Bill Beckner stories, Page 47
Franklin Regional notebook: Panthers to move into new-look basketball section
The WPIAL announced its winter sports realignment for the next two-year enrollment cycle. In basketball, the returning WPIAL runner-up Franklin Regional boys will be in a new-look Section 1-5A along with Albert Gallatin, Gateway, Latrobe, Laurel Highlands, McKeesport, Penn-Trafford and Uniontown. The Panthers’ girls team will compete in Section 1-5A...
Greenburg Central Catholic competitor Tyree Turner named TribLive Westmoreland boys athlete of the year
While he lives in Indiana, Tyree Turner often feels more like a Greensburg kid because he spent so much time in and around the city. It’s tough to argue that he hasn’t been the face of Greensburg Central Catholic basketball and football, and a key player in baseball, for the...
Westmoreland County high school notebook: Latrobe girls golf to debut; Terek Crosby picks Saint Vincent
The new fall season will come with a new varsity sport at Latrobe. A girls golf team will begin play in WPIAL Section 4-3A with Armstrong, Fox Chapel, Indiana, Kiski Area, Oakland Catholic and Plum. Plum also is a first-year program. Latrobe will start as a self-sustaining club team. This...
Championship softball coach Chris Brunson leaving Mt. Pleasant for Waynesburg University
Championship softball coach Chris Brunson is making the jump to the college level as he leaves the Mt. Pleasant high school team to head to Waynesburg University. Brunson resigned after leading Mt. Pleasant for the last six seasons and accepted the Yellow Jackets’ head coach position. He replaces Brett Shimek,...
Highlands goes with the Flow, finds new boys basketball coach teaching English class
Highlands likes to play fast, up-tempo basketball. It always has, even when a new coach took over. From the late Rich Falter and Shawn Bennis to Tyler Stoczynski and Corey Dotchin, the team just liked to get it and go. For their next coach, the Golden Rams will go with...
Fierce QB competition brewing at Southmoreland between Caden Matthews, Anthony Smith
There is a good old-fashioned quarterback competition brewing in Alverton, and the top preseason storyline for Southmoreland football already has people chewing the fat at gas stations and mini-marts. “It’s the talk of the town,” Scotties coach Tim Bukowski said. “People are asking me, ’Coach, who’s it going to be?’...
Latrobe QB/DB John Wetzel verbally commits to Marshall for football
Rising senior John Wetzel has seen first hand the resurgence of the Latrobe football program. He has noticed the change in attitude. The shift in perception. The wins. “We have a lot more we want to do: A state title is the main goal,” said Wetzel, a quarterback and defensive...
Southmoreland grad Vanessa Abel promoted to Duquesne basketball associate head coach
She once talked about becoming an FBI agent or working for the secret service. But the magnetism of basketball kept pulling Vanessa Abel back to the bench. Abel’s calling appears to be coaching, and her ascent in the profession continued Monday with a promotion. The Southmoreland graduate was named associate...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Seton Hill baseball players honored for defense
Three Seton Hill baseball players were lauded for their outstanding defensive play this season. Grad students Jack Oberdorf (Greensburg Salem) and Owen Sabol (Norwin), the Griffins’ third baseman and shortstop, and senior catcher Braden Durham were named to the All-American Baseball Coaches Association Atlantic Region Defensive Team. Seton Hill tied...
Penn-Trafford soccer goalie Rease Solomon commits to Robert Morris
Rease Solomon will be stopping shots in the Horizon League. The rising senior soccer goalkeeper at Penn-Trafford announced a verbal commitment to Robert Morris. Solomon, a Pittsburgh Riverhounds Academy player, was an all-section performer last season. She allowed 16 goals, made 113 saves and posted six shutouts for the Warriors...
Westmoreland H.S. notebook: Latrobe’s Andy Tatsch receives offer from West Virginia
College football recruiting has become a perpetual motion machine in the Tatsch household. First, Latrobe rising senior Alex Tatsch (6-foot-3, 220) became inundated with FBS scholarship offers, welcoming 20 of them before the standout linebacker committed to Penn State. Now Andy Tatsch, his younger brother, is beginning to draw Division...
Ligonier Valley’s Cheyenne Piper selected Tribune-Review Westmoreland Softball Player of the Year
“Fight, fight, fight!” Cheyenne Piper started that chant, and it caught on in the Ligonier Valley dugout. The senior softball pitcher who took the WPIAL by storm this postseason with a rash of no-hitters wants people to remember her for that chorus, for that fight. When Piper was fired up,...
Indoor football offers career lifeline for Jeannette alum Gio Vonne Sanders
Defensive back Gio Vonne Sanders entered the NFL Draft in 2023. The move came with no guarantees, only that his name would be out there and it showed he was aiming for the next level following a sound college career that included two-year run at St. Francis (Pa.) with a...
Former Norwin star Jenna Lusby hired as Jeannette girls basketball coach
When her playing career ended, Jenna Lusby often played pickup to satisfy her basketball needs. That is what hoop junkies and gym rats do. (Lusby is fine with those labels because they suit her.) One of her stops was LA Fitness in Greensburg. Not only did she meet her future...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Hempfield grad Phil Fox earns All-America honors at Pitt
Pitt closer Phil Fox (Hempfield) needs more space on his trophy shelf and more nails for his wall of plaques. Nailing down wins has become his forte. The rising redshirt junior was named to the American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings All-Region First Team and All-America third team following a splendid season...
Class of 2024 to be inducted into Franklin Regional Athletic Hall of Fame
The Class of 2024 is set for the Franklin Regional Athletic Hall of Fame. This year’s inductees include: • Andrew Cohen (Class of 2004, track & field) • Brian Grimm (1984, cross country/track & field) • Tyler Smith (2014, wrestling) • Gay Eyles Stock (1977, swimming) • Pam Miklasevich Sumner...
Championships highlight banner school year for Norwin sports
It started with a bang in the fall. It ended with a surprise in the spring. With a bounty of success, Norwin’s 2023-24 sports year called for more space on the gymansium walls as athletic director Mike Burrell placed orders for championship banners. Fall The boys soccer team used its...
Murrysville Star notebook: Franklin Regional grad finds game at WPGA event
After changing his college allegiances, Franklin Regional graduate Chuck Tragesser continues to sharpen his golf game over the summer. Tragesser was medalist at a recent Western Pennsylvania Golf Association Amateur Championship qualifying tournament, finishing with a flourish to advance. A member at Willowbrook Country Club, he made two birdies and...
Westmoreland County high school notebook: Franklin Regional cornerback pops up on Division I radar
Jaymier Austin transferred to Franklin Regional when he was a freshman, leaving Penn Hills to play at another WPIAL Class 5A program. “It’s felt like home ever since,” Austin said. While the scenery changed, the expectations did not. Colleges probably would have found the budding football prospect wherever he played....
4th Tre Cunningham Memorial Basketball Tournament is biggest yet
Tre Cunningham’s memory gleams on in Jeannette, and the summer varsity basketball tournament in his name keeps growing because of it. The fourth annual Tre Cunningham Memorial Basketball Tournament, presented by the Jeannette Educational Foundation, is set for June 20-22 at Jeannette High School and Jeannette McKee Elementary. “This is...
GoFundMe posted for former Norwin football player Josiah Pastories, who was killed in auto accident
A GoFundMe page is set up for the family of Josiah Pastories, a Norwin graduate and former football player and wrestler who was killed in a one-vehicle accident Thursday morning in northern Butler County. Donations can be made here. Pastories, who was 19, was traveling to his welding job when...
30 years ago, Arnold Palmer played his final U.S. Open and Ernie Els reigned at Oakmont
The 124th U.S. Open started Thursday morning at Pinehurst. Thirty years ago, South African Ernie Els won the national championship at famed Oakmont Country Club, another historic venue in the USGA anchor rotation that will host the event again in 2025 for a record 10th time. Els, who has back-to-back...
Newly armed with scholarships, Westmoreland County Community College basketball attracting top local recruits
A boost in classification and the ability to offer athletic scholarships for the first time is allowing Westmoreland County Community College to cast a much wider net in the local basketball recruiting game. Players who once were untouchable are now willing to give the junior college path a look. “It...
Longtime assistant promoted to 1st head coaching job with Yough boys
Yough on Tuesday night promoted junior varsity coach Will “Boo” Sherbondy to head varsity boys basketball coach. Sherbondy, a Yough alum, was a longtime assistant to Jim Nesser, who resigned after six seasons leading the Cougars. Nesser retired from teaching after 38 years. Sherbondy is well known in local basketball...
Greensburg man, 77, sinks 2 holes-in-one in same round
Bob Ross wasn’t enjoying any happy little trees as he played the first three holes during his golf league last week at Mt. Odin Park. Not many courses open with three par 5s. “I wasn’t playing too well,” Ross said. “I think I was two over par going to No....
