Bill Beckner stories, Page 190
Signing day draws near for Jeannette grad Robert Kennedy
Decision time is nearing for Robert Kennedy, but the former Jeannette football star is not tipping his hand. Kennedy, a standout safety at Lackawanna College, has plenty of Division I scholarship offers to mull over, which was his goal when he opted for the junior college route in 2018. Now,...
College floor, atmosphere attract teams for ‘Shootout at Seton Hill’
Each March for the past few years, when teams get their section schedules for the following WPIAL season, Allen Deep begins to plan out his list of high school basketball showcase events. The event director with Hoops for a Cure often gets numerous requests from teams to play in the...
Westmoreland boys basketball notebook: Depth boosts Franklin Regional
Franklin Regional has more depth than it did at the start of the season, and the longer bench could be what gets the Panthers into the WPIAL Class 5A playoffs. The Panthers (8-9, 5-4), who have won four in a row and five of their last six, have been using...
Hard-working Jeannette boys basketball team soaring after slow start
Apparently, there are no actual days off at Jeannette. The boys basketball team did not have practice Monday as coach Adrian Batts gave his players a long weekend. Yet a number of them funneled into the gym after school to get some shots up. They even pulled out the seldom-used...
Undefeated Southmoreland girls making noise, clamping down on opponents
The locker room at Southmoreland used to be a quiet place, all the ambiance of a library. These days, though, it’s like a heavy metal concert mosh pit before games. “It gets rowdy,” Scotties sophomore guard/forward Gracie Spadaro said. “We all jump around and bang on lockers. Last year, it...
Campus clippings: No slowing down Pitt-Greensburg women’s basketball
The Pitt-Greensburg women’s basketball team is on a roll. The Bobcats made it five straight wins with a 58-45 victory over D’Youville on Monday as the Bobcats outscored the hosts in the fourth quarter, 18-4, in Buffalo, N.Y. Junior Nadege Durand powered UPG (9-7, 7-4) with 25 points and 19...
Westmoreland girls basketball notebook: Mt. Pleasant’s Giacobbi gets 200th win
Scott Giacobbi has been through peaks and valleys while coaching the Mt. Pleasant girls basketball team. He hes seen playoff streaks, postseason wins and bumpy, rebuilding seasons such as this one. In his 15 years in charge of the Vikings, though, the modest coach never has made it about himself....
Westmoreland campus clippings: Point Park’s Burns reaches 1,000 points
Heading into Saturday’s game at Ohio Christian, Michelle Burns needed six points to reach 1,000 for her career at Point Park. Burns, a junior guard, took away the suspense in a hurry. The Hempfield alum scored the first seven points for the Pioneers to top the milestone, but they went...
Ty Bilinsky’s big 4th quarter helps Norwin boys get key win over HempfieldVideo
Norwin gave Hempfield a two-minute warning. Down eight points to start the fourth quarter, the visiting Knights saved their best for last. They took their first lead with almost two minutes remaining Tuesday night at Hempfield and never gave it back on the way to an important 53-46 Section 3-6A...
Latrobe grads Austin Butler, Reed Fenton to meet as college opponents
Austin Butler and Reed Fenton used to be high school teammates on high-scoring boys basketball teams at Latrobe. But Wednesday night, they will meet for the first time as college opponents. Butler, a junior guard at Holy Cross, will join the Crusaders (2-17, 1-5) in hosting Fenton and Lehigh (5-13,...
Southmoreland finds a way past McKeesport, improves to 16-0
Clutching a precarious lead, Southmoreland did not take care of the basketball particularly well in the fourth quarter and McKeesport pressed the Scotties into turnovers. It didn’t matter. Southmoreland ran into foul trouble and also missed its share of free throws. It didn’t matter. McKeesport kept coming back. Yep, it...
Pitt-Johnstown coach Bob Rukavina, Lower Burrell native, reaches 500 wins
Longtime Pitt-Johnstown men’s basketball coach Bob Rukavina joined the 500-win club Saturday as the Mountain Cats defeated visiting Slippery Rock, 72-69. Rukavina, a Lower Burrell native who has traveled to and from his hometown to work for over three decades to coach UPJ, is now 500-347 since taking over the...
Westmoreland high school notebook: Penn-Trafford’s Allen gets another scholarship offer
Penn-Trafford senior football player Noah Allen is drawing Division I attention as national signing day (Feb. 5) approaches. Allen received his second Division I FCS scholarship offer, from Butler. The 6-foot-2, 175-pound Allen also has an offer from Valparaiso. He had 15 receptions for 228 yards and two touchdowns this...
Ligonier Valley, Derry weigh effects of WPIAL football realignment
With realignment, WPIAL football will change again like it does every two years. The latest tweaks won’t reach the drastic degree some thought, but a number of teams undoubtedly will be competing in new territory come the fall — and not everyone will he happy. The new-look landscape will not...
Luke Kimmich, defense spark Franklin Regional to win over Hampton
Luke Kimmich was starting for Franklin Regional earlier in the basketball season. But the junior guard has changed roles of late, taking over the sixth-man duties for the Panthers. It’s a role he accepted because he understood why the change was made. “We have been bringing him off the bench...
‘Mr. Seton Hill’ Nate Davis takes lessons from Griffins’ trying season
Nate Davis thinks worldly and reacts positively as he navigates through his final basketball season at Seton Hill. He takes the bad with the good and remains magnanimous no matter the outcome of games. This has been a trying year for the Griffins (2-13, 1-9) but Davis, the third-leading scorer...
Penn-Trafford AD Kerry Hetrick wins award
Kerry Hetrick started wearing glasses lately. While he isn’t quite comfortable with the change, his vision for Penn-Trafford athletics remains clear. And his work in the program does not go unseen. Hetrick, the athletic director at Penn-Trafford, received the Pennsylvania State Athletic Directors Association Distinguished Coaching Educator (DICE) Award. The...
Westmoreland County boys basketball notebook: Latrobe shakes off losses
Latrobe is experiencing a down season. Those are words you don’t hear very often coming from the Wildcats’ program. But the coaches and players are taking it all in stride. They knew losing 20-points-a-game scorers Reed Fenton and Bryce Butler would not be easy. “I have been through it before,”...
Westmoreland County rosters loaded with basketball brother combos
Things got a little heated, Norwin junior basketball player Ty Bilinsky said while recalling a run-in with his younger brother. “He pushed me into a glass door on the side of our house,” he said. “The glass broke. I was OK but we had to call that game off because...
‘Transformed’ Monica Burns has happy homecoming with Cal women’s basketballVideo
The transformation began last summer. Monica Burns, all but finished with college basketball after two eye-catching years at Wheeling Jesuit, came to Cal (Pa.) to get a master’s degree in cybersecurity. She had a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. It seemed almost criminal a player of her caliber was wasting...
Westmoreland County girls basketball notebook: GCC’s Scala making impact
Gia Scala sat out with an injury and waited to get cleared to return to basketball at Greensburg Central Catholic. She missed the first three games but quickly made her presence known when she returned. Scala, who is from North Huntingdon and attended Norwin before transferring to GCC, has scored...
Zach Rocco shares spotlight as Penn-Trafford rolls over Norwin
Teams know what they are getting when they play Penn-Trafford: a steady dose of Zach Rocco. But as the Warriors go through the season, something is happening. A supporting cast is taking shape and Rocco, the team’s lone senior, does not have to do it all. Make no mistake, Rocco...
Westmoreland campus clippings: Norwin grad Cole hits milestone, again
Jenna Cole is one of those rare cases: a basketball player who gets to celebrate the 1,000-point mark twice in her college career. Cole, a Norwin graduate and a senior forward at La Roche, accomplished the feat over the weekend as she scored her 1,000th point as a player at...
Shippensburg men’s hoops tabbed NABC DII team of week
The WPIAL-infused Shippensburg men’s basketball team is riding a five-game winning streak, which includes an upset over No. 8 West Chester. The Raiders (12-3, 8-1 PSAC) were lauded for their recent success by being named the National Association of Basketball Coaches Division II Team of the Week. Coached by Latrobe...
UPJ’s Bob Rukavina is 1 win away from No. 500
It took Bob Rukavina a much shorter time to reach 500 miles than 500 wins, but the latter is well within his grasp. A Lower Burrell native who has traveled 65 miles to work almost every day for 30 years to coach the Pitt-Johnstown men’s basketball team, Rukavina needs one...
