Bill Beckner stories, Page 110
2022 Moe Rosensteel Award watch list for top girls soccer player announced
It is becoming a tradition, just like the committee had hoped. The Moe Rosenteel Player of the Year Award, given to the best all-around girls soccer player in the WPIAL since 2019, is now in its fourth year and a new winner will be crowned later in the fall. The...
Behind alum Ben Hoffer, Yough aims to turn program around
Watching the Yough football program fall into disrepair was a cringe-worthy endeavor for proud alum Ben Hoffer, who used to shed tacklers and score touchdowns with ease when he played on Cougar Mountain. The new coach has big plans for his alma mater — “big” being a relative term. He...
Two-way lineman a blue ribbon prospect for Latrobe football team
He will show lionhead rabbits and work a bottle-rocket contest at the Westmoreland Fair later in the summer. But this week, Danny Calabrese is honing his skills as a two-way lineman for Latrobe as the Wildcats make their way into Class 4A football under first-year coach Ron Prady and his...
New roles at Southmoreland but familiarity remains
Familiarity is a buzz word around Southmoreland camp. The more things change with the Scotties, the more they seem to stay the same. The coaching staff is different — only in titles. Tim Bukowski was elevated from offensive coordinator to head coach, and Dave Keefer went from head coach to...
Former Norwin slugger JJ Matijevic recalled to Astros a day after getting his own bobblehead
Another MLB promotion and a bobblehead? JJ Matijevic’s dream summer just keeps getting better. A day after getting his own bobblehead, Matijevic is headed back to “The Show.” The former Norwin star is set to join the Houston Astros again after a third call-up from Triple-A Sugar Land where he...
From soccer goalkeeper to 2-way football player, Jeannette senior does it all in the fall
Making up for lost time he can’t get back, Mitchell Steele III plans to give everything he has to his senior football season at Jeannette. It’s all or nothing for the two-sport athlete who regrets not donning shoulder pads sooner in his high school career. “Man, I wish I had...
Gino Caesar, fellow running backs ready to guide Hempfield to success
Gino Caesar still has the game ball from the night nobody could stop him. “My mom is going to get some stats engraved on it,” the Hempfield senior running back said. “My confidence really went up after that game.” Hempfield fans were yelling, “Hail, Caesar,” when he carried 39 times...
Westmoreland campus clippings: Norwin grad Nick Nguyen to coach college golf
Nick Nguyen is set to take over the coaching reins for a golf team he used to lead into the postseason. A Norwin graduate, Nguyen is the successor to the retiring Joe Martin at Thomas Jefferson University, a Division II school in Philadelphia. Martin is stepping down after 14 seasons....
Norwin baseball job lures Craig Spisak away from Yough
Craig Spisak is a Pennsylvania State Police trooper. He will be patrolling a new dugout next baseball season. Spisak is leaving Yough after six seasons as the head baseball coach to take the same position at Norwin. He was approved at Monday night’s Norwin School Board meeting. The upper-class lure...
Latrobe works toward more victories after move to Class 4A
It is better to be the shark than the minnow, and Latrobe might be ready to raise its fin in a new classification. A conditioning drill, implemented by Wildcats team partner FSQ Sports Training, is called “sharks and minnows.” “It’s fun,” Latrobe senior tight end and linebacker Corey Boerio said....
Gritty Kimmel happy to be at Greensburg Central Catholic
You can keep your entitlement. If you want something, you earn it. Roughly, these are the philosophies Ryan Kimmel lives by and seeks to perpetuate on and off the football field. The hard-hitting senior at Greensburg Central Catholic has brought a blue-collar work ethic and no-nonsense approach to the Centurions,...
Westmoreland high school notebook: Lukas Petersen takes over Franklin Regional boys soccer
Perennial power Franklin Regional has a new boys soccer coach on the eve of a new season. Lukas Petersen was hired Aug. 1 to replace Thomas Louisy, who led the Panthers for one season. Petersen was set to be a second-year assistant with the Pitt men’s soccer team. He played...
Ligonier Valley accepting nominations for inaugural athletic hall of fame class
Ligonier Valley will soon join a short but growing list of local high schools with an athletic hall of fame. The district’s athletic hall of fame selection committee announced plans to form the inaugural class, with the nominee process now open. Nomination forms can be found on the high school’s...
Westmoreland high school notebook: Norwin senior headed to UMBC
While she had other interest from NCAA Division I soccer programs, Norwin’s Reagan Casper went with the school that felt right. The incoming senior defender made a verbal pledge to play at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County in Baltimore. The Retrievers play in the America East Conference. “I love the...
Latrobe’s Butler brothers teammates in international 3-on-3 basketball event
Austin and Bryce Butler have staged many shirt-ripping driveway basketball battles against one other over the years. But now they’re teaming up to play for their country on an international stage. The brothers from Latrobe are playing for the USA Basketball 3x3 U23 team in the FIBA 3x3 Nations League...
Former Westmoreland County softball standouts find ‘extra’ special roles in ‘A League of Their Own’
Mollie Kovalcin watched the film “A League of Their Own” so many times growing up, she lost count. It was part of her childhood and still holds a special place in her film collection. You might say it is “extra” special now. “I’ve probably seen it maybe 300 times, over...
Added depth, drop to Class 5A fuel optimism at Hempfield
Dropping to Class 5A means little to Hempfield, at least on paper. To second-year coach Mike Brown, the move — and accompanying chatter that things might ease up for the Spartans — are about as useful as a broken elevator. Going up or down doesn’t matter. “It’s all outside noise,”...
Norwin has postseason aspirations amidst field of new 5A opponents
Dave Brozeski stops short of using air quotes when he talks about Norwin “dropping down” to Class 5A this football season. But his sentiment still is clear. Big picture: the change is inconsequential to the Knights. “If nothing else, it’s better for us in terms of the locality of opponents...
Incoming Norwin freshman set to take Pony League World Series stage
A game-winning hit to the gap or a highlight catch to seal a victory. That is the way Liam O’Donnell wants to go out at the PONY League World Series. He has dreamed about playing on this stage, and now he wants to make his mark. An incoming freshman at...
New coach brings passion for basketball to struggling Jeannette girls program
Adopted at age 11 and growing up in a family of eight siblings, Anna Leonard learned to make her own way through life. Basketball has been her vehicle. It is her passion. After all, her nickname is “Hoopz.” “I moved out after high school, and I have been running the...
Westmoreland Campus Clippings: Norwin’s Reilly Parker to coach at W&J
Norwin graduate Reilly Parker is joining the women’s volleyball coaching staff at Washington & Jefferson, giving her a return to the Presidents’ Athletic Conference in a new capacity. Parker was a standout player at Bethany, where she was a three-time All-PAC First Team selection. She was named the 2022 Ohio...
Latrobe basketball standout Emma Blair verbally commits to S.C. Upstate
Emma Blair wanted to make her college commitment before the start of her senior year. The rising senior basketball standout at Latrobe didn’t want to wait around for any more Division I scholarship offers, though, so she snagged the first one on the table. Blair announced Sunday a verbal commitment...
Westmoreland high school notebook: Football season kicks off with ‘heat week’
High school football season is a hot topic again. Monday is the beginning of heat acclimatization week, a requirement of teams started in 2013 by the PIAA, marking the start of the 2022 season. While teams can’t begin full contact workouts until next Monday when training camps open, this week...
Katie Miller Gee wins 3rd straight state mid-amateur — by 16 shots
Katie Miller Gee wasn’t altogether sure what her golf life would be like after she became a mother for the first time. Could she regain her balance, her form, her touch? Moreover, could she win again? Yes, yes, yes and — yes! Miller Gee, the former Hempfield and North Carolina...
Franklin Regional grad Nate Leopold working with Houston Texans
Last fall, Nate Leopold was breaking up passes, wrapping up running backs and earning all-conference accolades at John Carroll. This summer, he is helping the Houston Texans prepare for the NFL season. Leopold, a former Franklin Regional two-sport standout, is working as a team personnel assistant. He initially had plans...
