High School category, Page 1043
Covid-19 scare turns out to be Lyme disease for Franklin Regional soccer coach
Rand Hudson had a scorching fever. He felt achy, his joints hurt and he was tired. Something wasn’t right. “Oh no, I have it,” Hudson said he thought to himself while trying to enjoy vacation with his family last month in Ocean City, Md. But while he had symptoms consistent...
WPIAL football recruits share written scholarship offers as Aug. 1 arrives
Now, it’s in writing. Aug. 1 is the date each year that college football teams are first able to give written scholarship offers to high school seniors, and many of the recruits shared them Saturday on social media. The Class of 2021 still can’t sign a National Letter of Intent...
Norwin’s Nick Fleming commits to Mount St. Mary’s baseball
The timing wasn’t exactly precise, not like he had envisioned, but Nick Fleming still was all smiles Friday night after deciding on his baseball future. The senior-to-be at Norwin announced a verbal commitment to Mount St. Mary’s of the NCAA Division I Northeast Conference. “Well, obviously I didn’t expect to...
Latrobe makes epic comeback in Westmoreland County summer baseball playoffs
Latrobe’s Westmoreland County American Baseball League team pulled off the improbable Friday. The Jethawks fell behind 11-0 to Yough in Game 1 of the WCABL semifinals on Friday and fought back for a 13-12 victory. Tucker Knupp reached on an error with two outs in the seventh inning to score...
Summer Rams rally past Thomas Jefferson for berth in WPSBL quarterfinals
The Summer Rams (Highlands) baseball team stayed alive in the Western Pennsylvania Summer Baseball League playoffs Thursday evening with a come-from-behind 8-6 victory over Thomas Jefferson in a second-round game halted after six innings because of darkness. The umpires made the decision to call the game, and after a rules...
WPIAL delays start dates for fall sports
The WPIAL delayed the start date for most fall sports, a decision executive director Amy Scheuneman compared to a two-hour delay on a winter morning. It’s better than a cancellation. The WPIAL notified school administrators Friday that football season won’t start until Sept. 10, the regular season will be reduced...
Irwin Area wins 2, advances to WPSBL semifinals
The Irwin Area summer baseball team doubled its pleasure Thursday evening at Gateway High School, and it now is just two wins away from a Western Pennsylvania Baseball League tournament title. It started with an 11-0 victory over Plum and completed the sweep with a 5-2 quarterfinal win over the...
Start dates for WPIAL fall sports likely changing after board adopts ‘hybrid’ option
The start dates for WPIAL fall sports likely are changing. The board voted unanimously Thursday to trade the traditional start dates for a new “hybrid” option offered by the PIAA, meaning the WPIAL can establish later dates for each sport. The board hoped to give schools added flexibility as they...
PIAA emphasizes ban on spectators comes from Gov. Wolf — not PIAA
The PIAA released a statement Thursday emphasizing that the current ban on spectators at high school sports events was imposed by Gov. Tom Wolf — not the PIAA. The clarification came a day after the PIAA board approved new covid-19 guidelines that said, for now, spectators won’t be allowed at...
Summer Rams open WPSBL playoff tournament with victory
Playing their first game in more than two weeks, the Summer Rams (Highlands) topped Bethel Park, 9-5, on Wednesday at Gateway High School in a first-round contest in the Western Pennsylvania Summer Baseball League playoff tournament. The Summer Rams, now 9-6 overall this summer, advance to the second round and...
Bushy Run walks off in 1st round of WCABL playoffsVideo
Bushy Run struggled through much of Wednesday’s Westmoreland County American Baseball League playoff game against Young Township. It had trouble hitting Young Township starter Zach Harha over the first six innings. But when Young Township went to its bullpen in the bottom of the seventh inning, Bushy Run was prepared....
Some changes to fall sports timeline still on the table after PIAA meeting
Fall sports season might end earlier for some schools and start a little later for others. The PIAA board approved two proposals Wednesday that could alter the fall timeline, but for now everything remains as originally scheduled. One proposal gives the PIAA permission to reduce the number of qualifiers entering...
No spectators allowed, according to new PIAA covid-19 guidelines
High school sports remain on schedule for the fall, but the new PIAA covid-19 guidelines approved Wednesday describe a season unlike any other. Most notably, there will be no spectators, unless the state Department of Education changes its position, PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi said. The 25 pages of return-to-competition...
New coach Sakolsky brings experience, enthusiasm to Shaler hockey program
After two seasons away from coaching high school hockey, Cory Sakolsky is back. The Plum and Cal (Pa.) graduate and former Butler assistant and head coach is the new man in charge at Shaler, and he is excited to see where the Titans program can go. “I’ve not seen any...
Yough rallies past Hempfield East to even Westmoreland County summer baseball series
Vinny Martin hit a two-run home run, Steve Manon added a two-run single, and Yough evened its best-of-three series in the Westmoreland County American Baseball League playoffs with Hempfield East with a 5-2 win at Sutersville on Tuesday. Martin, who earned a save in relief, hit his home run in...
Pa. health secretary: Data will guide state’s approach to high school sports
The PIAA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee strongly recommends starting high school sports on time, but Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine declined to endorse that decision Tuesday. Levine said the same covid-19 data that’s being used to determine how schools reopen should guide whether interscholastic sports are played in the fall....
Norwin overcomes logistics, selects smaller, all-female hall of fame class
Tom Shirley is used to getting things ready for the Norwin Athletic Hall of Fame banquet. He has been helping to coordinate inductees, logistics and meetings since 2009. But 2020 offered new challenges for organizers, with the covid-19 pandemic limiting gatherings and former hall of fame chairman Brandon Rapp, Norwin’s...
Central Catholic basketball transfer Langston Moses eligible for regular season, WPIAL says
Central Catholic transfer Langston Moses is eligible for next boys basketball season but ineligible to play in the postseason, the WPIAL decided Monday. The 6-foot-3 rising junior averaged 22 points for Winchester Thurston, which reached the WPIAL Class 2A semifinals and the PIAA first round last season. Moses is a...
Top-seeded Latrobe survives scare in Westmoreland County summer baseball playoffs
Top-seed Latrobe took advantage of four Mt. Pleasant errors to score four unearned runs in a 5-3 victory on Monday in the Westmoreland County American Baseball League playoffs. The Jethawks, the regular-season champions, jumped out to a 4-0 lead after three innings, scoring a run in the first inning on...
Seneca Valley takes advantage of big inning to cruise past Kiski Area in WPBL playoffs
Sometimes all it takes is just one inning, and on Monday in the first round of the Western Pennsylvania Summer Baseball League playoffs, Seneca Valley took full advantage of that. In the second inning, the Warriors capitalized on three Kiski Area errors, sent 14 batters to the plate and scored...
WPIAL finals at Heinz Field in question as PIAA considers shorter football season
The WPIAL might not use Heinz Field for its football championships this fall for multiple reasons. Holding the games there wouldn’t be affordable if the governor maintains a 250-person limit on gatherings, WPIAL executive director Amy Scheuneman said Monday, adding “we couldn’t even pay the bill for the lighting.” But...
Longtime coach Sonny Thomas could be on brink of final season on sideline
Could it be one last year in the sun for Sonny Thomas? Maybe so. The longtime local football coach is on board for at least one more season with his son, Marko Thomas, the fourth-year coach at Connellsville. If the elder Thomas decides to retire as his son is hinting,...
Dayton extends 1st Division I offers to 3 WPIAL football recruits
Three WPIAL football players drew their first Division I offers from the same Ohio school. Dayton’s coaching staff extended offers last week to North Catholic’s Nick Maher and Seneca Valley teammates Jimmy Royal and Josh Miller. All three are rising seniors. Maher is a 6-foot-2, 200-pound wide receiver and linebacker....
Football coaches association optimistic PIAA starts on time, offers scenarios if delayed
The Pennsylvania Scholastic Football Coaches Association shared nine different scenarios with the PIAA in recent weeks, each with a different start date for the fall season. The scenarios describe how the high school schedule could be organized if the season needed to be delayed. There were two-week increments between each...
Motorcyclist killed in Penn Township crash was former Jeannette sports standout
A former three-sport standout at Jeannette High School was killed Sunday night in a motorcycle crash. Tre Cunningham, 20, was driving a Honda CBR 1000 east on Route 130 in Penn Township around 8:30 p.m. and attempted to overtake a BMW SUV in a no passing zone, said Penn Township...
