Michael Love stories, Page 44

The Plum School Board on Tuesday appointed former Mars athletic director and football coach Scott Heinauer as interim athletic director and coordinator of student activities. Heinauer is expected to begin his duties soon and work with outgoing athletic director Brian Miller to guide the Plum athletes still involved in the...

The Freeport Area girls swim team earned a fifth-place finish at last year’s WPIAL Class 2A championship meet at Pitt’s Trees Pool. A major piece from that team, Alexis Schrecongost, graduated and now is swimming for Division I Toledo. But many of the other key members of the team return...

The WPIAL boys and girls basketball “second season” now is set as the 12 brackets were revealed Monday afternoon. The Highlands and Deer Lakes boys and St. Joseph and Knoch girls lead the Alle-Kiski Valley qualifiers as all four drew No. 5 seeds in their respective tournaments. “We definitely have...

The Shady Side Academy and Allderdice girls and the Allderdice boys all clinched playoff spots as the Pittsburgh Interscholastic Fencing League hosted matches Friday at Allderdice High School. In the first round Friday, the top-ranked Allderdice boys beat Fox Chapel, 5-4, with sophomore Jake Burgos earning the winning team point...

It was quite the roller-coaster final week of section play for the Plum girls basketball team. A 49-35 loss at Kiski Area last Monday — the Mustangs’ third section setback in a row — put them at 5-6 in the section standings and put a dent in their postseason chances....

The Gateway boys basketball team again is a section champion, claiming its first such crown since 2017. While that was a major goal for the Gators this season, coach Alvis Rogers said it’s just one step on their journey to their ultimate championship destinations. “The guys are excited,” Rogers said....

The Gateway boys basketball program made it to the WPIAL Quad-A championship game three straight seasons from 2010-12 and won back-to-back titles in the final two years under the tutelage of the late Mitch Adams. A group of players from the two championship teams reunited Feb. 3 during the Gateway...

Plum junior Antonino Walker won 11 of his first 12 wrestling matches this season and hoped to add to it when the Mustangs competed at Saturday’s Pine-Richland Duals. He made it to the 172-pound championship match at the Allegheny County Tournament on Jan. 28 at Fox Chapel before coming up...

The Riverview girls basketball team is in the WPIAL playoffs for the sixth year in a row and for the 13th time in 14 seasons. This year’s youthful Raiders squad, with just three seniors and a number of underclassmen contributing big minutes, hopes to rise up when the Class A...

The Pittsburgh Interscholastic Fencing Association is just three weeks away from the playoffs, and teams in the boys and girls divisions are gearing up for the stretch run. Allderdice hosts Friday’s set of matches starting at 6:30 p.m. Teams from Allderdice, Shady Side Academy, Fox Chapel, Pine-Richland, North Allegheny and...

In game that was winner-takes-all, the Burrell girls basketball team stood tall. The Bucs clinched the fourth-place WPIAL playoff spot from Section 3-3A with a 40-24 victory over Deer Lakes on Thursday during senior night at Burrell High School. “We had a pretty tough season last year, and we came...

The last time the Kiski Area girls basketball team earned a spot in the WPIAL playoffs was the 2011-12 season when it went 16-7 overall and finished 8-4 in section play. That streak had to come to an end, senior guard Lexi Colaianni said. And it did Monday as the...

The Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Bowling League’s regular season wrapped up Feb. 1, and after examining all of the scores, stats, averages and records, the league has released who will be competing in the team and singles championships over the next two weeks. The WPIBL team championships at Sims Lanes in...

John Paul Kromka is in the twilight of his collegiate basketball career, but he is making the most of the time he has left. The Gateway graduate and senior forward on the Pitt-Johnstown men’s basketball team again is a leading force for the Mountain Cats, who, after a spirited Pennsylvania...

Leonard Sherrod, Racari El, Anez Jordan and Malachi Moore shared in the celebration of senior football teammates Matt Brooks and Dallas Harper when they finalized their decisions to attend Division I Duquesne and Youngstown State, respectively, on the first day of the National Letter of Intent early signing period in...

Burrell had gotten the better of Burgettstown four times in the WPIAL Class 2A playoffs over the past decade. That included wins in the 2020 and 2021 championship matches. But Saturday at Chartiers-Houston, Burgettstown turned the tables and captured its first WPIAL Class 2A team-tournament title 31-24. “That was a...

Needing 151 yards to become Plum’s all-time leader in career rushing yards, senior tailback Eryck Moore-Watkins exploded in the 2022 season finale against Indiana. In his final varsity game, he rushed 22 times for a career-best 356 yards and six touchdowns as the Mustangs scored a 46-27 victory. Moore-Watkins finished...

Zach Miller hasn’t taken lightly the opportunity to suit up this year for the Plum varsity ice hockey team. The Mustangs senior captain led the team in goals with 11 through a tough 5-2 loss to Indiana on Jan. 30. The day before, he was one of several area skaters...

The last time the Burrell wrestling team didn’t make it to at least the WPIAL Class 2A semifinals was in 2000. While that two-decades-long streak remains intact — Burrell is in the final four with Quaker Valley, Burgettstown and Frazier — the goal, as it always has been for the...

The WPIAL wrestling pairings committee slotted Burrell as the No. 3 seed for the WPIAL Class 2A tournament. Junior Cooper Hornack said the Bucs used that to their advantage in the opening two rounds Wednesday at Burrell High School. Burrell overwhelmed Knoch, 71-3, in the first round and topped Laurel,...

It is crunch time with one week left in section play, and several girls basketball teams in the Alle-Kiski Valley have either safely secured their spot in one of the six WPIAL tournaments or are fighting to join the party over their final section games. Several key section matchups Thursday...

When the Burrell and Deer Lakes boys basketball teams met Jan. 6, neither escaped the 40s as the Bucs held on for a one-point victory in overtime. In Tuesday’s rematch at Deer Lakes, the Lancers were able to exact a measure of revenge and stay on course for at least...

Premier Rugby Sevens, a top-tier women’s and men’s rugby organization in North America, has announced that the Pittsburgh Steeltoes Rugby Club will begin operation in 2023. The expansion franchise will host the PR7s 2023 Eastern Conference Finals at Highmark Stadium on July 23. The Steeltoes also will host an open...

The Allderdice girls fencing team remained undefeated in Pittsburgh Interscholastic Fencing Association meets with a pair of wins last Friday during competition at Peters Township. The Dragons improved to 4-0 with a 6-3 win over Peters Township and an 8-1 victory over Pine-Richland. Peters Township rebounded to beat Pine-Richland, 7-2,...

Last year, Arontay Heningcamp fell short in his bid to claim a medal at the Allegheny County tournament. He went 2-2 at 113 pounds and bowed out in the third round of consolations. But this time around, at Fox Chapel on Jan. 21, the Gateway senior wrestler made sure he...