Bill Beckner stories, Page 178
Penn State branch campuses shut down fall sports
Another lower level college conference is bagging fall sports. The Penn State University Athletic Conference, home to 14 Penn State branch campuses, announced Friday it is postponing fall athletics — soccer, cross country, golf and women’s volleyball — due to the covid-19 pandemic. The decision, made by the conference’s executive...
Katie James repeats as Women’s WPGA Amateur championVideo
The only player in the 18-player field under par Tuesday, Katie James made it a runaway repeat at the Isaly’s Western Pennsylvania Golf Association Women’s Amateur at Green Oaks Country Club in Verona. James, an incoming junior at Southern Methodist and a Shady Side Academy alum, carded a 6-under-par 67...
Local players guide summer baseball team to regular season title in Johnstown collegiate league
They go by the name Paul Carpenter Capital Advisors, but today they’re known as the regular-season champions of the Johnstown Collegiate Baseball League. Behind a strong local contingent, Paul Carpenter captured its second straight title — and third in four years — when it downed Martella’s Pharmacy Tuesday, 5-3, at...
D-III football players have long wait ahead of them
Dom Eisaman is waiting for a chance to play quarterback in college, but he is beginning to wonder if that day will ever come. “It definitely feels like I haven’t been on the field in an eternity,” said Eisaman, a Greensburg Central Catholic grad who has two seasons of eligibility...
CMU’s Michelle Karabin recipient of NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship
Michelle Karabin found a way to marry academics and athletics in near perfect fashion in her time at Carnegie Mellon, and the NCAA took notice. Karabin, a senior and a graduate of Greensburg Central Catholic, was chosen to receive an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship for her efforts in the classroom and...
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...
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,...
Football players pine for usual 7-on-7 tournaments
Brett Birch is a regular on the 7-on-7 football travel circuit. The incoming junior wide receiver at Jeannette plays for 412 Elite out of Pittsburgh, an independent organization that went to tournaments in Michigan and Delaware before its schedule was shut down over coronavirus concerns. Still, “I feel like I...
Division III’s Middle Atlantic Conference postpones fall sports
The walls continue to close in on college athletics. The Middle Atlantic Conference became another Division III league to postpone fall sports — with the intention of playing them in the spring, pending improvements on the coronavirus front. The move also will delay the start of winter sports to after...
Presidents’ Athletic Conference postpones football, most other fall sports
The NCAA Division III Presidents’ Athletic Conference is postponing “high- and medium-contact” sports including football, men’s and women’s soccer, women’s volleyball and men’s and women’s cross country, to the spring because of the coronavirus outbreak. Women’s tennis and men’s and women’s golf, considered “low-contact” sports, are allowed to continue in...
Playoffs set for Western Pennsylvania Summer Baseball League
The inaugural Western Pennsylvania Summer Baseball League, an offshoot of a WPIAL season that never happened because of the coronavirus outbreak, announced its playoff pairings. The single-elimination tournament has 24 teams and opening-round games begin Monday. The semifinals are set for Aug. 1 at Boyce-Mayview Park in Upper St. Clair....
No fall sports at Pitt-Greensburg, university announces
Pitt-Greensburg is playing it safe. The university disclosed Thursday that it is postponing fall sports for the 2020 season amid continued concerns over the spread of coronavirus. The fall season normally runs from August to October and includes men’s and women’s soccer, women’s tennis, women’s volleyball, golf and cross country....
North Coast Athletic Conference suspends athletics through December
Another area college conference won’t play sports in the fall. The North Coast Athletic Conference announced Wednesday, “with tremendous regret,” it is suspending athletics until the end of December. The NCAC is an affiliate of NCAA Division III and features Allegheny College in Meadville as one of its members. The...
Football refs could be wearing masks, gloves and using hand-held whistles if there is a season
Referees could be wearing masks and gloves and using hand-held whistles in high school football games if proposed guidelines become the norm, and the PIAA moves forward with football season. A local official said the possible uniform additions for those wearing stripes could take effect this fall if there is...
Western PA Bruins director John Tate among 100 most influential people in women’s college basketball
The Western PA Bruins girls basketball program is known for producing Division I college recruits. Girls receiving scholarship offers and committing to top-level teams seems like an almost daily occurrence during the summer months. The outfit is like a factory when it comes to connecting talent to the next level....
Summer baseball notebook: Latrobe locks up top seed for playoffs
Who knew a fluctuating and uncertain summer on the baseball diamond would turn out to be such a sure thing for Latrobe? The Jethawks not only jelled early in the new-look Westmoreland County American League but they kept the momentum on full blast and rolled to a regular-season title. Latrobe...
West Hempfield baseball team suspends play over health concerns
West Hempfield suspended play in the Westmoreland County American Baseball League over health concerns. As a result, it had its regular season record wiped away. The team was 4-5 but is now 0-0 and considered the last-place team out of nine in the standings. A West Hempfield player might have...
North Huntingdon artist Cody Sabol featured on SI.com
From their smiles and expressions to their in-game flair, Cody Sabol brings out the best in Pittsburgh sports greats through his paintings. The fast-rising, 24-year-old artist who graduated from Norwin has crafted stunning portraits of James Conner, Ben Roethlisberger, Sidney Crosby and many others. A speed-painter who also works as...
Pair of Westmoreland County standouts get grad assistant jobs at Mercyhurst
A pair of former WPIAL standouts from Westmoreland County are joining the coaching ranks as graduate assistants at Mercyhurst. Chris Ralph, a former top-tier goalkeeper for Penn State Behrend, will help with the men’s soccer team. Ralph is a Franklin Regional graduate. Devin Austin, meantime, who starred as a wrestler...
New coach brings enthusiasm, swagger to Monessen football programVideo
Poised to lift the Monessen football program back to prominence, new coach Shane Swope is bringing the strength of a construction worker, the tact of an architect and the touch of an artist to a program in need. “There is no reason we can’t be up there with the likes...
Face-covering fundraiser to benefit Belle Vernon soccer’s Sasko Tournament
Face coverings, as mandatory and maligned as they are these days, don’t have to be dull. The masks, meant to guard against the spread of covid-19, can be jazzed up with a little creativity. Belle Vernon is using them as a fundraiser for its premier early-season soccer tournament. Proceeds from...
Norwin’s Nick Fleming catching eye of Division I baseball programs
Nick Fleming did not have a junior baseball season at Norwin because the PIAA canceled fall athletics due to health concerns over the coronavirus. But that hasn’t stopped him from drawing attention from college programs. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound incoming senior received a pair of Division I scholarship offers this week,...
Bushy Run Legion to retire late pitcher’s numberVideo
Bushy Run Legion will retire jersey No. 7 before Sunday’s home baseball game against Murrysville. That number belonged to star pitcher Maclean Maund, who was killed in an auto accident in January. The former Penn-Trafford standout, a hard-throwing left-hander, would have been a freshman at Seton Hill and left an...
New Derry coach Vince Skillings committed to program’s trademark ground game
When Woody Hayes spoke, Vince Skillings listened. A former Derry football star who is taking the reins of his high school alma mater as a first-year head coach, Skillings played defensive back for the legendary Hayes at Ohio State. New coaches often bring new schemes. When asked if Derry will...
Marist, Greensburg Salem product Claire Oberdorf nominated for NCAA award
Two-sport athlete Claire Oberdorf, who just finished a decorated career at Marist, is among 259 Division I nominees for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award. Athletes from Division II and II also are eligible, with 126 and 220 nominees for those divisions. Of all the nominees, 128 played multiple...
