeport International Baseball Invitational plans continue to move forward
With counties throughout southwestern Pennsylvania moving forward in the green phase of coronavirus recovery, next month’s Freeport International Baseball Invitational also continues to move forward with its mission to host the 26th annual event. FIBI president Chuck Sarver said Wednesday that while field locations continue to be finalized, more and...
New Western Pa. high school QB award honors trailblazer Willie Thrower
Starting this fall, the top quarterback among schools in the WPIAL and City League will receive an award named in honor of the NFL’s first African-American signal-caller. The annual Willie Thrower Award will honor the memory of the New Kensington native who first gained local notoriety by helping New Kensington...
Penn Hills Midget Football releases registration information
The Penn Hills Midget Football Association has set registration dates and times for the 2020 season. Signups for each football and cheerleading division will be June 18 and 19, from 6 to 8 p.m. both evenings, and June 20, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the William McKinley Citizens...
Renovations underway on Buccaneers Stadium in Burrell
As soon as the Burrell School Board voted unanimously in March to renovate Buccaneers Stadium with artificial turf and replace the surrounding track, anticipation began. A time to begin the project was negotiated, taking into account the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, and ground finally was broken late last month....
Cheswick Christian Academy pastor and ex-basketball coach ‘doing well’ after heart transplant
Clinton Blazevich returned to Allegheny General Hospital on Thursday for a test to see how everything is progressing with his new heart. His numbers, he said, continue to move in the right direction. It has been a month and a half since the April 22 transplant, and the pastor at...
Lernerville Speedway calls off pair of events
Despite counties in Southwestern Pennsylvania moving to the green phase of reopening Friday, racing at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver again is on hold as the track announced Friday’s Fab4 Revved Up with Marburger night of racing and Tuesday’s School Bus/Kid’s Bike/Enduro events have been called off. Lernerville made the announcement...
Eastern Swim Association cancels summer schedule
Add the Eastern Swim Association (ESA) to the long list of sports organizations deciding to cancel summer events in the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. The ESA decided Monday in a Zoom meeting of the 11 member clubs to call off the dual-meet schedule, set to start June 16, as...
Senior Spotlight: Final tennis season wiped out, but South Park senior’s golf game in full swing
Editor’s note: Each day, Trib HSSN will spotlight WPIAL spring athletes whose senior years were cut short by the coronavirus pandemic. Stone Ellis was a rock for the South Park boys golf and tennis teams the past several seasons. He hoped to cap his prep athletic career this spring with...
Love of basketball, family carries Jennifer Bruce Scott into Pitt hall of fame
Jennifer Bruce Scott began her AAU and high school girls basketball coaching career more than two decades ago, hoping to pass along the same passion and dedication to the game that drove her to four standout seasons at Pitt in the early 1980s. The Monroeville resident started in high school...
Peters Township’s Connor Bruce gets early start to college tennis career at Dayton
Connor Bruce made quite a debut for the Dayton men’s tennis team during the shortened 2020 season. The Peters Township product, who graduated high school in December to get an early jump on his college career, exploded onto the Division I scene, earning five Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week...
