Bill Beckner stories, Page 45
Norwin coach leads title-winning U.S. effort at Fargo nationals
Kyle Martin doesn’t make the annual trek to Fargo, N.D. for the scenery, the Badlands or props from a movie with the town’s namesake. The Norwin wrestling coach travels across the country to win championships while allowing his athletes to experience the thrill of high-level competition. Martin led the Pennsylvania...
New coach DeVito eager to build up Norwin girls soccer team
While she grasps for similarities between the girls soccer programs at Penn Hills and Norwin, Ashley DeVito continually finds herself recognizing the differences. “This is a community where kids grow up together, and there is a lot of excitement with playing together (in high school) … The game is big...
West Point to resume play at LLSWS Friday at new location
Tropical Storm Debby has the upper hand at the Little League Softball World Series. Constant rain left teams sitting on their hands with no games to play for a second straight day in Greenville, N.C. That includes Greensburg’s West Point 12U, which has gone 1-1 in the double-elimination tournament as...
Resurgent Latrobe has star power for move back to Class 5A
Editor’s note: Trib HSSN will publish team-by-team previews for one conference per day until the start of the high school football season Aug. 23. Having coached at Penn-Trafford for a decade, Ron Prady has a good idea what it takes to win in Class 5A. That should help the third-year...
Greensburg Central Catholic baseball player Anthony Grippo commits to Penn State
A new NCAA recruiting rule kicked in earlier this month. It prevents college coaches from communicating with prospects until Aug. 1 of their junior year. When that day rolled around for Anthony Grippo, his cellphone “blew up.” The rising junior from Greensburg Central Catholic had more than 20 calls or...
West Point overcomes superstition at Little League Softball World Series
Superstitions have long been a part of sports. Tiger Woods always wore a red shirt when he walked onto a golf course on Sundays. Michael Jordan used to wear his college practice shorts from North Carolina under his Chicago Bulls uniform shorts. Wade Boggs had to eat chicken before every...
Norwin boys soccer team gets to work in defense of WPIAL championship
Veteran boys soccer coach Scott Schuchert had a message for his Norwin players when they lined up to run sprints during a conditioning workout this week at the Turner Valley Soccer Complex. “Winning isn’t fun.” Say what, coach? At that moment, he could have replaced “winning” with “running” and it...
Risk pays off for West Point in Little League Softball World Series elimination game
Load the bases. Live with the result. With one out and runners at second and third for Italy’s Emilia Romagna Little League in the bottom of the fifth, Tina Madison pulled her defense into the pitching circle for a talk — a rather calm talk, all things considered. “Relax,” the...
Led by QB Tristyn Tavares, Norwin returns to Class 6A
A summer paving project caused some temporary parking inconveniences at Norwin Knights Stadium. For workouts, football players had to park high atop the field at the middle school and walk down the hill. Similarly, Norwin is back in the WPIAL’s highest classification for football. The Knights hope for a transition...
Hempfield set to take on Class 6A schedule again
Year 2 appears to have greeted Nick Keefer with more structure and the feeling of a greater sense of eagerness among his lot of 80-plus football players. “We have great kids here, and they are always ready to go to work,” said Keefer, the coach at Hempfield. “We were together...
West Point to face Italian team at Little League Softball World Series
West Point will play its second game of the Little League Softball World Series at 9 a.m. Tuesday in Greenville, N.C. The elimination bracket game was moved up an hour due to pending weather in the forecast. It will be shown on ESPN Plus. West Point needs to defeat Emilia...
Norwin softball standout rolls with changes, commits to Maine
The build-up to the decision was stressful. The reasoning behind it, though, made perfect sense. Recent Norwin graduate Bailey Snowberger had her future plans locked in: Go to Holy Cross, blend in and continue her excellent play as a shortstop at the college level. Kimberly Stiles, the coach at Holy...
Westmoreland County high school notebook: Football season begins with ‘heat week’
A PIAA custom since its inception in 2013, “heat week” is the unofficial start to high school football training camp, and it opens Monday around the state. Players, who will don helmets and shoulder pads but can’t hit, are required to attend five consecutive days of heat acclimatization before the...
Mon Valley team reaches Pony League World Series
Mon Valley won’t have to travel far to play for a world-renowned youth baseball championship. The local team of 13- and 14-year olds advanced to the Pony League World Series set for Aug. 9-14 at Lew Hays Pony Field in Washington, Pa. Mon Valley will open the double-elimination tournament 4:30...
Saint Vincent names D.P. Harris full-time athletic director
Saint Vincent ensured stability in its sports programs with the promotion of D.P. Harris to full-time athletic director. Harris, who will continue as the men’s basketball coach, had served as interim AD for the past year. SVC president Father Paul Taylor, O.S.B. called the move a “pivotal decision.” “He has...
West Point adds to winning tradition with trip to Little League Softball World Series
For the opening ceremony of the Little League Softball World Series, teams were asked to submit a song and a fast fact to organizers and ESPN. Greensburg’s West Point 12U team will walk out to the beat of “Black and Yellow” by Wiz Khalifa. As for the fast fact, coach...
New Franklin Regional boys soccer coach focuses on building rapport, fitness
When Nick White was an assistant boys soccer coach at Fox Chapel, the Foxes took late-summer trips to team camps. It became part of their voluntary training schedule. The week-long bonding events were a build-up to the start of the WPIAL season. “Getting to know the boys on a deeper...
2024 Trib HSSN Preseason Football All-Star Team: Latrobe’s John Wetzel
A team that didn’t have a playoff win for 54 years has two in the past two seasons, and John Wetzel has a lot to do with it. Latrobe’s quarterback and three-star safety has developed into of the WPIAL’s top dual threats. Last year, he passed for 1,289 yards and...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Jeannette grad Marcus Barnes on East-West Shine Bowl watch list
Expectations are high for Jeannette alum Marcus Barnes, who is primed for his senior football season at William & Mary. A safety, Barnes was selected to the East-West Shrine Bowl 1,000, a watch list for the annual senior all-star game set for Jan. 30 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas....
Westmoreland high school notes: Softball could adopt communication devices
A key rule change could alter the way coaches and catchers communicate on the softball field. If the PIAA adopts a new rule, starting next season teams will be permitted to use electronic devices for one-way communication to the catcher during games. The rule was passed by the National Federation...
Pirates draft pick Ager traces roots to baseball family in Westmoreland County
When Matt Ager came to Pittsburgh in 2015, he went to a game at PNC Park and watched the Pirates’ Gerrit Cole pitch against Clayton Kershaw and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ager, a 21-year-old pitcher the Pirates drafted in the sixth round earlier this month out of UC Santa Barbara,...
Greensburg Central Catholic girls basketball ready for new class
Greensburg Central Catholic was a class above the competition in WPIAL Class 2A last girls basketball season when it captured its sixth district championship. Next season, the Centurions won’t be able to defend their title because they are moving up a classification, to 3A. The move is because of a...
Latrobe, Seton Hill alum Kollar gets promoted to Padres’ Triple-A affiliate
A day after his 26th birthday, pitcher Jared Kollar received a gift: a promotion in the minor leagues. Kollar, a Latrobe and Seton Hill alum, is headed to Triple-A with the San Diego Padres. His 9-3 record and 3.04 ERA in 15 starts were good enough to earn him a...
Norwin alum Noah Czajkowski commits to Pitt baseball team
When he put his name into the national free-agent database known as the NCAA transfer portal, pitcher Noah Czajkowski hoped to garner interest from Division I baseball programs nearer to where he grew up. That one such suitor was Pitt came as a pleasant surprise and a welcome bonus. Czajkowski,...
Hempfield QB Dom Detruf sidelined with heart condition, vows to return this season
As his teammates ran routes, threw and caught passes and defended throws, Dom Detruf looked on with interest. He stood on the field, holding a football and a towel and barked out directions and advice like a coach. The junior quarterback from Hempfield would rather have been playing, but he...
