Michael Love stories, Page 39

Geoff Dutelle and Logan Acri are ushering in new chapters for the St. Joseph basketball programs, and both got a chance last week to meet and talk with each other about what the future holds on and off the court. “We both met with our respective teams at about the...

When Kayla and Deanna Gratton shared the softball diamond growing up, they always did it on the same team. But on April 8, the Monroeville sisters and Gateway High School graduates found themselves on opposite sides for the first time. Kayla, a junior captain for Waynesburg, and Deanna, a freshman...

The Gateway boys volleyball team toppled Armstrong and Deer Lakes to open Section 2-2A play, but consecutive section setbacks to Latrobe and Mars left the Gators at .500 in section and seeking a return to the win column. The Gators got that in the form of a 3-1 win over...

When Anthony Accardi was hired last August as the men’s lacrosse coach at Westminster College, it was a clean slate for the returning players in terms of opportunity to get on the field and contribute to team success. Nick Hubner took that to heart. The Plum graduate, a 6-foot-5, 220-pound...

Gabrielle Layne came within an eyelash of making the finals of the Class 3A girls 100-meter dash at last year’s WPIAL championships at Slippery Rock. The top eight from the preliminaries made the finals heat, and Layne placed ninth with a time of 12.97, just three one-hundredths of a second...

Leechburg officially clinched its WPIAL-record 36th consecutive WPIAL playoff appearance with Thursday’s 7-5 Section 3-1A victory at Jeannette. The Blue Devils are 7-6 overall and 7-2 in the section, alone in second place behind section leader Frazier (9-1, 8-0). “We talked about the streak before the season,” first-year coach Larry...

Carson France put himself on the map in athletics as a tennis player at Plum, where he represented the Mustangs at No. 1 singles and qualified for the WPIAL singles championships before graduating in 2015. He continued his education and his tennis career at Duquesne. He doesn’t look like a...

Mother Nature has put a halt to Friday’s racing schedule at Lernerville Speedway. Rain is expected to continue throughout the day and into the evening, and track officials have canceled the Fab4 Revved Up with Marburger Farm Dair events. Next Friday, May 5, Fab4 will return, weather permitting, featuring the...

With just three weeks remaining until the WPIAL track and field championships at Slippery Rock, Thursday’s Westmoreland County Coaches Association championships at Latrobe Memorial Stadium serves as somewhat of an opening salvo for Kiski Area, Burrell and Valley in the stretch run of the regular season. A number of individuals...

William “Bill” Halli and Richard Dilts are together again. The former football coaching colleagues at Kiski Area who later served together in athletic administration at the school now have their names forever linked at the football stadium. On Tuesday, Kiski Area honored Halli with a ceremony renaming the track at...

When the Apollo-Ridge and Greensburg Central Catholic softball teams met at Apollo-Ridge on April 5, it was a low-scoring Section 2-2A affair won by the Centurions. Monday’s rematch had a lot more scoring. The teams combined for 18 runs over the first two innings amidst chilly conditions and a rain-snow...

Shaler remained at the top in Class 3A as the Western Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association released its Week 6 rankings Monday morning. Penn-Trafford, North Allegheny, Canon-McMillan, Hempfield and Norwin also stayed strong at Nos. 2 through No. 6, respectively. Seneca Valley was the big mover just one week after falling...

The last time the Gateway boys tennis team captured a section title, Bill Clinton was ramping up his campaign to become President of the United States, Duke has just routed Michigan to win the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament, and “Jump” by the hip-hop duo Kris Kross was moving...

The Gateway boys lacrosse team last made the WPIAL Class 2A playoffs in 2019. The Gators that year defeated Sewickley Academy in the first round before falling to No. 2 Hampton in the quarterfinals. Gateway’s momentum was stunted the next year as the covid pandemic wiped out the entire spring...

It was a long road to recovery for Riverview junior Jack Loughren. The three-sport Raiders standout saw his football season come to an end Sept. 10 when he suffered a severely broken leg in a game against Northgate at River­side Park. Surgery and several months of healing followed. Loughren missed...

Plum graduate Nick Hubner, a senior attacker on the Westminster men’s lacrosse team, earned his second straight Presidents’ Athletic Conference men’s lacrosse Offensive Player of the Week on Monday. He scored nine goals and added two assists in a pair of games for the Titans. Hubner tallied a pair of...

The Deer Lakes softball team hoped to return to the win column against Freeport in a Section 1-3A game Friday and finish the bounceback from Tuesday’s eight-run setback to Class 5A power Armstrong. The Lancers did just that against a Yellowjackets team hoping to stay competitive despite not having heart-and-soul...

The Deer Lakes softball team lost four starters to graduation from last year’s team, which finished runner-up to Avonworth in WPIAL Class 3A and made it the PIAA quarterfinals before falling to Bald Eagle Area. The entire outfield is new with two first-year starters and veteran senior Delanie Kaiser moving...

The Pittsburgh Karate Championships made a triumphant return last year after a nearly decade-long hiatus. More than 300 competitors of all ages flocked to the Quality Inn in New Kensington to compete and celebrate a myriad of martial art styles and practices. Event organizers, led by Caliguri’s Academy of Martial...

Alle-Kiski Valley athletic greats Greg Meisner and the late Willie Thrower are among a group of 10 who will be enshrined in the Robert “Tick” Cloherty Western Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday at the Pittsburgh Sheraton Station Square. “This is very exciting,” said Thrower’s son,...

The Plum softball team put up three runs in the top of the first inning of a Section 1-5A game Monday in cool, drizzly and sometimes breezy conditions at Fox Chapel. Mustangs freshman pitcher Riley Stephans then retired the Foxes in order in the bottom of the inning with two...

The Washington Wild Things baseball club, in conjunction with The Coury Firm, will host its third Three Rivers Celebrity Softball Game on July 15 at Wild Things Park. Dorin Dickerson, who will be inducted Saturday into the Western Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame, will host the event. A portion of...

The WPIAL boys volleyball section schedule for Class 3A and Class 2A is at or is nearing its midway point, and teams are settling into or moving into playoff position. Shaler (Class 3A) and Latrobe (Class 2A) continue to rule from the top of their respective top-10 rankings in the...

Shane Valko knows the Pitt-Johnstown wrestling program and its traditions inside and out. A 2010 Division II national champion with the Mountain Cats, Valko, who works with the Young Guns wrestling program, later served as an assistant coach at UPJ under legendary coach Pat Pecora. It was that knowledge and...

The Gateway baseball team got a daily double April 3 with some timely offense and strong pitching and defense in a 3-1 victory over Franklin Regional at the newly refurbished field at the Gateway Sports Complex. Senior Nate Demchak tripled home three runs in the bottom of the fourth, while...