Michael Love stories, Page 130
Gateway to celebrate 50th anniversary of 1st WPIAL football championship
As the United States was putting a man on the moon in the summer of 1969, the Gateway football program was preparing to hopefully put a Gator on the turf at Pitt Stadium in Oakland. There was optimism heading into the campaign that Gateway would be able to reach the...
Fox Chapel’s offseason effort lays groundwork for improvement
Shane Susnak is confident. The senior quarterback feels the pieces are in place for Fox Chapel to take a step forward this season and improve upon last year’s 2-8 overall record and 1-6 mark in the Class 5A Northern Conference. “We lost 27 seniors from my sophomore year, so we...
WPIAL and City League girls basketball players ranked on state Class of 2020 list
PAGirlsHoopsReport.com recently released its list of the top 100 players from the Class of 2020, and a sizeable group from the WPIAL and City League made the cut. North Catholic 5-foot-10 guard/forward Tess Myers, a Duquesne commit, fronts the the local group at No. 7. Myers earned Class 4A first-team...
Freeport linemen ready to benefit from experience together
Elijah Freeman recalled a welcome-to-varsity-football moment early last season as the now-sophomore right guard got comfortable in his spot along the Freeport offensive line. “In my first game on the first play, I got put on my back,” he said. “He blew me up. I quickly saw how much faster...
WPIAL Class 4A football breakdown: Thomas Jefferson motivated after title-game defeat
The Blackhawk football team engineered one of the biggest turnarounds in the WPIAL last year, going from 2-7 in 2017 to 10-2 last year and making the WPIAL Class 4A semifinals. Despite having to replace a number of key players on both sides of the ball, second-year coach Zack Hayward...
Fox Chapel’s Brown on mission to return team to WPIAL playoffs
Sam Brown is on a mission. It is two-fold with personal and team goals in mind. The Fox Chapel senior running back and linebacker received his first Division-I offer last week from Dayton. He expects other offers in the coming months. Brown also wants to make a major impact in...
Pitt women’s volleyball team 12th in preseason poll
The Pitt women’s volleyball team, the two-time defending ACC champion, begins its season Aug. 30 with the Panther Challenge at Fitzgerald Field House, and the Panthers will head into that event with a No. 12 national ranking. The American Volleyball Coaches Association released its Division I preseason poll Tuesday afternoon,...
A-K Valley football teams take it up a notch with start of preseason campsVideo
Brandon Mowry has experienced numerous opening days of preseason camp with the Knoch football team, but Monday morning’s start, he said, had a different feel. Mowry, a longtime assistant with the Knights, oversaw his first two-a-day workout as head coach of one of 13 Alle-Kiski teams to don pads for...
Apollo-Ridge’s Logan Harmon eager for camp after injury-shortened 2018 season
When turning his attention to Monday morning — the start of official preseason practices for high school football teams throughout the WPIAL — a big smile came across Logan Harmon’s face. “I don’t know how much I will be able to sleep (Sunday night),” the Apollo-Ridge junior said. “I will...
Monroeville’s Jayla Robinson takes 4th at national championship meet
When Jayla Robinson begins her fourth-grade school year at Ramsey Elementary School later this month, the 9-year-old Monroeville resident will have good news to share with her classmates. For the second year in a row, Robinson is a youth track and field All-American with a pair of medal-winning performances at...
Bozicevic brothers relish opportunity to travel to Ireland with Waynesburg men’s basketball
Brothers Frank and Mark Bozicevic traveled beyond the borders of the U.S. once as kids, but the trip to Canada, they said, didn’t register as they were too young to remember much of the details of the journey. The Gateway graduates and members of the Waynesburg men’s basketball team hope...
Knoch grad Jordan Geist claims shot put silver at Pan American Games
Knoch grad Jordan Geist captured a silver medal in the men’s shot put Wednesday evening at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru. In third after the three throws of the opening round and fourth overall after the first two throws of the finals, Geist unleashed a throw of 20.67...
With help from fellow Olympians, Harmotto Dietzen, Give It Back Foundation hosting volleyball camp at Moon
Volleyballs will be flying through the air and hitting the floor at Moon High School on Friday and Saturday as the Give It Back Foundation’s annual girls volleyball camp makes its way to Western Pennsylvania for the first time. Christa Harmotto Dietzen, a Hopewell graduate and one of six former...
Knoch grad Jordan Geist hopes for strong showing in Pan Am Games
For the second time in less than two weeks, Jordan Geist will compete in the shot put against some of the best throwers in the world. The Knoch graduate and rising junior at Arizona will test his mettle Wednesday evening in a field of 13 at the Pan American Games...
A-K Valley athletes shine at Keystone State Games
The Alle-Kiski Valley was well represented over the weekend in both the youth ice hockey and baseball tournaments at the annual Keystone State Games amateur sports festival. The Central Region girls 19U hockey team, with 2017 Freeport graduate Cassie Suran (forward) and sisters Madison (defense) and Miranda (forward) Naylor, both...
Slippery Rock owns top spot in PSAC West preseason football rankings
The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference released its 2019 preseason football poll Monday afternoon, and Slippery Rock is favored to repeat as PSAC West champion. The Rock, which suffered a 33-10 loss to West Chester in last year’s PSAC title game, went on to finish 11-3 overall and win a pair...
Plum Youth Legion team reflects on trip to state tournament
After his team’s loss in an elimination game at the Pennsylvania Youth Legion baseball tournament, Plum manager Bill Rumcik stood in front of his players and offered words he hoped would console his dejected group. “They were really down, but I wanted to put (the season) into perspective for them,”...
Gateway goalie Neundorfer survives rigorous tryout for showcase
Maddy Neundorfer traveled to Germany in April as part of a U.S. Olympic Development Program team. The trip, she said, was an on-field and off-field success. The team went 3-0 in game action and gave up no goals in the trio of contests. “It was great to not only experience...
Penn State adds 2020 commitment from Montreal WR
The Penn State football team picked up another member of the Class of 2020 on Thursday morning. Malick Meiga, a wide receiver from Cegep du Vieux High School in Montreal, gave a verbal commitment to the Nittany Lions. He is rated three stars by 247sports. Extremely bless to announce that...
Duquesne’s Hines earns third preseason All-American honor
Duquesne University senior running back A.J. Hines continues to collect preseason All-American accolades. In June, he earned recognition from both Athlon Sports and HERO Sports. On Tuesday, Hines picked up first-team All-American honors in the Football Championship Subdivision from STATS. He garnered All-American recognition from five organizations after a 2018...
Knoch graduate R.J. Makowski earns master instructor status at taekwondo championships
When R.J. Makowski began his pursuit of taekwondo master instructor status one year ago, he initially thought it would be a similar feeling to when he achieved his six black belt degrees in the Korean martial art. But when the owner of Makowski Martial Arts in Sarver reached the final...
WPIAL duo helps Pennsylvania sweep Maryland in Big 26 Baseball Classic
Pennsylvania swept past Maryland in a three-game series over the weekend at the Big 26 Baseball Classic in Maryland, and WPIAL products Jarrett Heilman and Ryan McGuire contributed to the triumphs. Pennsylvania, which lost two of three to Maryland in the 2018 series, collected 30 runs over the three games,...
Plum native Pat McAfee to serve as ESPN college football analyst
Pat McAfee, the former All-Pro punter with the Indianapolis Colts who has been involved several years in such media ventures as a podcaster, in-studio guest for the NFL Network and an on-air personality for WWE, now will serve as a color analyst for ESPN’s Thursday night college football. Both McAfee...
Medals just part of rewards for A-K Valley athletes at National Veteran Wheelchair Games
The summer of 2020 will mark the 40th annual National Veteran Wheelchair Games, and multiyear participants, Alle-Kiski Valley residents Jerry Baylor, Brenden Beck and Mark Rosensteel, are planning to be a part of the milestone games. All hope to have as much success — or even more — next July...
Plum Junior Legion loses but stays alive in double-elimination state tournament
The Boyertown Grizzlies scored a run in the bottom of the seventh inning to pick up a 5-4 walk-off victory over Plum Post 980 in a first-round game Saturday at the PA Youth Legion Baseball State Championship in Homer City. Plum (22-6-1) still is alive in the double-elimination tournament and...
