Bill Beckner stories, Page 177
New coach takes over successful Greensburg Central Catholic girls soccer program
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...
Yough hires Scott Morrison as athletic director
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...
Nick Novak, Jake Biss help team of ex-WPIAL standouts to ‘dream’ season
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...
Former Franklin Regional standout Todd Summers to finish college career at Duquesne
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...
Walkers, runners take to refurbished track at Jeannette’s McKee StadiumVideo
A social media post about the completion and opening of the new track at Jeannette’s McKee Stadium Monday was viewed over 11,000 times. People in the community have been walking and jogging on the oval all week. “All of the feedback we have received from the community has been positive,”...
Memorial bench honors late Penn-Trafford pitcher
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...
Even with many meets canceled, GCC’s Corinn Brewer finds a way to win this summer
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...
Norwin grad Jack Salopek in holding pattern at Western Michigan after MAC postpones season
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...
Seton Hill records top GPA in NCAA Division II women’s basketball
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...
Locals power Westmoreland East to 32-2 record, JCBL baseball titles
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...
Latest Penn State Behrend Hall of Fame class rich with WPIAL talent
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...
WPIAL football changes scuttle marquee matchups for Westmoreland County teams
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...
Ligonier Valley has extra challenge moving to WPIALVideo
Jude Grzywinski, Jr., the latest hulking lineman looking to make his mark at Ligonier Valley, just wants an opportunity to play football this season. The year 2020 — the dreaded number on the calendar that will pockmark troubling times shaped by a global pandemic — is supposed to be a...
Fall coronavirus cancellations affecting small college basketball too
The Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference earlier this week decided to shift most of its fall sports to the spring, a move not altogether shocking considering the volume of local college conferences doing the same thing. But when the AMCC listed the affected sports, alarm bells went off for some coaches....
A day after his twin brother received one, Penn-Trafford’s Nate Frye gets offer from Butler
One day after his identical twin brother received a scholarship offer from Butler, Penn-Trafford’s Nate Frye netted the same arrangement from the same school. Could a package deal be in the works for the talented siblings? A running back and free safety, Nate Frye recorded 74 tackles and returned an...
Franklin Regional product Todd Summers leaving Villanova
When the Colonial Athletic Association decided to move football to the spring because of health and safety concerns over the coronavirus outbreak, it virtually stamped out the final days of Todd Summers’ college career. At least his days at Villanova. A Franklin Regional graduate, Summers would have been a senior...
Penn-Trafford’s Mason Frye grabs Division I-FCS offer
Mason Frye is expected to line up at receiver and also play a key role in the secondary for Penn-Trafford this football season. Frye went from being another key returning two-way starter to a Division I prospect in one tweet Wednesday night. The 5-foot-8, 155-pound senior announced a scholarship offer...
West Penn Amateur champion Katie James doubles down with state am title
Katie James pulled off the amateur double. A junior-to-be at Southern Methodist and Shady Side Academy graduate, James held back a talented field of some of the state’s better players to capture the 84th Pennsylvania Golf Association Amateur Championship on Wednesday at Lebanon Country Club. James, who recently defended her...
River States Conference to play fall sports as scheduled
While most small-college conferences have taken a cautionary approach to fall sports by postponing the season until the spring, one area conference is staying the course. The NAIA River States Conference will buck the trend and have a fall season, leaning on a crutch of guidelines and protocol to play...
Westmoreland County American League names all-stars
After a mostly flawless regular season and a strong start to the playoffs — a fine summer baseball run, all things considered amid the covid-19 pandemic — the Westmoreland American League stayed the course with another tradition by naming its all-league teams. The league, which normally is known as District...
Belle Vernon soccer teams cancel Paul Sasko Kickoff Classic
With the start of the WPIAL season pushed to Sept. 14, Belle Vernon was left scrambling to find a time and date for one of its marquee events, the Paul Sasko Kickoff Classic. After exhausting all possibilities of working the boys-girls soccer tournament into the revised schedule, officials were left...
Westmoreland County high school notebook: Colleges courting Franklin Regional midfielder
Zach Lorenz is on the path to a Division I soccer career, but he likely will have to score a scholarship with limited highlights and contact with coaches. Covid-19 crossed out most of the annual cup season, so Lorenz, an incoming senior midfielder at Franklin Regional, was not able to...
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...
Soccer coaches learn to work with sport-specific coronavirus protocols
Soccer isn’t considered a full-fledged contact sport — some teams would beg to differ, based on playing styles — but the game has had to adjust to safety guidelines just like others to help slow the spread of covid-19. Health and safety guidelines were put in place weeks ago as...
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...
