Bill Beckner stories, Page 59
Basketball teams adjust to new free-throw rule in early part of season
One-and-one free throws always have been a gamble. Make the first one, and you get a chance to make another. Miss, and you’re out of luck. The jury still is out on whether a new free-throw rule is a make or miss. A key change in the rulebook this season...
Norwin boys take the measure of Latrobe at WCCA Showcase
He rears back for a corner 3-pointer, stretching his arms high and behind his head, the basketball slightly tilted to the right. He lets it go and grins slightly to greet the swish. “Yes, it’s unorthodox and jenky,” Norwin senior guard Dylan McCullough said of his shooting motion. “I didn’t...
Kiski Area beats host Hempfield at WCCA Showcase
Corey Smith stepped out of the locker room, took a deep breath and came to the realization his team was fortunate to leave Hempfield with a victory. Fortunate to escape, even. A collective swipe across the brow was in line for Kiski Area after this one. “We went 1-0 today,”...
Westmoreland athletes of the week: Yough’s Autumn Matthews, Southmoreland’s Ty Keffer
Autumn Matthews School: Yough Class: Senior Sport: Basketball Claim to fame: Matthews helped lead Yough (3-1) to a fast start, which included a pair of wins and a championship at the Deer Lakes tip-off tournament. She had 13 points in a 53-13 win over Valley, and chipped in eight in...
Franklin Regional notebook: Boys basketball team sprints out of gates
The ball went up in the jump circle and Franklin Regional took off. Showing a fast-paced style, the Panthers ran to a 2-0 start to open boys basketball season with a pair of wins at the 19th Hempfield Tip-off Tournament. “We’re trying (to run),” coach Jesse Reed said. “That is...
With good roster numbers, new girls team, Norwin wrestlers ready to put in work
Life rewards hard. It’s a refrain Norwin wrestling coach Kyle Martin refers to often. The labor intensive nature of the sport comes with its benefits. “Wrestling is hard,” Martin said. “Every parent should want their child to wrestle.” At Norwin, a lot of them do. The Knights are in a...
Norwin notebook: Girls basketball team starts on right foot
The Norwin girls basketball team opened the season with a victory, which could be one of many for the Lady Knights. Bella Furno had 15 points, Ava Christopher added 12, and Lauren Palangio and Kendall Berger chipped in 10 apiece in a 66-27 win over Cameron (W.Va.) at the Wheeling...
Deer Lakes clamps down on Yough in battle of top teams in Class 3A
Yough expects to see zone defenses this season. Deer Lakes sure knows how to run them. Using its trademark 1-3-1 zone, the defending WPIAL champion and fourth-ranked Lancers silenced No. 3 Yough, 53-32, in a matchup of Class 3A top-five boys basketball teams Friday night at Yough. “We have been...
Penn-Trafford girls roll over Hempfield
Baseline to baseline, Penn-Trafford found a winning mix. Hassling team defense created mistakes and sound movement on the offensive end produced assists as the girls basketball team rolled past Hempfield, 66-41, in their nonsection home opener Thursday night. “A lot of people were creating for us tonight,” said Penn-Trafford sophomore...
Entertaining Saint Vincent men’s basketball team off to scorching start
A quick glance at the Presidents’ Athletic Conference men’s basketball statistics shows Saint Vincent is tops in assists per game (16.1) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.52). That makes sense for a team that shares the ball, plays at a breakneck pace and throws alley-oops in transition. Social media videos tell the...
Westmoreland County boys basketball notebook: Penn-Trafford working (double) overtime
In all of his years in coaching, Doug Kelly was almost certain he had never coached a double-overtime game in a season opener. “Oh, man, I don’t think so,” the Penn-Trafford coach said. He could guarantee he’d never coached two in a row to start a season. Who has? Talk...
Westmoreland County girls basketball notebook: New coaches win debuts
It didn’t take long for new coaches to get their first win. Four local first-year coaches won in their season debut last Friday in Christy Hajjar (Ligonier Valley), Bob Madison (Hempfield), Mackenzie Livingston (Latrobe) and Brian Znavor (Yough). Hempfield, Yough and Latrobe doubled down with wins the following day to...
High-tech approach helps Belle Vernon get ready for prime time
Belle Vernon packs a lot more than uniforms for football games. As the Leopards load the bus for a trip to Mechanicsburg and the PIAA Class 3A championship game, they will cram in several iPads and charts, along with a big-screen television and a canopy. A high-tech program with its...
Bigger, stronger Norwin girls outmuscle Penn-Trafford for nonsection win
Norwin’s girls looked taller and stronger when they took the court against rival Penn-Trafford. A coach joked that someone stretched the players out in the offseason. No, it’s just a reflection of intense conditioning and the returning WPIAL and PIAA semifinalists getting into game shape. Norwin, the No. 2-ranked team...
College coordinators Marion, Gasparato earn postseason honors
A pair of coaches with local ties are taking home awards after impressive seasons with their respective teams. Brennan Marion, a Greensburg Salem alum and the offensive coordinator at UNLV, and Troy defensive coordinator Greg Gasparato, who has family in Jeannette, were selected as Light on College Sports assistant coaches...
Belle Vernon players, coaches recall ‘The Stand’ ahead of return to PIAA championship game
He teared up before it happened in person, and he tears up when he watches it again on video. “I still get chills when I think about it,” Belle Vernon senior defensive back Adam LaCarte said. “I had tears in my eyes just as we were about to line up...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Pitt-Greensburg announces Hall of Fame class
Pitt-Greensburg announced its 2024 Athletics Hall of Fame class. It includes a team, an administrator and a pair of athletes. The inductees are the 2002-03 women’s basketball team, Dr. Frank Cassell, men’s soccer star Adam DiCarlo (Class of 2006) and cross country runner Zach Kocian (‘08). • The women’s team...
Terek Crosby helps Yough overtake Derry in Cougar Tip-off Invitational final
Terek Crosby let his hair down for Saturday night’s final of the Yough Cougar Tip-off Invitational. But the Yough senior didn’t feel comfortable. “I didn’t have a hair tie,” Crosby said. “My hair was bothering me. It was in my face.” His mom gave him a tie at halftime, and...
Latrobe grad Trent Holler enters NCAA transfer portal after 2 years at Marshall
Redshirt junior lineman Trent Holler, a Latrobe native, is entering the NCAA transfer portal. The 6-foot-2, 306-pound center played the last two seasons at Marshall and will be a graduate transfer. Boston College offered him a spot soon after his announcement Saturday. He played in 11 games this season and...
Jeannette girls basketball team nearly wins with 3 players on floor
Jeannette started with five and ended with three, but still almost won. The Jayhawks girls basketball team, which only has five players, took a four-point lead into the fourth quarter against Northgate on Saturday at the Aquinas Academy Tournament, but fell short 27-24 despite playing the final five-plus minutes with...
Westmoreland high school notes: Teams will shift classifications next season
Student totals came out last week, but the next two-year enrollment cycle for high school teams will kick in next fall. A number of local programs will be in new classifications. In football, Norwin and Hempfield are moving back to Class 6A after two years in 5A. Latrobe and Kiski...
McKeesport’s Courtney Dunn wins Fralic Award as WPIAL’s top lineman
Matt Miller said Courtney Dunn wanted to be a running back several years ago when the senior lineman was coming up in the McKeesport football program. “His mom told him, ‘You’re too slow to run the ball. Get back to your position,’ ” said Miller, McKeesport’s coach. “We don’t want...
Spencer Lee tops Nico Megaludis in battle of former Franklin Regional wrestling greats
An all-Franklin Regional matchup in a post-college wrestling match with Olympic-qualifying possibly on the line? Yes, local fans will take a tall glass of that. Spencer Lee, the superstar who went on to a brilliant and albeit injury-plagued college career at Iowa, met Nico Megaludis, a former Penn State standout,...
Greensburg Central Catholic boys outlast Penn-Trafford in 2OT for win in opener
While he was far from overweight, Franco Alvarez worked on slimming down in the offseason so he could be faster on the basketball court. Looking fit and trim, the 6-foot-5 senior forward from Greensburg Central Catholic helped his team melt off a fourth-quarter deficit and get past Penn-Trafford, 72-63, in...
Starting 5: A primer for 2023-24 girls basketball season in Westmoreland County
The WPIAL girls basketball season opens Friday. Here are some of the top storylines, teams and players to watch this season in Westmoreland County: 5 storylines • It could be a long and interesting postseason for at least two area teams. The question is, which one will go farther, Norwin...
