Bill Beckner stories, Page 173

Northgate had a young roster last year when it struggled and finished winless. The Flames’ losing streak, which dates to 2017, reached 24 games. But hope flickers on the eve of a new season. “We’ve been young the last couple years,” third-year coach Mike Fulmore said. “We have had some...

After 36 holes of the Charles Schwab Series, Phil Mickelson is in prime position to win his debut on the PGA Tour Champions. But a cigar-chomping veteran from Greensburg isn’t far behind on the leaderboard and is out to spoil Lefty’s fun at the rare, early-week tournament. Rocco Mediate followed...

A championship family man and a championship coach, Harry Hickle was loyal to his loved ones and his student-athletes. If Norwin’s track and field teams were winning — and they won a lot — he was happy. Victories by the Pittsburgh Steelers, Pirates and Notre Dame didn’t hurt, either. Watching...

Plan B never was an option for Trevor Blondin. The former Seton Hill basketball standout wanted to play his sport professionally. Make that, expected to play his sport professionally. “It’s something I’ve dreamed about since I was a kid,” Blondin said. “Anybody that’s ever asked me, ‘What do you want...

Charlie Swink was there to see the football team’s breakthrough season. He witnessed the championship run of the softball team, a state-championship wrestler and he looked on as the girls basketball team made history. But Swink’s days around the Southmoreland athletic department are over, at least for now. Swink recently...

One day Max McDowell was out of a job, a pro baseball catcher with nowhere to play. The next he was wearing pinstripes and practicing on the hallowed grounds of Yankee Stadium. McDowell, a former Norwin standout who played with four teams in five years in the minor leagues but...

Gordon Vietmeier started the second round of the Tri-State PGA Senior Section Championship three shots behind Jim Cichra, who posted a pace-setting 65 to open the tournament. But as Cichra faded Friday, Vietmeier seized the opportunity and rallied for a one-shot win over Cichra and Joe Boros at Green Oaks...

The PIAA will meet at 3 p.m. Friday, presumably to make its final decision on the fate of fall high school sports in Pennsylvania. To play or not to play? The association’s action finally will give member schools a concrete initiative with which to move forward. It is not hyperbole...

Another Westmoreland County school district is looking for an athletic director. The local AD carousel continues to turn as Southmoreland has a vacancy after the resignation of Charlie Swink. The head of Scotties athletics since 2010, Swink plans to stay as the district’s transportation director. This means six county schools...

An extended “dead” period in NCAA recruiting during the covid-19 shutdown did not stand in the way of the Western PA Bruins girls AAU basketball program. The Bruins continue to be a prime target for Division I college coaches who know where to take their scholarship offers. Those offers have...

Ligonier Valley is set to makes its WPIAL debut for its second stint in the league this fall. The Rams have not played in the WPIAL in 50 years. But the football team is hurting for games. The Rams will open the season — should it be played — with...

Devin Gee continued his sizzling summer on the golf course. The head professional at storied Oakmont Country Club downed five opponents to capture the three-day Tri-State PGA OMEGA Match Play Championship at Southpointe Golf Club in Canonsburg. Gee, who earlier this season won the Tri-State Open, held off Sharon’s Denny...

Olivia Kruger is new to the Pittsburgh area, but she knows a lot about Greensburg Central Catholic girls soccer. Even from halfway across the state, in Chambersburg, Kruger followed the program’s dominance in the WPIAL and PIAA. It was hard not to notice the Centurions come postseason time. “I knew...

Scott Morrison plans to take sports at Yough in a different, fresh direction. That’s not to say his longtime predecessor, Tom Evans, did not have things running smoothly as athletic director in Herminie. It was quite the contrary. Evans is well-respected in WPIAL circles for his decades-long work as an...

This dream team had to earn its distinction. When a crop of talented local basketball players were thrust onto a summer-league roster, many of whom didn’t know one another and had not played together, the thought of doing something special on the court did not exactly cross their minds. While...

Todd Summers plans to play his final year of college football closer to home. The former Franklin Regional standout who entered the NCAA transfer portal a few weeks ago with the intention of leaving Villanova has a new destination. He announced Monday he will enroll at Duquesne, where he will...

Maclean Maund will forever be memorialized on the Penn-Trafford campus. The late Warriors baseball star, who was killed in an auto accident in January not far from the high school, has his own memorial bench overlooking the baseball field near the school’s entrance. The marble bench, perched on top of...

Corinn Brewer went into her first — and last — track competition of the summer with an all-or-nothing approach. Why would she not? She had been training for the AAU Junior Olympics during the first five months of the covid-19 pandemic, and the rising junior at Greensburg Central Catholic wanted...

Jack Salopek has been enamored with Division I football for years. It’s driven him to work extra hours, grind in the offseason and always perform at a high level. He has completed the most challenging part of earning a scholarship at the next level. But the former Norwin star quarterback...

When Mark Katarski recruits a high school basketball player, he doesn’t just make sure she can dribble with her left hand or that she plays relentless, end-to-end defense. The women’s coach at Seton Hill also looks for smarts in his prospects — on the court and otherwise. “We always put...

Westmoreland East pulled off a championship sweep in Johnstown — in dominating fashion. Paul Carpenter Capital Advisors has a roster loaded with county players, and many of them played key roles in a tremendous summer season in the Johnstown Collegiate Baseball League. Paul Carpenter won its first league playoff title...

Of the nine inductees in the 2020 Penn State Behrend Athletics Hall of Fame class, five have ties to the WPIAL. The class will be honored in the spring. The honorees who first made their mark in the WPIAL include: • Kayla Frost — The 2010 graduate out of Peters...

Week Zero, as a name, never seemed to carry much clout in the WPIAL. The moniker was met with a lukewarm reaction and did not make sense to many people when it became a thing several years ago. Many teams just decided to use the opening week for a second...