Chris Harlan stories, Page 111

Trinity’s Riley DeRubbo, who missed most of her junior basketball season after knee surgery, has added another Division 1 offer. DeRubbo announced a Fordham offer earlier in June and added St. Francis, Pa. this week. Her AAU program, the Western Pa. Bruins, announced her latest offer. The 5-foot-9 guard will...

Defending PIAA champion Southern Columbia was ranked Sunday as the No. 1 small school football team in the country by the website High School Football America. The District 4 power has won the state’s Class 2A title three of the past four years and owns nine PIAA titles overall. The...

WPIAL football teams Penn Hills and Pine-Richland were recognized by High School Football American in its national preseason rankings. Neither school cracked the Top 125 released Friday, but both were included in a list of 100 honorable mention selections. Three Pennsylvania teams were ranked. St. Joseph’s Prep was fourth overall,...

MJ Devonshire might be too humble to rank himself among the high school greats from Aliquippa, but his accomplishments speak for themselves. As a senior, he guided the Quips to a state football title, led his basketball team to the WPIAL playoffs and won two gold medals at the PIAA...

8.6.18 The WPIAL receives a wave of paperwork from athletes hurrying to beat an Aug. 6 deadline for a new PIAA rule that makes transfers automatically ineligible for the postseason. 9.6.18 Connellsville defeats Penn Hills, 6-1, in a boys soccer game marred by allegations of racial slurs. The accusations against...

For the third time in three years, the Mars girls basketball team has a Division 1 recruit. Bella Pelaia, a 6-foot forward and rising senior, announced her commitment to Mount St. Mary’s on Friday. She follows former teammates Tai Johnson (Bucknell) and Lauren Wasylson (Xavier) as D1 recruits. Johnson was...

As the Trib’s player of the year in 2014, Blackhawk’s Brendan McKay was asked to predict where he saw himself in five years. “Hopefully playing baseball somewhere,” he answered. “In the minor leagues, probably. Maybe even close to the major leagues.” Accuracy always was a strength for the talented left-hander....

The Tribune-Review and the TribLive High School Sports Network are profiling each member of the 25-player Trib HSSN Preseason Football All-Star team. The players will be recognized July 23 during HSSN Media Day at Kennywood Park. When A.J. Beatty arrived at Central Catholic last summer, defensive coordinator Dave Fleming saw...

North Allegheny grad Ayden Owens, who earned Pac-12 Freshman of the Year track honors this spring, announced Wednesday that he’s transferring from Southern Cal. Owens, who revealed his decision on Facebook, didn’t say where he would transfer. “I want to thank the University of Southern California, USC track and field,...

The Ivy League added a top WPIAL lineman for the second time in two days when North Allegheny’s Jake Lugg committed Wednesday to Harvard. The 6-foot-3, 255-pound rising senior had more than a dozen Division 1 offers, many from Ivy, Patriot and Mid-American schools. He announced a Harvard offer May...

A sign in Joe Maize’s game room reminds visitors that “Baseball Lives Here,” an item he picked up while visiting Cooperstown, N.Y. “I used to have it over our entrance way when you walked into our house, and my wife after about five years finally said that needs to go...

Two WPIAL basketball recruits received spots close together in updated ESPN 100 rankings for the 2020 class. Butler’s Ethan Morton was ranked No. 55 overall and Moon’s Donovan Johnson was No. 61 in rankings revealed Monday. Morton, a 6-foot-4 guard, committed to Purdue in May. Johnson, a 6-7 forward, remains...

The WPIAL baseball playoffs were as unpredictable as ever this season with only one top-seeded team winning a title. That was California in Class A. But that led to some unexpected champions and some long-awaited celebrations. Two first-year coaches claimed WPIAL titles, while Shaler and Seton LaSalle each were finally...

The Youghiogheny runs beyond the outfield fence at Boston Field in McKeesport, the home for Serra Catholic baseball. If opponents agree to pitch to him, Eagles star Mark Black might one day launch a home run into the river. He’s already had a few come close, according to folks in...

WPIAL baseball has witnessed an influx of talented freshmen in recent years and their arrival is reflected in the Trib 10. Seton LaSalle’s Drew Lafferty and North Allegheny’s Cole Young, both ninth graders with bright futures, joined a list of talented upperclassmen in this season’s TribLive HSSN all-star selections. Lafferty...

West Mifflin’s Nahki Johnson and Gateway’s Diego Bledsoe played football together last season at Steel Valley before each transferred elsewhere. In separate hearings Thursday, the WPIAL declared both ineligible for next football season, ruling that their transfers were motivated at least partially by athletics, WPIAL executive director Tim O’Malley said....

The WPIAL ruled Kiski Area’s Kenneth Blake and Gateway’s Shane Thrift fully eligible to play football this fall following separate hearings Thursday at the league office in Green Tree. Blake transferred from Central Catholic. Thrift transferred from Seton LaSalle. Both are rising juniors. The WPIAL had previously ruled them eligible...

Multi-sport standout Devin Whitlock, who transferred from Monessen to Belle Vernon after his freshman year, was ruled ineligible by the WPIAL. The WPIAL made its decision Monday based solely on the transfer paperwork, which Monessen’s administration did not approve, said WPIAL executive director Tim O’Malley. Whitlock can request an eligibility...

Four decades after her father committed to Duquesne, North Catholic’s Tess Myers committed Monday to play basketball for the Dukes. The 5-foot-10 guard from Lower Burrell, who ranks among the WPIAL’s top 2020 girls basketball recruits, chose Duquesne from more than a dozen offers, including Colorado, Temple, St. Joseph’s and...

The WPIAL denied Donovan Johnson’s waiver request Monday, leaving the Moon basketball star ineligible for his senior season. PIAA eligibility rules limit students to six seasons of a sport after sixth grade. The WPIAL decided previously that Johnson already had reached that limit because he repeated the eighth grade and...

Almost two years to the day that Robby Carmody committed to Notre Dame basketball, his younger brother Michael committed Sunday to play football for the Fighting Irish. Mars lineman Michael Carmody chose Notre Dame from more than two dozen offers including Pitt, Penn State and West Virginia, along with Auburn,...

Seneca Valley’s Josh Kaltenberger received his first Power 5 offer Tuesday from Purdue. Three days later, the 6-foot-5, 280-pound center committed to the Boilermakers. Kaltenberger announced his decision Friday on Twitter, saying “I know this was a quick decision, but I know this is where God wants me. There is...

Football standout Nahki Johnson, who transferred from Steel Valley to West Mifflin in December, will have his eligibility decided Thursday in a hearing at the WPIAL office. Johnson, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound defensive end, will be a junior in the fall. He already lists scholarship offers from Pitt, Penn State, West...