High School category, Page 305
WPIAL boys tennis roundup for April 4, 2024: Returning Gateway doubles champs square off in section finals
Gateway’s Adam Memije and Zidaan Hassan, who teamed up to win the WPIAL Class 3A doubles title last year, squared off in the Section 1-3A singles finals Thursday with Memije winning, 6-2, 6-4. Memije and Hassan defeated Franklin Regional teammates in the semifinals in straight sets. Memije blanked Prem Nadasen,...
Basketball foes become teammates at Cager Classic
The Highlands and Hampton boys basketball teams played nine times over the past four seasons, including a third time last year in the quarterfinals of the WPIAL Class 4A playoffs. Bradyn Foster, the Golden Rams’ 6-foot-8 senior center, knows all about what it was like in those bruising battles with...
Belle Vernon senior Ross ruptures Achilles in freak accident
Belle Vernon standout softball pitcher Talia Ross suffered a freak injury during practice Wednesday and could miss the rest of the season. Ross, who had a school-record-tying 20-strikeout game last weekend against Latrobe, said an MRI showed a ruptured Achilles tendon. The senior left-hander will see an orthopedic surgeon next...
Buzzworthy Hempfield baseball team flashing signs of being contender
With a coach whose nickname is “Buzz,” the Hempfield baseball team is beginning to generate some of it in the WPIAL’s largest classification. The Spartans are 6-0 overall and 2-0 in Section 2-6A heading into the final game of their three-game series against Central Catholic. They are averaging 9.5 runs....
Westmoreland County baseball notebook: Franklin Regional senior dedicates season to brother battling cancer
Truth be told, Blake Bertucci would love to be pitching to his brother, Luca. That is how the siblings once envisioned it. While the pitcher-catcher combination is absent this season at Franklin Regional, the sentiment remains. Blake Bertucci is a senior pitcher who leads the Panthers’ staff. Luca Bertucci is...
Here’s a new one for WPIAL athletic directors: Game called on account of solar eclipse
Athletic directors are not surprised when rain or snow wreaks havoc on spring sports schedules. But there’s another act of nature — one far more infrequent — that has WPIAL schools rescheduling games slated for Monday. It’s the solar eclipse. The much-anticipated astronomical event will arrive in Western Pennsylvania between...
High school scores, summaries and schedules for April 3, 2024
High schools Baseball Wednesday’s results Class 6A Section 1 Seneca Valley 11, Allderdice 1 Butler at Pine-Richland, ppd. Section 2 Hempfield 6, Central Catholic 4 Mt. Lebanon 2, Canon-McMillan 1 Norwin at Baldwin, ppd. Class 5A Section 1 Fox Chapel at Penn Hills, ppd. Franklin Regional at Gateway, ppd. Section...
High school roundup for April 3, 2024: Carson Shuglie’s 6th-inning homer sparks Hempfield past Central Catholic
Carson Shuglie hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning to give Hempfield the lead for good in a 6-4 victory over Central Catholic in Section 2-6A baseball Wednesday. Quinn Wilkins doubled and collected two RBIs for the Spartans (6-0, 2-0). Landon Greene drove in a pair...
Mt. Pleasant picks McKeesport, Clarion grad Eckels as new AD
Mt. Pleasant hired James “J.J.” Eckels on Wednesday night to be the district’s full-time athletic director. Allan Bilinsky and Bob Gumbita have been sharing the AD duties since Chris Brunson resigned from the position in 2022. Eckels will not start officially until July 1. A McKeesport graduate, Eckels earned a...
Young Plum softball team showing signs of potential with impressive wins
The Plum softball team rallied from the first inning on during last Friday’s nonsection home game against Highlands at Plum High School The Golden Rams led 2-0 after one inning, 4-1 in the third and 6-2 in the fourth. Despite some adversity, which included an uncharacteristic six errors, the Mustangs...
Hot start no surprise for Southmoreland softball team, which has big expectations
When he heard one of his games was moved because of a schedule change related to Monday’s solar eclipse, Todd Bunner was surprised. When the Southmoreland softball coach looked at his team’s statistics through five games, he wasn’t so surprised. His team is casting quite a shadow over its opponents....
Westmoreland County softball notebook: With new coach, Greensburg Central Catholic itching to get 1st game in
First-year coach Chelsey Frock will tell you what it’s like to lead the Greensburg Central Catholic softball team on the field, just as soon as the Centurions play a game. GCC is one of at least eight WPIAL softball teams that has yet to play in what has been a...
Franklin Regional hockey coach disappointed after being ousted
John Winebrenner holds no ill will toward the Franklin Regional Hockey Club board, but that doesn’t mean he agrees with its decision to open his position. Winebrenner, the Panthers’ coach since 2019, was told his time behind the bench is finished, a message that has him questioning why such a...
2024 TribLive HSSN Girls Basketball All-Stars
Terrific 10 London Creach Oakland Catholic 5-8, junior, G Oakland Catholic was a perfect 24-0 with Creach in the lineup. A late-season injury in the WPIAL quarterfinals dimmed the Eagles’ championship hopes, showing just how valuable she was for the Eagles. She averaged 13.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.3 assist and...
2024 TribLive HSSN Boys Basketball All-Stars
Terrific 10 Nate Brazil Imani Christian 6-0, senior, G PIAA transfer rules forced Brazil to sit out the postseason a year ago, but this time, he played a leading role in Imani Christian winning back-to-back WPIAL and PIAA Class A titles. Brazil averaged a team-best 19.8 points for the Saints,...
High school scores, summaries and schedules for April 2, 2024
High schools Baseball Tuesday’s results Class 6A Section 1 Pine-Richland at Butler, ppd. Seneca Valley at Allderdice, ppd. Section 2 Baldwin at Norwin, ppd. Canon-McMillan at Mt. Lebanon, ppd. Class 5A Section 1 Gateway at Franklin Regional, ppd. Penn Hills at Fox Chapel, ppd. Penn-Trafford at Armstrong, ppd. Section 2...
High school roundup for April 2, 2024: Canon-McMillan boys volleyball outlasts Moon
Luke Bockius had 15 kills and 14 digs and Justin Peters recorded six kills and 16 assists to lead Canon-McMillan to a 3-2 victory over Moon in Section 1-3A boys volleyball Tuesday night. Game scores were 20-25, 25-16, 17-25, 25-22, 15-9. Ben Kopec had eight kills and five digs and...
High school scores, summaries and schedules for April 1, 2024
High schools Baseball Monday’s results Class 6A Section 2 Hempfield 13, Central Catholic 2 Class 3A Section 1 Mohawk 7, Neshannock 2 Tuesday’s schedule Class 6A Section 1 Pine-Richland at Butler, 3:30 p.m. Seneca Valley at Allderdice, 3:30 p.m. Section 2 Baldwin at Norwin, 4 p.m. Canon-McMillan at Mt. Lebanon,...
High school roundup for April 1, 2024: Hempfield beats Central Catholic to go 5-0
Ethan Minerva singled, doubled, tripled and drove in two runs to lead Hempfield to a 13-2 victory over Central Catholic in Section 2-6A baseball Monday. Carson Shuglie had a double and two RBIs and Max Short and Quinn Wilkins each drove in a pair of runs for the Spartans (5-0,...
North Catholic’s Alayna Rocco named 2024 TribLive HSSN Girls Basketball Player of the Year
There was a time when a basketball gym was the last place Alayna Rocco wanted to be. As a coach’s daughter, she went anyway. “When I was younger, my dad would drag me all the time to go to my brother’s practices,” Rocco said. “I’d be like, ‘Do I really...
Lincoln Park’s Brandin Cummings, Meleek Thomas named 2024 TribLive HSSN Boys Basketball Players of the Year
Brandin Cummings and Meleek Thomas form a dynamic duo for Lincoln Park’s boys basketball team, but they aren’t quite Batman and Robin. “We’re both Batman,” Cummings said. “I don’t think there’s one over the other. We both do a lot of things really well.” That skill set includes winning championships....
Westmoreland County Senior Spotlight: Yough’s Makayla Spoonhoward
After going 10-5-7 overall and 7-3 in section play last season, Yough lost a wild 14-13 game to Southmoreland in the second round of the WPIAL playoffs. The team returns eight starters from last year, one of whom is Makayla Spoonhoward. That Southmoreland game made an impact on the returning...
A-K Valley Senior Spotlight: Leechburg’s Laney Aul
Laney Aul is a key player for the Leechburg softball team, but that’s just a small part of her story. Aul has maintained a 4.1 GPA and participated in the Leechburg Clean-Up Day, singing to the elderly and helping with the ASA Softball team for younger kids. “She’s an extremely...
Mars, Shaler maintain top spots in latest WPIAL boys volleyball coaches rankings
A couple of teams in Class 3A changed positions as the Western Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association released its Week 3 Top-10 polls and Players of the Week on Monday morning. Shaler remained in the top spot, followed by North Allegheny, Seneca Valley, Norwin and Penn-Trafford rounding out the top five....
Trib HSSN Boys Basketball Head of the Class: Player, coach of the year in all 6 classifications
Class 6A Player of the Year: Tyler Robbins, Upper St. Clair While Upper St. Clair senior guards Christian Ito and Brett Meinert seemed to take turns playing the hero in the postseason with big efforts late in games, it was 6-foot-9 junior Tyler Robbins who was a consistent force for...
