Breannan Valladares stories

The Belle Vernon boys basketball team had a dream season in 2025. After winning the Section 3-4A title with an 11-1 record (22-5 overall), the Leopards received news that changed their outlook for the postseason: Their head coach, Joe Salvino, announced he would retire at the end of the season....

Going into Year 2, Belle Vernon girls basketball coach Cornelious Nesbit feels he better comprehends his team — and they him. “I think we as a team, from a coaching staff and a player standpoint, I think we understand each other a lot more,” Nesbit said. With a rather young...

With under five minutes left in the WPIAL Class 2A semifinals Friday night, Washington was slowly walking down Seton LaSalle for a chance to overcome a one-point deficit. Quarterback Tristan Reed was electric all night, throwing for 209 yards and a touchdown. Facing third-and-10, he found his star wideout, Ameer...

Sports have a unique way of fostering a sense of community among people. Rich Cantolina, owner of Sanctuary Boxing Club in New Kensington, understands that well. “I watched what boxing can do for kids,” Cantolina said. “Kids that felt like they didn’t have friends, they made friends in the gym....

Twenty-six years ago, AlyssaBeth Parnell began wrestling with the U.S. Girls Wrestling Association. Now, she watches her daughters compete nationally. Continuing the family legacy, the Parnell sisters — Ireland, Dublin and Maeve — competed at the War of the Roses Girls National Tournament on Oct. 4-5 in Columbus, Ind. The...

Bishop Canevin came into the Class A playoffs seeded third, coming off a run to the WPIAL semifinals last year. But entering the fourth quarter of its playoff opener against Greensburg Central Catholic on Friday night, the Crusaders trailed by a point. They didn’t panic, though. They lined up at...

Confetti rained down from the Pine-Richland stands with a period to go in the WPIAL Class 3A field hockey championship game Tuesday. The odd thing? Neither the Rams nor their Class 3A rival, North Allegheny, had scored. After a shot from outside the circle whizzed past North Allegheny netminder Alaina...

Emily McKee School: Fox Chapel Class: Junior Sport: Soccer Claim to fame: Emily McKee’s junior year at Fox Chapel will be one to remember. The junior forward has 45 goals, including 11 in the first two games of the Class 3A playoffs last week. On Monday, McKee had five of...

Patience and speed don’t necessarily go hand in hand. Speed connotes being rushed and forced. Patience lets things play out as they come — it’s antithetical to speed. But in Avonworth’s 4-0 shutout of Mt. Pleasant in the WPIAL Class 2A boys soccer quarterfinals Thursday night, it was patience that...

Olivia Bigger School: Plum Class: Senior Sport: Soccer Claim to fame: In the final two games of the regular season, Bigger tallied three goals and two assists, helping Plum (15-1, 12-0) end on a six-game winning streak. Two of those goals came against section rival Greensburg Salem. As a result,...

The last time Aquinas Academy made it to the second round of the WPIAL boys soccer tournament was in 2016. That all changed Saturday afternoon. The sixth-seeded Crusaders scored three second-half goals to knock off 11th-seeded Riverview, 3-0, in the opening round of the Class A playoffs at Peters Township....

Preston Clemens could have had two touchdowns had it not been for a goal-line fumble that his team recovered. With that in the back of his mind, he wasn’t going to let a surging South Park team complete a comeback. After the Eagles cut the lead to 11 with under...

There aren’t many better ways to follow up on winning your program’s third WPIAL title than what the 2025 Quaker Valley girls’ soccer team has done. Building on their recent WPIAL championship, the Quakers defeated Central Valley, 3-1, on Oct. 8, improving to 9-0-1 in section play and claiming the...

In 2006, Rachel Brannigan helped lead Greensburg Salem to its second WPIAL volleyball title. Nearly two decades later, Brannigan, now serving as coach, has her alma mater positioned to make a run at the WPIAL championship again. But it has been only recently that the Golden Lions have returned to...

Last season was historic for the North Allegheny boys golf team. Not only did the Tigers win their first WPIAL title in 53 years, but they also claimed the first state championship in school history. A year later, North Allegheny is back on top of Section 3-3A and has a...

With East Allegheny driving down the field, Burrell’s Liam Perdue made a bobbling, game-saving interception to seal the Bucs’ 29-28 win in Section 2-3A victory Friday. “I think we all did great as a team,” Perdue said. “We fought in the end, and we battled together. I just got lucky...

Kaden Levy’s 39-yard touchdown run late in the second quarter gave Riverview a 50-0 lead, feeding the fire in what would become a dominant 64-14 win for the Raiders (3-2, 1-1) against Springdale (0-4, 0-1) on Friday night. Levy had only three rushing attempts, but he racked up a game-high...

Cam Woods School: Freeport Class: Junior Sport: Soccer Claim to fame: Woods scored a hat trick in an 11-0 win against Valley on Monday. On Wednesday, the junior forward added two more goals to guide the Yellowjackets to a 4-0 victory over North Catholic. Freeport is atop the Section 2-2A...

Tevin Owen-Cratsenberg rushed for 67 yards and three touchdowns as Highlands (2-2, 1-0) dismantled East Allegheny (0-3, 0-1), 42-15, for the Golden Rams’ first Section 3-3A win. Highlands had 237 yards of total offense, with 120 of those coming on the ground. The Golden Rams also recorded 17 first downs...

From 2021-23, it seemed like South Side football was on track to capture its first WPIAL title in 25 years. During that span, the Rams went from the WPIAL quarterfinals to the championship in three consecutive seasons. However, with no WPIAL title to show for it, the team was eager...

Anthony Becoate is no stranger to roster turnover entering his fourth season at Summit Academy. This constant reshuffling has become routine for the private, residential school for at-risk young men in Butler that must reconstruct its roster before every season. “The biggest challenge every year is the roster turnover and...

Aug. 27 will mark one year since the tragic passing of DJ Graham, son of Shenango football coach Jimmy Graham. Understandably, the 2024 season brought emotional challenges that impacted the team’s on-field performance. “It was difficult to get into a rhythm last season,” Graham said. “The team and community had...

It had been over 40 years since Don Phillips was calling plays from the sidelines for the Rochester Rams. But after championship head coach Gene Matsook retired in December, Phillips was chosen to lead the Rams once again, and hopefully back to their championship ways. “We want to succeed,” Phillips...

When Mark Fratangelo first joined the Northgate football staff in 2022, the school struggled to field a team with enough players. Now, with two consecutive seasons of having 30-plus players, Fratangelo, entering his first year as head coach, and his staff have their eyes set on the WPIAL postseason. “When...

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 Friday. Coach Michael Bongivengo may only be in his second year at the helm at Neshannock, but he is well aware of the championship standard that is yet...